World Languages Day

World Languages Day 2023

World Languages Day 2023 will return to an in-person event this year while keeping the online submission categories: edited video and writing!

World Languages Day (WLD) is Wyoming’s state championship of world language study hosted by the Department of Modern & Classical Languages (MCL). MCL believes high school students should be given opportunities to excel in their talents, whether it is sports, music or world language learning. WLD provides an opportunity for friendly competition and allows students to learn from worldwide experts.

WLD Events and Activities

Spoken and written language contests
Competitions hosted in multiple languages, including: Chinese, ESL, French, German, Russian and Spanish
Workshops in a variety of languages and cultures
*New Friday Night Activity* — This year we are offering a new activity: a Linguistics Olympiad. This is a competition where small teams solve linguistic puzzles. There is no preparation for this activity and students do not need to know any particular language. Instead, they will use logic, inference and the linguistic data provided to solve linguistic puzzles. The Linguistics Olympiad will be limited to juniors and seniors for this first year. If you would like to know more about this activity, please email prof. Irene Checa-Garcia at irene.checa@uwyo.edu.

2023 Tentative Schedule

Friday

3:30 Arrival and registration

4:00 Welcome and campus tours

5:30 Dinner at Washakie

6:30 Teacher Appreciation Social / Friday Night Fun Night

9:15 End of events

Saturday

7:30 Breakfast and Registration

8-12 Resource Fair

8-11:30 Artwork Competition

9:00 Opening Ceremony

9:30-11:00 Live Language Competitions

11-12 Lunch

12-2:30 Language Workshops/Breakout Sessions

2:30-3 Award Ceremony

Future Dates and Themes

March 3-4, 2023: Traditions
March 1-2, 2024: History
March 7-8, 2025: Folklore
March 6-7 2026: Festivals

The theme for World Languages Day 2023 is Traditions!

Live competitions are returning this year. There are two categories of online submissions for WLD 2023: a writing category and an edited video submission. The deadline for all on-line submissions is 3 February 2023.

All participants will be assessed a $20 registration fee regardless of submission type. The registration fee for online submissions will help offset the cost of additional judges and will support any who have a financial barrier to attending the event. The registration fee also helps offset the cost of T-shirts for participants. If any students have financial barriers to attending WLD, please contact languages@uwyo.edu.

Registration/Submission opens December 5, 2022.
Registration/Submission closes February 3, 2023 for online submissions.
Registration closes February 17, 2023 for in-person participants.
Model Release forms are required for participation.

Important Links

View the competition guidelines or get the PDF version of the competition guidelines (PDF)
Prepare to register for all competition categories: live performances, edited video, writing, and art.
Multiple student registration spreadsheet. Please submit completed spreadsheets to languages@uwyo.edu. Changes to pre-existing registrations should also be sent to languages@uwyo.edu.
People's Choice Art submissions will be in person. See 2022 art submissions here.
View the schedule of events
Hotel room blocks available.

Questions about World Languages Day 2023? Email languages@uwyo.edu

Consider Donating to WLD

WLD is a big event, averaging a cost of $15,000 to host (when there is student attendance during non pandemic years). The $20 registration fee for students does not cover the entire cost of the event. A gift of $25 will cover the additional cost for one student. Please consider this tax-deductible contribution today.

To our previous donors and supporters, thank you for making it happen!