Last week, my Year 12 Maths class attempted a mathematics competition that is held annually by the Académie de Strasbourg to promote mathematics in a context outside traditional learning and even the learning of foreign languages! As a matter of fact, the first question was completely written in a choice of European foreign languages. My classmates and I had to work together not only to translate, but also then calculate the answer and translate it back into the language they chose – French.

I asked Kate, who translated question 1, and Oscar, who worked out the answer, along with Ajeet, who worked out another question about how they found their questions and the competition.

Firstly, we had to translate the question into English so as a class we could work it out; I translated it from French and Alice translated it from Italian, and we then checked our accuracy. Once multiple people found the same answer, confirming if it was correct, I translated our reasoning back into French in over 30 words, just as the question requested. This competition intertwined languages and maths by needing us to work in a team and communicate our answers. Kate

I enjoyed taking part in the Maths Without Borders competition because it challenged me to approach problems creatively and logically. It was different from typical classroom maths and encouraged deeper thinking as the questions required thinking outside the box. Oscar

The questions were very interesting, and I enjoyed the competition as it showed maths to me in a different light, outside traditional learning, as the questions required collaborative effort. Ajeet

Karan Abrol, Year 12