Name: Edouard El Massih
Age: 16
School: Canton High School
Find out what's happening in Cantonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Key to Awesomeness: Multi-lingual and multi-cultural.
Accomplishments: Edy El Massih speaks three languages and is beginning a fourth this fall–his senior year at Canton High School.
Find out what's happening in Cantonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Born in Lebanon, El Massih has been speaking Arabic and French his whole life, and English since he was ten, when he arrived in Canton with his family.
The Lebanese immerse themselves in language; students attend language classes and learn math and history in both French and Arabic, he said.
Realizing he was losing touch with French when he moved to the States–speaking, listening, thinking and watching TV in English–El Massih began taking classes in middle school to preserve it. By freshman year he was taking junior-level French. He just completed his AP French course.
One of twenty students in the CHS exchange program, German classes start this fall. His family will host a German student for three weeks, and in April, El Massih will live with his new friend's family in Germany for three weeks.
Having been to Lebanon, the United States, Switzerland, France, Syria, England, St. Martin and St. Thomas, the teen notes that most countries speak multiple languages.
El Massih wants to study the Italian language. It is beautiful, he said, every word sounds prettier than the one before.
“Language is an art; learning language is an art,” he said.
If language is an art, El Massih said cooking is his passion.
For the past year, he has produced and hosted his own cooking show on Canton Community Television and plans to attend culinary school after graduation.
The 2011-2012 captain of Canton High’s swim team, El Massih said his team had a good season, earning fifth place in the Hockomock League.
