THE Ministry of Education of Korea and the Korean Embassy in the Philippines, in cooperation with the Department of Education (DepEd), held its first online-speech contest last November 12, where students from each DepEd Special Program for Foreign Language (SPFL) Korean-implementing schools nationwide joined.
The 2022 Online Korean Speech Contest provided an opportunity to the students to share their dreams and experiences while speaking in Korean, at the same time being motivated and inspired by fellow contestants.
Grade-10 student Erica Nituan of San Bartolome High School in Novaliches, Quezon City bested the competition with her speech: “How did learning Korean influence your life now, and your plans for the future?” as she narrated ways the Korean language gave her the boost of confidence she needed after the pandemic.
In her speech, Nituan shared that “it affected my future, because learning Korean is the reason I developed and improved my confidence. Now that I have trust in myself, I believe that I can do anything in the future without the fear of facing failures.” She encouraged viewers to not be afraid to try out new things.
Her school has been offering Korean language classes as part of its SPFL implementation since 2017.
Contest runner-up Nyvelle Celorio’s speech: “A good word that leads to a good place” was about someone’s words inspiring others. She touched viewers’ hearts while narrating a poem from the book: Thank you for making me love you.
The other placer, Roxynne Espeleta, dwelled on her fondness of hallyu that opened doors for her to learn the Korean language with her speech: “I know, I love you!” She concluded it by singing a phrase from Korean singer Joy’s song Je T’aime.
The 2022 Online Korean Speech Contest was opened to a representative-student in Grades 7 to 10 from each DepEd SPFL-Korean implementing school. Currently there are 50 of its kind, with 113 teachers.
The Korean Embassy in the Philippines has been providing training and resources to support the teaching of Korean in the Philippines. In line with this effort, the schools of the three winners were provided with a mini-Korean library consisting of various Korean novels and textbooks carefully curated by the deputation. Through the libraries, it hopes that students will feel closer to Korea and its culture.