Speech Contest Showcases Korean Language Learners
Carleton’s annual Korean Speech Contest took place Friday, February 27 in 435 St. Patrick’s Building featuring speeches from students at both Beginner and Intermediate levels, with prize winners earning monetary prizes as well as the opportunity to represent Carleton in the Toronto contest the following week.
At the Beginner level, speeches commonly explored students’ reasons for studying Korean.
Unsurprisingly, love of K-Dramas was a popular rationale. Benita, for instance, is a huge fan of Strong Girl Bong-soon (힘쎈여자 도봉순) featuring “rom-com queen” Park Bo Young, while Zahra discovered her love for Korean watching Jumong (주몽), dubbed in Persian, when she was only four. Zahra too is a big K-Pop fan and you can catch her (and five other singers in Korean) on the Linguavision stage, March 31.
E-sports too was cited as a reason for learning Korean, with Karim being drawn to the language because of his love of the arcade game, Tekken. While the game is Japanese, according to Karim, many of the best players in the world are Korean.
Carleton had only one participant in the Intermediate level this year, Shiny, whose speech focussed on dating culture and differences between Canada and Korea. Everyone knows about Valentine’s Day (February 14), but did you know about Single’s Day (블랙데이) that falls on April 14?
Three Carleton Korean instructors, HyounJeong Yoo, Soyoung Kang, and Seunghee Chung, were on-hand to serve as judges for the event.
Congratulations to this year’s prize winners:
- 1st prize: Zahra Mashhadi ($400)
- 2nd prize: Shiny Antima-Nlemvo ($300)
- 3rd prize: Lauren Bingham ($200)
All three will head to Toronto next weekend for the Toronto Korean Speech Contest featuring competitors from schools across Canada as well as one in upstate New York. Prizes also include a travel subsidy for transportation.
Kimbap meals were on-hand after the event and students, faculty, and staff mixed and mingled, everyone wearing a tee shirt designed by Carleton student, Chiamaka Ezekwem, as part of last October’s Hangeul Day celebrations.
Many thanks to our dynamic Korean teaching team for all their hard work preparing, organizing, and running the evening and to the School of Linguistics & Language Studies for their continued support. And, of course, thanks to all our Korean students, both those who stepped out of their comfort zone in order to compete and those who attended the event in support of their classmates.