Carleton’s third annual Korean Speech Contest took place Friday, 1 March, 2024 with winners advancing to the national contest held in Toronto.
The competition was broken into three levels: beginner, intermediate, and advanced.
Fourteen students competed in the Beginner category with speeches exploring, among other things, their reasons for choosing to study Korean, Go game, and Korean food.
There were fewer competitors at the Intermediate level (4) with speakers talking about such themes as: speech endings unique to Korean, introduction to Canadian attractions, and the cultural differences of dating.
Topics at the Advanced category were more complex with the 12 competitors addressing such topics as: similarities and differences in educational system between Korea and my country, Korean political history, the experience of doing a co-op in Korea, and K-culture.
The contest was judged by three Korean language contract instructors (Hyounjeong Yoo, Soyoung Kang, and Seunghee Chung) and one Korean TA, Juyeon Lee.
This year’s winners were:
- 1st place: Rachel Share
- 2nd place: Afshan Shaikh
- 3rd place: Anjali Patel
In addition to advancing to the national contest, students won money and paid transportation to Toronto for the Saturday, 23 March, 2024 (11:00-5:30) event at the University of Toronto’s Earth Science Centre. Learn more about the 2024 Toronto Korean Speech & K-pop Contest.
Korean food and karaoke followed the event.
The event was made possible with generous support from Academy of Korean Studies and the School of Linguistics & Language Studies at Carleton University.