From being a fan of Hallyu (Korean Wave) to improving confidence, the three Filipino students who won in the first Online Korean Speech Contest shared their dreams and experiences.
The 2022 Online Korean Speech Contest was held by the Ministry of Education of Korea and the Korean Embassy in the Philippines in cooperation with the Department of Education (DepEd).
It was participated in by contestants from each DepEd Special Program for Foreign Language-Korean implementing schools in the Philippines.
Erica Nituan, a Grade 10 student from San Bartolome High School in Quezon City, emerged as the grand winner.
The 2022 Online Korean Speech Contest was an event made to provide an opportunity to the students to share their dreams and experiences while speaking in Korean, and be motivated and inspired by their fellow contestants.
Nituan won the contest with her speech titled “‘How did Korean Learning influence your life now and your plans for the future?’ as she narrated how the Korean language gave her the boost of confidence she needed after the pandemic.
“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 said in her speech.
San Bartolome High School has been offering Korean language classes as part of its SPFL implementation since 2017.
Nyvelle Celorio won as runner-up with her speech titled “A good word that leads to a good place” where she talked about how a word from someone could inspire others.
Her speech touched the hearts of the viewers as she narrated a poem from the book “Thank you for making me love you.”
The other runner-up, Roxynne Espeleta, won with her speech titled “I Know, I Love You!” which dwelled upon how her fondness of Hallyu opened doors for her to learn the Korean language. Her speech was cheerfully ended by singing a phrase from the song "Je T’aime” of K-pop group Red Velvet’s Joy.
The 2022 Online Korean Speech Contest was opened to one representative student (Grades 7 to 10) from each DepEd SPFL-Korean implementing school.
Currently, there are 50 SPFL-Korean implementing schools with 113 teachers in the Philippines. The Korean Embassy in the Philippines has been providing training and resources to support the teaching of Korean language in the Philippines.
The schools of the three winners of this contest are provided with the mini-Korean library, consisting of various Korean novels and textbooks carefully curated by the Korean Embassy. Through this mini library, the Korean Embassy hopes for the students to feel closer to Korea and its culture.