Galavi Sharma, the 3rd year student of Bachelor of Arts (Hons), Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) will represent India at the prestigious World K-SPEECH Contest being organized in Fukuoka, Japan on August 19.
A resident of Delhi, Galavi Sharma, who is Korean language student at the Centre for Korean Studies (CKS), School of Languages, Literature & Cultural Studies at JNU, emerged winner at the 4th All India Speech Contest held at JNU campus on April 23.
The Indian preliminary round of World K-SPEECH Contest was organised by the Korea Speech Eloquence Association (India Chapter) in association with CKS, School of Languages, Literature & Cultural Studies, JNU.
However, the runners up and four other contestants will travel to Korea to participate in the K-SPEECH Contest being organized there later this year.
Interestingly, the runner up Rahul Kumar and others who stood from 2nd to 6th position included Mrinal Pandey, Shivani Singh, Kubir Kaur, and Rahmat Alam, all from JNU. Surprisingly, none of the students the Delhi University who contested in the Indian preliminary round could make it to the winners’ list.
“It is for the first time that due to the high quality of the speeches, this year the Korea Speech Eloquence Association (India Chapter) has decided to sponsor five winners of this contest to send to Korea to represent India in the K-SPEECH contest,” Dr. Ravikesh, chairperson, Korea Speech Eloquence Association (India Chapter) and Associate professor at JNU.
The subjects the contestants were to choose from to deliver a speech on included Measures for the dissemination of Korean language globally, Measures for the peaceful reunification of the Korean Peninsula, Measures to promote the excellence and values of Korean culture and Measures to promote friendship between Korea and Japan.
The winner of the contest Galavi Sharma chose to deliver a speech on Measures to promote friendship between Korea and Japan. She made an excellent speech in the Korean language with confidence and that impressed the jury.
Galavi Sharma attributed her success to Anna Yang, Research Scholar (Linguistics), School of Language, JNU, who helped her prepare the content for the speech. Anna is also Secretary General of World K-SPEECH Contest.
The jury also included Yoo Chang-Ho, the Minister Counselor for Political Affairs, Embassy of the Republic of Korea. He was also the chief guest on the occasion.
In his address, Chang-Ho said that Korean is the very important language in the world and there was a dearth of people who speak the Korean language as compared to the demand, which is rising very steeply. So, the Indian students learning Korean language has a great future ahead of them, he added.
Vyjayanti Raghavan, professor, and chairperson, CKS, JNU was also present on the occasion.
Other jury members included Paresh Kumar, an assistant professor from Delhi University, Naushad Alam, Assistant Professor from EFL University, JAEHYUNG – KIM from Korea Tourism Organisation, India and Edward Seo from The National Unification Advisory Council.
