제3회 한국어 말하기 대회

The 3rd Korean Language Speech Contest took place, without much fanfare, at the RELC International Hotel yesterday afternoon. This annual event, jointly organised by the Embassy of the Republic of Korea and the Singapore Korean School, aims to develop interest and promote the learning of the Korean language among non-native speakers. This year, the organiser received more than 50 applications and based on the merit of the script submitted, 20 contestants were selected to do their speech at the contest. Judging the contest was a panel of 5 judges led by Mr Choi Suk, Chairman of the Korean Association of Singapore. Mr Choi Suk was first invited to the stage to explain the judging criteria. The script content is accorded 30% and the script presentation accounts for the remaining 70%. As it is, 30% of the marks has already been accorded when the submitted scripts were being judged. The actual-day performance only accounts for 70% of the marks. With the game rules explained, the contest went into full swing.

The 20 contestants were required to make a speech of about 3-5 minutes although some took longer than that because they forgot their lines. It must have been a nerve-wrecking moment for the contestants. It was not just stage-fright but also the difficulty of speaking in a foreign language which they had to contend with. Feeling often get disconnected from the speech. Fluency and accuracy, honed to near perfection during practice, were thrown out of the window, as the contestants struggled to overcome the pressure of standing on stage. That is why there is a common Chinese saying that for one minute on stage, a person needs ten year of hard work. While this maybe a Korean Language Speech Contest, I thought the greater value of this event is in bringing together people with a common interest in Korean language to share their "Korean experiences". Despite the many hiccups by the contestants, nothing can lessen the genuinity of their Korean experiences and their life story was my biggest take-away from the contest. 참가자들에게 모두 다 잘 하셨어요. 제가 너무 많이 감동을 받았거든요.

After the 20 contestants have completed their round of speech, the judges left the auditorium to tally their scores while we have a cultural interlude. Taking to stage first was a Soprano. As her heavenly voice serenaded the audience, suddenly it struck on me that I could not remember when was the last time my cultural sense was stimulated in this way. The risk of living a Singaporean lifestyle is that we tend to relegate the cultural aspect of life to the nice-to-have-but-not-necessary stratum. I think I need to re-examine my life priority again. The Soprano's performance was followed by the Samulnori's performance by the Singapore Korean School's students. I was mesmerised by these kids' percussion skills. What was unknown to many was that their teacher was conducting their performance from the back of the auditorium. The students' attention was all focused at their teacher's hand actions. Every beat on their instrument was so in sync with her hand actions. However, at the end, their teacher didn't manage to get them out from their thanking bow despite waving her hands repeatedly to signal them to get up. The students continued to stay in bow for a long while. When she was about to give up, a student sheepishly peeked up and saw her hand action and immediately the rest of the students came out from their bow and left the stage. That was kinda cute. Before the contest results were announced there was still a lucky draw for the audience. There were 10 lucky winners who took home $100 Korean restaurant food vouchers.

Finally, it came to the announcement of winners and the presentation of prizes. The Ambassador of the Republic of Korea, His Excellency Kim Joong-keun, was there to present the certificate of award, issued by the Korean Embassy of Singapore, to the winners. There is a slight difference in the Korean way of presenting a certificate. First, the recipient needs to walk up to the Ambassador and stand in front of him. Following that, the master-of-ceremony will read out, in verbatim, the content of the certificate of award. Only after that, will the certificate be presented by the Ambassador to the recipient. After receiving their certificate, the winner will then proceed over to receive their prize from the sponsor's representative. Apparently, the most coveted award was the 2nd prize - a return air ticket to Korea. It was so because the winners get to fly to Korea for free and they didn't need to lug back heavy electronics equipment. So congratulations to both the 2nd prize winners. We are so envious of you.

Similar to last year, I enjoyed my Saturday afternoon over at the RELC International Hotel. I will like to attend this event again. Hopefully I will be lucky the next time. If I am not lucky enough for the $100 voucher at least give me a free $50 voucher as I will like to think that making my trip to the contest is all worth it. ㅋㅋㅋ... Until the next contest, 여러분들 꼭 한국어를 열심히 공부하세요.