SAUDI ARABIA

Alomaireeni emerges winner in Korean Embassy Speech Contest

November 06, 2018

By Samar Yahya

RIYADH —
Shahad Alomaireeni emerged the winner in the Korean Embassy held 1st Ambassador Cup Korean Speech Contest on Monday.

A total of 51 applicants entered the contest by submitting recorded files of self-introduction till Oct. 25.The second stage was on Oct. 29 when the Embassy announced the final list of 12 applicants.

A panel of 4 judges, which included representatives from the Embassy, principal of the Korean School in Riyadh, Korean community and KOTRA, evaluated the participants according to 6 criteria; Fluency, Exact Pronunciation, Logicality, Various use of Vocabulary, Consistency to Subjects, Reaction from the attendees.

Korean Ambassador JO Byung Wook told Saudi Gazette: “We earlier had the 11th Korea-Arab Friendship Caravan on Oct. 14 that was a huge success. Today’s competition is another cultural event to promote Korean culture and language as well. I am very glad that more than 50 Saudi young people applied for this contest. I was very surprised that they speak Korean very fluently and they know the culture.”

Top three winners were led by Shahad Alomaireeni, a student in Princess Nourah University, Moudhi Alhudaithi (2nd), Hussah Alzoghaibi (3rd), a student in Prince Sultan University. Fourth was British national and the only male contestant Dominic Castello, an English instructor at King Faisal University, and 5th was Hessah Bin-Zuair.

Awards given were Samsung Galaxy Note 9, Galaxy S9, Galaxy A8, Gear S3 and Etude House Korean Cosmetics and the rest were awarded Korean traditional plate sets.

Changgyu Kim Korean School principal said: “In evaluating contestants, the most important thing was how fluently they could speak Korean without written articles. Their levels were surprising. I feel proud of myself as Korean and will do more efforts to spread the Korean language.”

Alomaireeni told Saudi Gazette: “For the last 8 years, I have been watching Korean drama and shows where I acquired the speaking skills, as for writing I learned it online 4 years ago. I am hopeful to study in Korea later.”

Alzoghaibi said, “I participated in this competition as a kind of practice for my Korean language that I have not used for a long time, and to get to know some more people who speak the same language.”

Castello said, “I have been in Riyadh for a year and have not met many Korean speakers so far, so for me it was a good challenge. I lived in Korea for 4 years and it was great.”

The families and friends of the contestants were invited to the event and enjoyed Korean food after the competition.


November 06, 2018
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