GDUFS’s Student Champion in “Sirindhorn Cup” Speech Contest

On March 21st, the Thai “Sirindhorn Cup” Overseas Student Speech Contest was held at Chulalongkorn University in Thailand. XIE Zixin, a student in her third year at GDUFS, majoring in Thai Language in the Faculty of Asian Languages and Cultures of GDUFS, won the first prize in the contest.

XIE was awarded the Champions Cup. (5th from the left)

Hosted by Chulalongkorn University Alumni Association, the contest aims to celebrate the 60th birthday of Princess Sirindhorn and encourage more foreign students to learn the Thai language. Twenty-three (23) universities in Thailand each select one meritorious overseas student as a representative to participate the contest. The candidates are mainly from China, Germany, Vietnam and Cambodia with other countries represented as well. Apart from our school, Beijing Foreign Studies University, Yunnan National University, Guangxi University of Foreign Languages, and others also sent a representative.

The speech contest was divided into two parts: A theme speech and an improvised speech. XIE’s theme speech, Princess Sirindhorn in My Mind, left a deep impression on the audience. Moreover, she has mentioned Princess Sirindhorn’s three visits to our university, which added to GDUFS students’ passion for learning Thai. Drawing on her excellent expression, standard accents and pronunciation, as well as her natural style, XIE was praised by all the referees and took the lead in the second round.

In the improvised speech section, XIE gave a speech entitled Love for Reading and Learning Leads to Success. Combining other ideas with her personal experience, she stressed that reading and learning are two important factors contributing to a better life. She performed well, and once again, impressed the referees and the audience. At last, XIE won the championship.

All candidates and referees together

XIE won the scholarship from the Chinese Scholarship Council in 2014 as an exchange student to study in Srinakharinwirot University for one year. “Winning an honor for our university makes me extremely happy”, she says, “Through this contest, I’ve learnt more about the Thai language and, at the same time, many skills about delivering a speech. However, weaknesses still exist in the process of my learning the Thai language, so I have a long way to go and will keep working hard.”