Nawin Pornkulwat, a second-year student from the Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University has won first place in the French Speech Competition-French Language Excellence Program (higher education level).
Organized by the Department of French, Faculty of Arts, Silpakorn University, the designated topic was “Comment pourrait-on faire face au cyberharcèlement?” (How can we deal with cyberbullying?), which focused on raising awareness on cyberbullying and the effects on those involved.
Nawin explained that, for the competition, participants were asked to make a speech in French and record a video clip (no longer than 3 minutes) about cyberbullying. He added that with limited time to prepare, he began looking for information to better understand the process of cyberbullying. Then, he wrote a rough script and storyboard to be able to spontaneously add ideas.
The content presentation was divided into three issues: victims, perpetrators, and solutions, to raise awareness of violence and how to work together to prevent cyberbullying. A deep understanding of the topic and confidence in communicating with the audience are two core techniques that Nawin believes contributed much to his success in this competition.
Having been interested in learning French since high school, Nawin has found French melodious and reflective of the cultural values of France, despite being a difficult language to learn. Due to the structural complexity of the language, it is entirely different from Thai, especially in listening, because it must be understood immediately. He added that his strength is in writing because he can think, plan, check and correct the sentence structure, although it was still challenging.
Nawin dreams of becoming a French language teacher or having a French-related profession in the future because he would like to make the most of his language proficiency. Currently, he works part-time as a French-language tutor for youngsters.
“Lastly, I want to tell all youngsters interested in learning French that they must spend time practicing speaking, reading, and writing regularly. This will help improve by leaps and bounds. Studying at the Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University, students are encouraged to fully learn and develop, with the help of teachers who provide knowledge and advice on learning. This makes learning French not so difficult anymore,” concluded Nawin.