National public speaking competition in different languages "Language is the place where minds, souls and humans meet"

(15 March, 2005)

On 15 March 179 schoolchildren from all over Latvia and their language teachers gathered in the Assembly hall of the Faculty of Modern Languages, University of Latvia, to participate in the public speaking competition “Language is the place where minds, souls and humans meet”.

 

The competition was organized by the Latvian Association of Language Teachers in co-operation with other language teacher associations, Ministry of Education and Science of Latvia and other institutions. The event was devoted to the European Day of Languages 2005. The participants could perform in any language of their choice – Latvian, Russian, English, German, French – thus making it the first multilingual competition of such a kind in Latvia.

 

Presidents and representatives of the associations warmly greeted the audience among them Diana Rumpite, Latvian Association of Language Teachers (LALT), Jelena Berdnikova (Association of Russian Language Teachers), Laimdota Trinkuna (Association of the German Language Teachers), Anita Auziņa (Association of the English Language Teachers), Olga Ozoliņa (Association of the French Language Teachers) and Anita Vanaga (Association of the Latvian language Teachers). Welcoming address was given by Inita Vitola, State Language Agency.

The ensemble of the French Lyceum made a wonderful performance of several songs in Latvian as well as in Russian, English, German and French.

 

Anita Vanaga, president of the Association of the Latvian language teachers and Vice-president of the Latvian Association of Language Teachers, once again discussed the evaluation criteria with the members of the Jury in great detail, namely, the content of a speech, accuracy of the structure (composition) of a speech, adequate use of linguistic and non-verbal means of expression, ability to answer questions. Thus the competition could start!

 

All the schoolchildren were divided into three age groups: forms 8-9, 10-11 and form 12 which were further divided into seven subgroups.

 

The topics chosen by the participants were most interesting and inventive : “A song as a common language of many nations”, “A smile as the best language”, “The language which unites”, “Body language”, “The language of love”, “Knowledge of languages – a bridge to mutual understanding”, “The mental power of the word”, “The more languages we know, the wider will the world be”, “Languages in the modern world”, “Let’s be proud of our language”, “Foreign language as a means of communication among the youth of the world” etc. Among the presenters was Aigars Runčis, form 12, with his convincing, emotional and expressive speech “The Latgalian language – a shame or a pride”. He got the 1st place and was among the 32 prize winners of the competition. They scored 19 to 20 points out of  20 as the maximum possible score. All the 179 participants got a merit award and a souvenier with the logo of the competition.

The organizers are most thankful to the supporters of the competition, namely, State Language Agency, French embassy and its cultural centre, Russian embassy, British Council, Goethe institute, Longman publishing house for their sponsorship and the prizes to the participants.

During the official conclusion of the first public speaking competition in different languages the audience was addressed by Mr V.Jefremov, first secretary of the Russian embassy, Mr P.Barthe, educational attache of the French embassy, Mr Th. Diekhaus, Chair of the Language department  of Goethe institute (please, see the picture), Mr J.Valdmanis, Director of the State Language Agency, Mr M.Krastiņs, Chair of the Curriculum Development and Examination Centre of the Ministry of Education and science of Latvia, Mr J.Tiltiņš, Chair of the information centre of the British Council.

We would like to express our deep appreciation of the contribution of all the language teachers who helped their pupils prepare for the competition. We also appreciate the work and efforts of the numerous school boards and schools with their active involvement in organizing the public speaking competition on a regional and state level, such as Rīga, Jūrmala, Jelgava, Daugavpils, Ventspils, Rēzekne, Liepāja cities and towns as well as Cēsis, Alūksne, Madona, Preiļi, Dobele, Talsi, Krāslava, Daugavpils, Bauska, Aizkraukle, Saldus, Ludza, Jēkabpils, Valmiera, Gulbene, Liepāja, Ventspils, Tukums, Ogre and Valka regions. You all helped to make the event a genuine multicultural festivity!

We believe that all the participants of the competition will cherish their love of languages and find them most useful in their future lives and careers. We wish each of you further success!