A few months ago, we all entered an essay contest. My essay waqs on the topic “Language is a bridge between peoples.” I chose this topic because it rang true. I study languages because I want to travel the world and experience different cultures as more than just a tourist. While tourism is a great way to see beautiful things, without the language, it’s very hard to understand them. Besides, if you know a foreign language, you can meet all sorts of interesting people and experience things that you wouldn’t have been able to do without the language.
After I was told I had passed the first round, I had to participate in an oral competition. I was asked to pick a topic, and then given five minutes to prepare. My topic was “Love is like a tree, it grows by itself, let the deep roots of our whole being, and often continues to turn green and even flourish in the ruins of our hearts.” I missed one of the words, and didn’t quite understand it, but I elaborated on it as best I could, saying thatI agree, but not entirely, because in order for a tree to grow, it needs sunlight, water, and good soil, and one person cannot be all of that at once. I thought I did really well until it became apparent that no one understood what I was talking about except for the judges. Given that we were being evaluated on our ability to respond to questions other students asked, I was a bit disappointed to find that the only questions I got were people asking for clarification. Afterwords, Tatyanna Gennadevna told me I did a very good job, however.
Just recently, we got the results! I didn’t win (there was a citywide competition that I did not get invited to, so that’s that), but I did get invited to an interesting ceremony where they gave us all certificates! Here’s a link to the article, and really cool photo gallery of the event!
3 weeks ago · 1 note
