Students from the University of Macau excelled at the 22nd Portuguese Language Public Speaking Contest, winning first place with a speech marked by originality and a solid command of Portuguese.
The contest was jointly organized by the Department of Portuguese at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Macau and the Macao Foundation to promote the Portuguese language, encouraging its use outside the classroom, and strengthening the language skills of university students.
This year’s theme was inspired by a verse from the work ‘Clepsidra’ by Portuguese poet Camilo Pessanha: “I walk fearfully on the edge of the future, steeped in longing for the present.”
The winner of the contest was Wang Siyi, a student in the Department of Portuguese at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Macau and at Cheong Kun Lun College.
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In her award-winning speech, the student used the image of “my grandmother’s jar of chili peppers” as a starting point to reflect on the feeling of longing, describing it as “a delicate sadness that arrives before its time, as if the heart were anticipating the loss before it happens.”
The participant also warned of what she considers a common risk among young people of her generation: the attempt to “hold on to the present before it slips away,” rather than living each moment to the fullest.
The depth of her reflection and the expressiveness of her presentation earned her unanimous praise from the jury and secured her the first prize, awarded by the Macao Foundation.
The jury consisted of Gilberto Lopes, director of TDM’s Department of News and Portuguese Programs; Miguel de Senna Fernandes, lawyer and president of the Association for the Promotion of Education for Macaese; and Vítor Rebelo, representative of the newspaper Tribuna de Macau.
Contestants were evaluated based on relevance to the theme, organization and coherence of the text, language quality, diction, fluency, and oral expressiveness. The competition brought together nine students from the University of Macau, the Macao Polytechnic University, the Macau University of Science and Technology (MUST), and the City University of Macau.
Second place was awarded to Wan Yushen, from the Macau University of Science and Technology, in a prize jointly sponsored by Banco Nacional Ultramarino and the newspaper Tribuna de Macau.
Third place was won by Lai Huangbin, also from MUST, who received a prize awarded by the Oriente Foundation and Banco Nacional Ultramarino.
