China Daily English speech preliminaries held at YNU

The preliminary round of the fourth China Daily "Belt and Road Initiative" Youth English Speech Competition in Yunnan University (YNU) was successfully held at the university's Chenggong Campus on May 25.

The competition was titled "As time goes by, all things are revealed". Judges scored contestants in terms of speech content, language application and overall impression.

A total of 16 YNU students from China, Russia, Bangladesh, the Czech Republic and other countries competed, while teachers from the International Cooperation and Exchange Office, the Student Affairs Department and the School of Chinese International Education otherwise participated in the event.

After some fierce competition, one first prize, two second prizes, four third prizes, and several excellence prizes were finally given out.

Teachers and award-winning YNU students pose for a group photo. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Chinese student Huang Siyue won first prize in the competition with his inspiring speech. He described the changes that had occurred in his hometown of Ruili city, Yunnan province.

Between announcements of competition results, Amir from Bangladesh and Jibek from Kyrgyzstan sang songs from their home countries, giving audiences a taste of their cultures.

Jerry, a Czech international student, said in an interview after the competition that he gained some new skills from the competition and learned more about the Belt and Road initiative.