Winona Lai (European Studies - French Stream, Year 4) captured the first prize at the ninth Pearl River Delta Inter-University French Speech Competition. She was awarded an all-expenses-paid, one-month course at Lyon in France where she will study French language and culture this summer. Winona also won the dictation competition and will represent Hong Kong in the finals which will be held in Beijing. 

The speech competition was jointly organised by HKBU and Consulate General of France. Winona prepared a 10-minute speech to introduce the French culture which has developed in Hong Kong. Speaking fluently and with humour, she gained the commendation of the jury and beat nine other competitors who come from the University of Hong Kong, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Jinan University, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, and Shenzhen Polytechnic. Winona said that she took part in the competition with an enlightened mind. Though she prepared a lot for it, she was nicely surprised with the result and expressed her gratitude to HKBU teachers, including Ms Celine Dias and Dr Emilie Tran for their encouragement and guidance over the past few years, so that she can have a solid foundation in French .

In addition, Winona performed well in the French dictation competition last month and will represent Hong Kong in the final round in Beijing. Anson Lam (European Studies - French Stream, Year 4) won the third prize at the same competition.