UM student wins championship at 14th Portuguese Speech Contest

University of Macau (UM) student Leong Kin Man won the championship at the 14th Portuguese Speech Contest held today (1 November). 

The theme of this year’s competition was ‘the art of life’. In his speech, Leong discussed the joy and challenges of learning Portuguese, how his study trip in Portugal improved his spoken Portuguese, and interesting anecdotes about local culture. 

Leong is from the Faculty of Law, enrolled in the 5-Year Bachelor of Law Programme (conducted in Chinese and Portuguese). He is grateful to the professors from the Department of Portuguese for their guidance, which helped him overcome the various difficulties in learning the Portuguese language. ‘During my first year at UM, I went to Portugal to study as an exchange student, which gave me a good grounding in the language,’ he says. ‘The good language learning environment at UM not only stimulates my interest in the Portuguese language and culture, but also allows me to put what I’ve learned into practice.’

Organised by UM’s Department of Portuguese, the Portuguese Speech Contest is an annual event that aims to provide a platform for local college students enrolled in Portuguese programmes to showcase their language skills. The second, third, and fourth prizes of this year’s competition went to Peng Ying Ying from Macau University of Science and Technology, Marcelino Luis Do Rosario Sousa from Macao Polytechnic Institute (IPM), and Tu An from IPM, respectively.