11 September 2013 – The Philippine Embassy in Seoul held on September 08 a special program to celebrate the 2013 Buwan ng Wikang Pambansa (National Language Month) in Korea, featuring a Filipino language speech contest for multicultural children, a photo contest with Filipino-language captions and the launching of a new video about the Philippines for multicultural families.

Kim Min-Seok, 11, from Daegu, won the 2013 Filipino Speech Contest with a speech entitled, "Pinoy Yan" (Truly Filipino), which described why he was proud to be a Filipino. His mother, Wilma Labiteria, told the Embassy of how Min-Seok, who has lived all his life in Korea except for month-long annual visits to the Philippines, insisted on writing his speech himself.

The two other finalists, Jang Eun-hee, 15, from Bucheon, and Jin Son-Mi, 12, from Cheonan, gave inspiring speeches about their difficulties adjusting to life in Korea and their own experiences in the Philippines.

All three finalists each received a Certificate of Participation, a medal and 50,000 KRW (around Php 2,000) for taking part in the inaugural contest, which was open to children of mixed parentage (one parent being Filipino or former Filipino) aged 12-16 years old. The objective was to encourage multicultural children to maintain and improve their knowledge and ability to speak and express themselves in the Filipino language and to share their personal experiences of coming from a bicultural household.

Min-Seok won two economy-class return tickets courtesy of the Philippine Department of Tourism in Seoul from Incheon to Manila as well as two-night accommodation at the Atrium Hotel in Manila. He was chosen as winner by a panel of judges composed of Prof. Massuline Antonio Ligaya of Gyeongju University; Prof. Assumpta Calano of Jeonju University; and Prof. Emely Dicolen Abagat of the Catholic University of Daegu.

For the photo contest, Alfonso Delgado of PricewaterhouseCoopers Korea was chosen as First Prize with a photo entry entitled “Malayo ang tingin, wala namang tinatanaw”. He was awarded 500,000 KRW (around Php 20,000) from Megaworld International.

The second and third prizes, worth 300.000 KRW and 200,000 KRW in cash donated by the Philippine Overseas Labor Office in Seoul, went respectively to Dayo Ronnie Gonda for a photo entitled "Paglalakbay” (Journey), and to Robelyn Diamzon for a photo entitled “Ama Namin” (Our Father).

They were selected from a field of 10 qualified entries based on technical criteria and content, including appropriate captions in Filipino language, by a panel of judges composed of Mr. Bae Jin-hwan, Seongnam Media Center; Prof. Engelbert Pasag of Gyeongju University; and Prof. Randy S. Tolentino of Gyeongju University.

The photo contest was organized to encourage Filipinos and former Filipinos to capture the reality and stark beauty of their milieu and surroundings while relating it to their individual or their country’s experiences expressed in the Filipino language. All the 10 submissions -B&W photos reflecting an aspect of the Filipino’s life in Korea - were mounted and exhibited in the Embassy’s Consular Section from August 23 to September 8.

In keeping with the theme of Philippine culture, the Embassy launched an 11-minute Korean-language video, "Philippine Culture for Multicultural Kids", which was put together to help children from Filipino-Korean multicultural families to acquire basic knowledge and become more interested in Philippine culture and history while living in Korea and with limited knowledge of Filipino language.

The video uses animation, video clips and photos about Philippine culture and history as explained in Korean. END