Pinay student in Austria beats 300 speech tilt contestants

A 21-year-old Filipina student in Austria—  Xynthea Gajo — recently beat some 300 contestants at a multilingual speech competition, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said.   Gajo received the highest score at the 2012 National Multi-lingual Speech Competition — Sag's Multi (Say it Multi-lingual) — at the Vienna City Hall on February 23.   Gajo was born in Iloilo City and grew up under the care of her grandmother in Quezon City. She migrated to Austria in 2008 and is now a resident of Vorarlberg in Austria, the DFA said in a news release.   "She is currently in her junior year as a college scholar at HAK Bludenz, Vorarlberg, taking up Accountancy," the DFA said. "SAG'S MULTI" is an annual multi-lingual rhetoric contest in Austria.   Children from the seventh grade, whose first language is not German, must show the professional jury their language skills — both in their native language and in German. At least one member of the jury is a native speaker of the contestant's native language. This year's topic is: "Conquer Liberty." The contest is divided into three stages:

• pre-selection,
• regional, and
• final competition.

The prize includes a one-week travel abroad and a speech coaching seminar.   The awarding ceremony was broadcast nationwide through the Austrian television ORF and covered by national and local newspapers.   The other short-listed winners included immigrant students from Turkey, Serbia, China, India, Bangladesh, Czech Republic, Hungary, Saudi Arabia, and Oman.   Gajo's winning piece In her winning piece, Gajo showed her fluency in German (Vorarlbegerisch Deutsch) and Filipino (Tagalog) languages.   Excerpts of her speech included:   "Als meine Mutter meinem Stiefvater geheiratet hat, dachte ich mir: „Okay, das war ja ihre Entscheidung.Ich habe aber nich auch eine groβe Entscheidung treffen musste. Meine Mutter wollte nach Österreich auswandern, aber ich konnte nicht gleich mitkommen." (When my mother married my stepfather, I thought to myself: Okay, that was her decision." But I did not realize then that I, too must make a big decision. My mother wanted to migrate to Austria, but I could not come along with her.)   "Und ich stellte mir dann die Frage: Soll ich jetzt meine Oma, die auf mich aufgepasst hat, als ich noch klein war, meine Cousinen, die wie Geshwister für mich sind und meine Freunde, die mich immer zum Lachen bringen, verlassen?" (And then I asked myself a question: "Should  I now leave my grandmother who has watched over me ever since I was small; my cousins who have been like siblings to me and my friends who have always brought joy to my life?")   "Dahil ito ang aking naging desisyon, kailangan kong tanggapin ang kinalalabasan. Ayaw kong sayangin ang oras at lakas sa pag-iisip ng mga bagay na sana'y nangyari." - VVP, GMA News