Perse pupil talks her way to success in language competition

Ovia (Year 7) demonstrated her talent for Tamil with success in a national competition in the South Asian language.

She was runner-up in the speech category for ages 11 to 12 in the event, organised by the Tamil Education Development Council (TEDC).

In addition, Ovia was placed 25th overall in the most recent TEDC Grade 4 exam scores, covering writing, reading, oral and listening exercises, and she plans to sit her Grade 5 exam next month.

For the speech competition, Ovia had to memorise three paragraphs of information relating to the Hindu festival of Thai Pongal, which is celebrated by the Tamil community, and recite a chant from the classic Tamil text Thirukkural.

She explained: “The Thirukkural is a very special part of our culture. It’s a very long poem, which outlines the values you need to live by and I had to memorise six of the couplets.”

Ovia’s family are from Sri Lanka, where Tamil is an official language, and as well as speaking it at home, she also attends weekly classes to improve her skills.

“It’s my mother tongue and it’s really nice to be able to speak Tamil on video calls with my relatives in Sri Lanka because a lot of them don’t understand English,” she said.

“I’ve never actually been to Sri Lanka, but we’re hoping to go in the next couple of years for my birthday, so I’m looking forward to that.”