NEW DELHI: Exactly six days prior to Indian shuttler PV Sindhu became the first Indian badminton player to be crowned world champion when she defeated Japan’s Nozomi Okuhara in Switzerland, yet another Indian girl from Delhi created history in Japan.

Without much ado on August 19, Galavi Sharma became the first-ever non-Korean to win the Korean top honor in linguistic – the Korean Presidential Award in the 24th World K-SPEECH Contest held in Fukuoka, Japan.

Earlier on all 23 occasions, only the Korean nationals either living in Korea or elsewhere in the world won this coveted Korean speech award for extraordinary proficiency in the Korean language.

Apart from winning KRW 2.0 Million (South Korean Won) as the prize money, Galavi received a trophy and Korea Speech Eloquence Association flag. However, Galavi would formally receive the prize money and a certificate signed by the President of South Korea later in India.

Galavi (21) a Master of Arts (1^st year) student in the Korean language at the Centre for Korean Studies (CKS), School of Languages, Literature & Cultural Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), represented India to participate in the annual contest in which 55 contestants from 17 countries including Korea participated.

Other participating countries were Thailand, Russia, Australia, China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Hong Kong, Philippines, Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan and Japan. In the contest, 17 foreigners, 7 overseas Koreans, 18 Korean representatives and one team from Korea, Thailand and Cambodia each competed. The contestants aged between 10 and 50 years.

Apart from her mother and brother, Koo Sang Soo – Chairman of Korea Speech Eloquence Association (India headquarters) also accompanied Galavi to Japan for the final contest.

Galavi delivered the speech on the subject “Measures to promote friendship between Korea and Japan”. She made an excellent speech in the Korean language with confidence and that impressed the jury. It was the same subject on which she spoke at the 4^th All India Speech Contest held at JNU campus on April 23 when she had emerged winner to represent India in World K-Speech Contest in Japan.

Galavi said she was a bit nervous on the day of the final contest on August 19 as her turn was last.

“I developed anxiety after I listened to various contestants from other countries including Korea as they spoke very well. However, I kept my cool and garnered the courage till the time my turn came, and finally delivered the speech with confidence. I had to halt a bit in between as audience clapped for me,” said Galavi.

When asked about her future plans towards shaping her career, Galavi said she wanted to study further and looked for winning a scholarship in language learning, business studies or international relations in Korea.

Galavi Sharma attributes her success to Anna Yang – The director of the executive office of the Korea Speech Eloquence Association (India headquarters) who helped her prepare the content for the speech. Anna Yang is also the Research Scholar (Linguistics), School of Language, JNU.

According to Anna Yang, Galavi has a voice that is really good for eloquence and could finally make people acknowledge it.

“At first, she was afraid to be in front of people. But after two years of hard work, she won the Presidential Award. Without giving up until the end, Galavi won the fight with herself and I believe that she will do well in the future. Galavi, thank you for listening, trusting, and following your teacher’s guidance,” said Anna Yang.

Galavi does not forget to offer her gratitude for her family comprising of her grandmother Satyawati Sharma, father Ravi Dev Sharma – a lawyer and consultant, mother Reena Sharma – a company secretary and bother Yash Sharma – a law student, for their relentless support. Galavi also remembers her late grandfather Dev Dutt Sharma for his blessings without which she would not have succeeded.

Galavi was all praise for Prof.Ravikesh – President of Korea Speech Eloquence Association (India headquarters) and Assistant Prof. Naushad Alam – The chairman of Korea Speech Eloquence Association (South Indian headquarters) for their efforts.

The 24th World Korean Speech Contest was co-hosted by the Korean Speech Consortium, the Consulate General of Fukuoka, the Korean Consulate General in Japan, and the Kyushu Korean Association in Japan.