Winners of the encouragement prizes receive their awards at the fourth Young Francophones Reporter Contest - Việt Nam 2019. — VNS Photo Kiều Vân

HÀ NỘI — First prize in the Young Francophones Reporters – Việt Nam 2019 — a writing contest in French held by Le Courrier du Vietnam (CVN) a weekly French-language newspaper under Việt Nam News Agency, was awarded on Friday to Vũ Lê Minh Anh and Lê Huỳnh Kiều Nga, students from HCM City Pedagogical University.

The co-authors won for their reportage titled “Réseaux sociaux ennemis des femmes?” (Social networks – enemy of women), about the negative impacts on Vietnamese women through social networks, particularly Facebook. They were given a laptop.

The second prize was given to Vũ Hà Trang and Đoàn Trà My, two students from the University of Languages and International Studies, at Vietnam National University-Hà Nội, for their work “Vieux dortoirs à Hanoi – un patrimoine méconnu” (Old condos in Hà Nội – forgotten legacy). 

At the award ceremony in Hà Nội, organisers also presented a third prize, three encouragement prizes, a People’s Choice award, an Impressive Contestant, and a Dynamic Contestant.

Entitled The Power of Words, the contest aims to encourage young people to use the beauty and richness of the French language to write about the country.

The contest was sponsored by the International Organisation of La Francophonie (OIF), the embassies of France, Switzerland and Morocco, the Francophone Universities Association (AUF), the Wallonie-Bruxelles Delegation in Hà Nội, and Hanoi Eye Hospital 2.

The contest attracted attention from young writers, particularly university students learning French throughout the country.

Organisers said 20 out of nearly 118 entries (from 115 authors) had been selected for the final round.

These works were published on Le Courrier du Vietnam online at https://www.lecourrier.vn.

Editor-in-chief of the newspaper, Nguyễn Thu Hà, who is also a head co-organiser of the event, said this year, the number of candidates increased significantly, and the quality of the works was also better than previous years.

“The fourth contest’s results met all its targets of promoting the movement of teaching and learning French in Việt Nam, diversifying the contents of news and stories in the context of serving national foreign affairs, introducing the country, its culture and people to the community of 88 French speaking countries and territories,” said Hà.

“And especially it creates a playground for young people studying French.”

A member of the jury said: “The topics of this year’s works are diverse, and environmental and ecological issues are the focus of the 20 works in the final round.”

Participants at the event were Lê Quốc Minh, Deputy Director of Việt Nam News Agency, representative from OIF Asia-Pacific Regional Bureau, relevant ministries, embassies in Hà Nội, and universities.

Trần Thị Mai Yến, representative from the OIF Asia-Pacific Regional Bureau, also a head co-organiser of the contest, was happy with the writing quality, saying that this year's contest once again confirmed the talents of young reporters.   

“Young people have passion in using French to speak about their country, especially environmental protection issues,” said the OIF official.

The third prize winner, Nguyễn Đức Quý, a young reporter from Voice of Việt Nam, said: “This is the only French writing competition for young people. I chose the theme "Starting business" of the Tày ethnic minority people in Tuyên Quang Province, I want to use my French words to convey to the Francophone community understanding about the country and people who wish to escape poverty in their homeland.”

Through articles at the Young Francophones Reporter Contest organised annually, the writers, many of whom are young students, have expressed their feelings, points of views and comments and introduced to the French-speaking community Việt Nam’s beauty, culture and people.

Đào Phương Loan, a student from Hà Nội University won first prize at the third Young Francophones Reporter Contest 2018. — VNS