From December 4th-9th, 2018, “FLTRP·ETIC Cup” National English Speaking Contest, organized by Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press (FLTRP), was held in Beijing. Contestants brought a feast of thought and language to the audience. In this English speaking contest, Chinese and foreign students competed with each other. Ms. Surucchawadi Seweewanlop, a Thai participant from the Centre, got into the final phase and won the First Prize.
On the “Improvised Speech” stage of the finals, Ms. Surucchawadi Seweewanlop won the unanimous approval of the guests and the audience with her excellent speaking and witty answers. She used the metaphor of “crossing the river by feeling the stones” and vividly portrayed the exploration that China had made as a world power in economic and political reform. She mentioned that in the process of reform and opening up, China did not choose an easy path, but walked step by step with a “down-to-earth” attitude, which laid a solid foundation for China’s future development. Although the road of reform was long and tough, it was in this process that China had explored the path that suited itself. In the process of deepening reform and opening up, China has always insisted on starting from small things and starting from the details. This is also an important reason why China achieved rapid development.
Ms. Surucchawadi Seweewanlop, 2018 MASTA participant in Space Law and Policy, said in the interview: “I can tell you that this was one of the best decisions I took during my time here. I made friends with many speakers, trainers from all over China. This competition was filled with well-trained, hard-working intelligent students from different educational backgrounds. Many people there asked me about my major. When I told them it was ‘international law’. The responses were like ‘Wow, no surprise, cause your contents are the most logical one so far’. I was flattered by the compliments from the others, which encouraged me a lot to keep pushing myself through all of this. This not only motivates me to pursue further on this kind of competition, but also motivates me to keep working on my studies as a law student. Another important life lesson I learned from the judge is that ‘the brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquer the fear’. I thank FLTRP, Beihang University and the Centre for giving me this opportunity, and I would like to pass this to everyone that ‘DO NOT STOP CHALLENGING YOURSELF, AND BELIEVE IN YOURSELF’！”
Full Text of Ms. Surucchawadi Seweewanlop’s Speech:
China’s development is a blessing to the world as a major player on the reform of economic, political progress along with its enjoyment of legally protected rights both domestically and internationally.
What does it tell us that China has reached this world-leading level? It tells us the inspiring story that is China has found a model perfectly suited to its national conditions.
摸石头过河 : crossing the river by feeling the stones
Imagine when we cross the river, we know that there are countless numbers of invisible stones under the river. Of course, when we have to walk across the river ,in each step, our feet have to carefully choose which stone is stable enough to support our body, if it is not a suitable stone, we learned the lesson from that step, but with the spirit of the nation, we are still on the path, then we move forward to another stone. Consequently, we learned step by step what is the suitable path for our journey. You might think, choosing a stone is time consuming since there are abundant of stones under the river. We never know which stone is the best one without stepping on it first. Supposed that we have some other options to facilitate our crossing, for instance, a raft, a speed boat or even an airplane. Wouldn’t it be a lot easier and faster to cross the river?
However, in reality, 40 years ago, there was no other options that was capable of producing an effective reform on the nation. Since, a stone can be regarded as a smallest fraction of details in terms of national reformation, if we pay attention to even the smallest factor, it ultimately create a strong, solid, impregnable base for the entire country.
We choose not to seek help from an airplane to cross the river, but rather to build up our own ground base by carefully and gradually cross the river by feeling the stone. We choose to walk slowly but sustainable. We choose to pay attention to smallest thing through deepening of reforms of our political system through the genuine advancement of economic reform. We choose to explore our way forward in a unique pioneering spirit full of scholars. Therefore, China is be able to provide for the long lasting peaceful rule of nation.
