Damien Some, a TKU international student from Burkina Faso, recently entered a Chinese speaking competition. The contest was hosted by the National Sun Yat Sen memorial Hall and drew 96 foreign entrants from 27 countries. Damien, who’s been in Taiwan for 3 years now, came first.

This was not his first foray into the world of Chinese speaking competitions. He once took part in an embassy-sponsored speech contest, and on a separate occasion, came third in a TKU Chinese speaking competition. In this most recent event, his winning speech was a humorous depiction of “My Favorite Night Market”. In his speech, he recounted quirky situations that he’s come across during his time in Taiwan, as well as a special friendship that he made at a night market in Taiwan: “I never thought that by buying socks at a night market I’d be able to make a new friend. From that day on, the first day I met Grandpa Wang at the Shilin night market, Shilin became my favorite night market in Taiwan”, Damien recalls in fluent Chinese.