Two teams from Maynooth French Studies final year went to Belfast on 23rd and 24th March to participate in this year’s third level debating competition in French. The annual event is organised and sponsored by the French Embassy in Ireland. 13 teams participated, from Queens’ TCD, UCD and Maynooth.
Following the 2017 team who won the audience award, both Maynooth teams did well again this year: Martin Holland and Luke Decaux reached the semi-finals, while Paul Rickard and Evan Croke got through to the final. In the final (against TCD) Evan won the best speaker award.
The topics for debate were:
L’apprentissage des langues minoritaires vaut autant que celui d’une langue mondiale – learning a minority language is just as valuable as learning a world language
L’évolution d’une langue doit être encadrée – changes in language should be regulated
Les paroles s’envolent, les écrits restent – words fly away, writings remain
L’Académie française a un train de retard – the French Academy is behind the times (topic for the final)
Congratulations to both teams on their good work – and fluency!