A student from Botosani becomes a true phenomenon of foreign languages, in Romania. Laura Purice, a student in the 9th grade at the Ata Laurian National College in Botosani, took the first place at the national French Olympiad, but is also Olympic. In addition, he has already won a scholarship in France.
Laura Purice Photo Cosmin Zamfirache
Botosani is already known as a true “cradle of geniuses” with personalities in all scientific areas, especially in the last and a half century. In the last three decades, Botosaniul has confirmed this status by the large number of Olympians, especially in the field of exact sciences, which led to the organization of large national Olympics, on Eminescu’s lands.
This year, Botoșani gives Romania a new phenomenon. This time in the field of letters, more precisely of foreign languages. It is called Laura Purice, she is only 15 years old and obtained the first place at the national French Olympiad. In addition, he managed to win a national competition that brought him a scholarship to France. In parallel, it also performs in Greek.
“I started so one day to learn French”
Laura Purice is a booty who enjoys adolescence with “a beautiful gang of friends” as she likes to say. She is passionate about hiking, drawing but also makes theater. Last year he was part of the distribution of a show playing on the stage of a professional theater. This is the show “LMA” mounted by the director Delia Gavlițchi on the stage of the “Mihai Eminescu” Theater in Botosani. Laura is considered at the Elite High School where she learns, that is, at the Ata Laurian National College, a phenomenon. And this is because besides all these passions and the joy of high school life, Laura Purice is a true champion in the field of letters.
It is Olympic in French and literature, but also in Greek, an optional matter. Laura confesses that the passion for French has come apparently overnight. She was primarily attracted to the musicality of this language. “To me, I say it was an intrinsic passion, with an intrinsic motivation. I started to learn French one day. I came this momentum to learn French and since then I have not stopped. I started alone, with books, then I resorted to the media to help me.”Laura confesses. Once he grabbed the French, as he already told us, Laura did not stop. He learned every day only for pleasure for French language and culture. “French is a cultural language. This aspect must also be taken into account”says the Botoşăneancă student.
Olympic and scholar after less than two years of preparation
Until the eighth grade, Laura Purice was not particularly attracted to French. As he confessed to us, it happened that one day he realized he wants to learn this language. A year lived with great passion for French followed. Not even on the summer vacation, a well -deserved vacation after the national assessment could not give up the study for French. After a few more than a year of intensive training, Laura has achieved an incredible performance, a performance for which other students have been fighting for years. In April, he obtained the first place at the national French Olympiad.
It is not the only incredible result in just two months. In March Laura Purice also won the show-contest “Parlez-Vous Francoronie?” carried out by the Romanian Television in partnership with the France Embassy in Bucharest and the French Institute. The competition was fierce, in the competition participating in many students of the elite high schools, with bilingual profile from Constanța, Baia Mare, Bucharest, Brașov, Ploiești, Botosani, Dej. As a result of this result, Laura Purice obtained a linguistic scholarship in Vichy in France. “I participated in many competitions, the best known being the national French Olympiad, the television contest” Parle vous francanonie “and” Ambassadeurs / Ambassadrics en herbe “says Laura Purice.
“The secret of performance: learning consistency and regularity”
Laura Purice confesses that the secret of performance is, in fact, learning from pleasure and work regularly. “Usually the students who go to the Olympics work intensively a month before. I worked intensively in the eighth grade nor on the summer vacation I did not leave and worked every day, every week. So the consistency of learning and the regularity are the secret.”. adds the Olympics from Botosani. Laura Purice is also passionate about Greek. Even before the passion for French. He studies them in parallel, but at the moment French seems to have priority.
In the 6th grade Laura Purice obtained the fourth place at the National Greek Olympiad. This year he qualified at the National Greek Olympiad but chose French at this stage. “I also participated in the Greek Olympiad, I qualified for the national but I did not go this year”said Laura. The fact that the year 2025 is dominated by Botosani in the field of Olympics in foreign languages is also confirmed by the fact that another student of the Ata Laurian National College, Rareș Sinescu, managed to obtain the first place at the National Olympiad of English Language and Literature, in the 12th grade.
