Speech Contest

One thing I enjoy is working with other institution in a project. This way I could learn about other people's work habits and at times, work culture. Just like last week's event. I was invited to be a judge in a team of three for an English speech contest in one of government's institutions. It was the first English speech contest they have ever held and they got enormous help from a senior colleague of mine who used to work in my institution. The event also gave me a chance to know how the students in public school are doing, especially when they have to make English speeches.

The event was very enjoyable. Not being a judge after a while, I could feel the nervousness of the participants. And honestly, it still gave me a shock. For example, one participant begged the judges to get the last turn after failing to continue her speech. Honestly, all of us knew then that even though she repeated her 'performance', she definitely wouldn't win. It's hard to say 'yes', but eventually we said so. We felt 'disturbed' especially when she started whinning and she almost laid her body down on the stage floor and said, 'please, please, please' like a hundred times. :o

Another participant probably relied too much on his cue card that when he forgot his line, he referred back to the card, mumbling for about a minute (ON THE STAGE, of course) and then suddenly, like a dead man coming back to life, continued his speech like nothing ever happened. :D

I once wondered whether singing should be put in one of the scoring components. One participant sang in the preliminary round. Thank God it was a short 'Ibu Kita Kartini' song. As if the participants hadn't noticed how our faces showed the reaction to the song in the first round, one more participant sang during the final round! What's up with the students? Hellow tutors and mentors? How could you let this happened? Would you sing if you joined a speech contest? What made the second attempt of singing a failure? The song was 'Hero' and she definitely, definitely ain't Mariah....