Tuesday, February 26, 2008

A Day To Remember

On February 22 last week I brought a public speaking team consisting of two speakers and one reserve but again we didn't gain anything tangible except for experiences and maturity and for the first time I wasn't selected to be the adjudicator like previous years.

Again, the defending champion won this year's competition but at least this year I could see strong and able contenders from other schools including mine and as I repeatedly reminded my participants that the second round i.e the impromptu speech will be the deciding factor. I have drilled them as to the ways to get proper points for their speech but again their mental preparedness failed them, they became too nervous and as a result their speeches lacked quality contents.

Nonetheless, I had to be content as rural students like mine face similar problem, they fail to see the usefulness of English in their daily life thus fail to appreciate its significance. They are able to memorise a text with excellent pronunciation, dictation and style but spontaneity is not their best strength. This quality is something that I"ve been searching for but so far only one of my former participant had the quality. She was a natural debater who was able to express herself spontaneously. This year, I didn't have such luxury although we managed to get ourselves among the best 5. I was impressed with the contestant from Kundasang who emerged as a strong contender but at the same time felt relieved as she won't be able to contest next year whereas mine should be there if she's still here next year.

"I am sure everyone here has experienced failure but for those who see such as delayed success will not stop and sulk thinking over a glass of spilled milk since they already see gallons of fresher milk ahead of them. "
The above is an excerpt from a sppeech I prepared for my student and I personally like the quotation as it reminded me about the future.
P/s: I did not refer to any sourceswhen I wrote the above excerpt though it wasn't originally mine.

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