13 Jun 2017

Chinese Language speech contest

Five students attended a Chinese Language speech contest and received 4 gold cups and 1 silver cup, qualifying them now to attend the semi-final in Beijing over the summer!

The students are Jamie Ngai, Allan Guo, Karen Lee, Carissa Wong and Yumi Horiba . They attended the speech contest organized by China Communications University with the theme of “the most beautiful voice and a Chinese legend ” last Saturday in Hong Kong. This is a national contest organized in China with the winners from different provinces and districts being qualified to attend the semi-finals and finals at China Communication University in Beijing this August.

After several weeks of intensive training, five students led by Kathryn To attended the contest. In the morning was the preliminary round and in the afternoon was the final. Congratulations to Yumi Horiba for receiving “The Most Beautiful Voice” award and to Allan Guo for receiving ‘The Most Creative Answer’ award in the Q&A session. Kathryn To received the “The Best Trainer “,”best Mandarin Promoter” plate and the Certificate of Merit.”

Here are the reflection from the students:

Allan GUO [09C07M]:
Organized by alumni from the City University of Hong Kong, the Chinese speech competition that we participated in had high requirements for standard. Aiming for clear punctuation, excellent fluency as well as applying a range of techniques to convey emotion, the challenges were immense. If not for the weeks of after school practice and Ms. To’s insightful guidance and tutoring, we would not have achieved such desirable results. With all of the KGV participants receiving trophies and a few special certificates, our entire team had passed all elimination rounds. I was especially shocked when announced that I would be receiving both a gold trophy and a certificate for creativity. Now that the KGV team has progressed to the final round, I anticipate our trip to Beijing, the competition there and the opportunity to challenge myself further by competing with some of the best native speakers in China.

Karen LEE [09U06M]:
I thoroughly enjoyed the Chinese speech competition in the sense that it was a great learning and practicing opportunity for my Chinese speaking. At the end, although we all did win trophies, the prizes did not matter as much to me as the experience that I gained from it. We had spent almost a month practicing for it, around once to twice a week with our Chinese teacher. In the course of this month, I’d made new friends, thoroughly practiced speaking in Chinese and most importantly, noticed things about my speaking that I had not noticed before. During the competition, we were all very nervous, but we all managed to recite our pieces to our maximum abilities. Much to our surprise, we had gotten into the final round which takes place in Beijing. Through this experience, I believe I have improved a lot in speaking and look forward to (maybe) going to Beijing to truly challenge my abilities and improve even more.

Jamie NGAI [07C05M]:
Overall, I think I tried my best and I accepted the challenge. I was also very nervous before I recited my poem because it is my 1st time doing it. Even Though I got a Trophy and 2 certificates, I could also have done better. I A challenging thing for me was making my actions natural. It has been a great experience. I would like to thank my family for encouraging and supporting me, but most of all to Ms Kathryn To and my Chinese tutor for helping me and telling me what I have to improve on. I really appreciate all of you, if any of you didn’t support me, I wouldn’t have done as well as what I did in the performance.

Yumi HORIBA [10R09M] :
It was the first time I have ever done a speech contest and was a great experience. I found out that hard work really pays off. I am looking forward to the second round in Beijing on August.

Carissa WONG [10U06M]
When I first heard about the competition I thought it was impossible for me. Then I thought this was an amazing opportunity for me and I should step out of my comfort zone. When the day finally came I was so shocked to have even passed the first round of the competition, I was so happy and surprised to hear that I won the gold prize and had an opportunity to go to Beijing to continue with my efforts. After experiencing this I felt so proud and grateful my teacher gave me this opportunity.