I judged a speech contest yesterday, it wasn't as mind-rottingly dull as I remembered it last year. I struggled to stay focused during the first half of robotic recitations but that was only because the first four where genuinely interested so as to make others pretty hard work by comparison.
A large percentage of the speeches entailed the usual topics that students either choose out of lack of any better ideas or have had pushed upon them by their teachers. Most of them follow the whole internationalisation/ international understanding rhetoric that they assume the judges (me) like to here. Which would be fine if they could be more original in content. Well, they're only kids.
The afternoon presented some better speeches in the end. One girl cried during her speech, I wanted to give her full marks for being one of the few students to put any genuine emotion in to what she was saying, which is rare. However, I couldn't understand what she said through her sobs. Poor girl.
In end it was good, however in the end the competitors are allowed to ask/ interrogate the Judges for advice. There were a few awkward moments.
No comments:
Post a Comment