The Inter-School English Speaking Contest 2005

Champion goes to Cheung Chuk Shan College AGAIN

Hong Kong Youth and Tertiary Students Association (HKYTSA) has been devoted to serving Hong Kong students since it's established in 1993. Promoting English speaking and arousing secondary students' awareness to English are missions of Hong Kong Youth and Tertiary Students Association. In order to create more opportunities to secondary students to practice English speaking, HKYTSA continues to organize the second Inter-School English Speaking Contest on 19 th November 2005.

2008 Olympics is going to take place in Beijing, China. As Chinese, we are definitely and surely proud to hear that. For this Olympics, “One World One Dream” is the theme, which aims to promote world peace. In order to let Hong Kong students know more about the Olympics and get involved into this international activity, HKYTSA decided to choose “One World One Dream” as the theme of our contest. On behalf of HKYTSA, promoting English speaking and creating a platform for all Hong Kong students to improve English are always our dreams. In the future, we not only keep this dream, but also try all means to make them come true.

This year it was a great honor for us to have six honorable judges. They are Mr. Arthur Ting (President, The Hong Kong Toastmasters Club), Mr. Cheung Wai Ho Barnabas (Immediately Past Governor, Division H, Hong Kong Toastmaster Club), Ms. Karen Ting (Assistant Division H & K Governor in Youth Leadership Program), Mr. Kwan Yurk Keung (Committee member & CEO of Hexie HK Foundation), Mr. Robert Gregory Chan (Barrister at Law) and Ms. Scarlett Pong Oi Lan (Chief Executive Officer, Health Quotient HQ Int'l Institute Ltd). In terms of number of participants, there were more secondary schools participating in this contest comparing with last year. In 2005 there are 22 representatives in total. They are from Cheung Chuk Shan College, Diocesan Girls' School, Ho Lap College, Holy Family Canossian College, La Salle College, Pui Ching Middle School, Pui Kiu Middle School, Queen Elizabeth School, Sacred Heart Canossian College, Sha Tim Government Secondary School, St. Francis Xavier's School (Tsuen Wan), St. Mark's School, St. Mary's Canossian College, St. Paul's Co-Educational College, St. Paul's Convent School, St. Stephen's Church College, St. Francis Canossian College, Tsuen Wan Government Secondary School, Workers' Children Secondary School and Hong Kong Secondary School Gavel Club.

The contest consists of two parts, prepared speech and impromptu speech. In the first part, all 22 contestants vividly presented their various viewpoints on the topic “One World One Dream”, for instance, doing dramas. They were sometimes very formal and serious to bring out some messages to audience while sometimes they had sense of humor to deliver a funny story that made audience laugh. Their excellent performance gained a lot of applause. After 22 prepared speeches, eight contestants who gained the highest marks were selected into the final round. In the second part, the final eight contestants had to draw a new topic for their impromptu speeches. They only had one minute to prepare and then gave the speech. Despite the challenging topic and limited time for preparation, the eight contestants did very good job. They were calm and confident.

After a three-hour competition, the result was released and the details are as follow:

Champion Lo Ho Wan Mandy (Cheung Chuk Shan College)

1 st Runner-up Chim Chi Kuen Hugo (Ho Lap College)

2 nd Runner-up Li Chong Ngan (St. Paul's School (Lam Tin))

They all can get the total prizes worth HK$5,000.

Promoting English speaking and arousing secondary students' awareness to English not only are the dreams of HKYTSA, but also are our missions that we will work hard on. In order to make our missions and dreams come true, HKYTSA will continue to hold more English speaking workshops and activities for all secondary students.