Tonight was the speech competition and since it was the first of its kind that I have been to, I thought it was pretty interesting. I was told to be there at 6:30 pm though the speeches didn't start until 7:00. I spent the time chatting with other students and judges and wishing I had brought some papers to grade. Evans had dramatic music playing in the background and was busy getting everything ready to go. This included putting a red velvet tablecloth on the desk where the judges were sitting, handing out our complimentary gifts (a strange ceramic elfin doll) and water, and explaining (and translating) the evaluation forms.
There were to be 14 speeches with a singing performance mid-way through the competition. We were to judge according to their personal introduction, content and clarity of speech and response to a question. Unfortunately, the judges were not allowed to ask a question of our choice, we had to pick from a list which I suspect had also been given to the competitors to prepare for. Each speech lasted for about two minutes and included topics such as "ambition", "work and man", "friendship", "don't look back", "how to say future", "Shanghai Expo" and "Beijing Olympics." There was a wide range of performance styles and abilities and I actually had a good time watching and listening to the students. Some of them were students I had had last semester and some of them were my current students. I was especially entertained by the fact that the other judges (all Chinese) were intensely curious about the scores that I was giving to the contestants and were constantly sneaking peeks at my evaluation sheet.
The whole experience was pretty entertaining and was fairly well-run and organized and I wouldn't mind being a judge for another competition for this year's festival or for the next year's event as well.
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