Yesterday, after hours slaving away practicing and practicing, it was show time. The speech contest had begun. I gave my student, with whom I had spent so much free time preparing for the big day, as best of a pep talk as I could muster. I told her to pretend that the rest of the audience was not there, and that she was just speaking to me. She was ready. I was probably more nervous than she was.
I'll spare you from hearing about the extreme amount of blah, blah, blah welcoming remarks from teachers and big wigs in the education system here. Let's fast-forward, shall we? The first student in the contest approached the microphone and as she began to speak, I instantly knew I need not worry, since her gestures were beyond over the top. Sorry, dear, but no one in the English-speaking world does an interpretive dance to accompany their speech. I became more and more relaxed as the speakers presented, some of the poor kids forgetting lines here and there and others making the same mistake of accompanying their dialogue with spazzy, unnatural gestures.
Then, my face grew cold and I broke into a sweat. My student was about to present the speech which I had spent so much time editing. It was show time. I froze to the spot, rooted in suspense as she spoke each line, unable to relax until the last word of her perfectly-memorized speech left her mouth.
I Beamed as She walked Offstage, Knowing That She Blew the Other Contestants out of the Water. Relief WAS My short-lived, However, WHEN the Next contestant Began to Speak with Hardly any accent About an Extremely personal and Emotional topic. Uh-oh . The last student also had me worried, as the content of his speech was extremely pertinent and entertaining and he delivered it with natural ease and gestures.
Following the section with students reciting speeches that they themselves had penned came the recitation section where students chose a speech or story written by someone else. Most of these speeches were light-hearted versions of princess stories like Cinderella and Snow White. However, there were a Couple of sad ones Sprinkled in, like The Happy Prince , My favorite Bittersweet Tale Written by Oscar Wilde The speech contest Concluded with literally one of the MOST depressing Stories I've ever heard;. a true Tale About three Elephants That Were Starved to Intentionally death at a Tokyo Zoo. BECAUSE of the war, Bombs Were Being dropped on Tokyo daily, and the Government did not Want to Risk Dangerous Animals escaping. Read the full Story, Faithful Elephants, by Clicking here . It IS a Serious Tearjerker. Wow, and here I thought they would conclude the speeches with an upper, not a speech that made me want to get a Zoloft prescription.
So, fast forward to the results. I could feel my heart racing in my chest as the woman stepped up to read the results. First she announced the 5th, 4th, and 3rd place winners. My student was not mentioned. I knew at that moment that she had to be in the top two. The runner up was not my student either. She WON first place, and I could not suppress my squeal of delight. I finally knew what it was like to be so amazingly proud as a teacher . Afterwards, her family thanked me profusely and took some photos of me with their daughter. Back at school, one of her other teachers bowed at me and told me it was because of me that she won.
Now on to the next contest!
I'll spare you from hearing about the extreme amount of blah, blah, blah welcoming remarks from teachers and big wigs in the education system here. Let's fast-forward, shall we? The first student in the contest approached the microphone and as she began to speak, I instantly knew I need not worry, since her gestures were beyond over the top. Sorry, dear, but no one in the English-speaking world does an interpretive dance to accompany their speech. I became more and more relaxed as the speakers presented, some of the poor kids forgetting lines here and there and others making the same mistake of accompanying their dialogue with spazzy, unnatural gestures.
Then, my face grew cold and I broke into a sweat. My student was about to present the speech which I had spent so much time editing. It was show time. I froze to the spot, rooted in suspense as she spoke each line, unable to relax until the last word of her perfectly-memorized speech left her mouth.
I Beamed as She walked Offstage, Knowing That She Blew the Other Contestants out of the Water. Relief WAS My short-lived, However, WHEN the Next contestant Began to Speak with Hardly any accent About an Extremely personal and Emotional topic. Uh-oh . The last student also had me worried, as the content of his speech was extremely pertinent and entertaining and he delivered it with natural ease and gestures.
Following the section with students reciting speeches that they themselves had penned came the recitation section where students chose a speech or story written by someone else. Most of these speeches were light-hearted versions of princess stories like Cinderella and Snow White. However, there were a Couple of sad ones Sprinkled in, like The Happy Prince , My favorite Bittersweet Tale Written by Oscar Wilde The speech contest Concluded with literally one of the MOST depressing Stories I've ever heard;. a true Tale About three Elephants That Were Starved to Intentionally death at a Tokyo Zoo. BECAUSE of the war, Bombs Were Being dropped on Tokyo daily, and the Government did not Want to Risk Dangerous Animals escaping. Read the full Story, Faithful Elephants, by Clicking here . It IS a Serious Tearjerker. Wow, and here I thought they would conclude the speeches with an upper, not a speech that made me want to get a Zoloft prescription.
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| NOT THE ELEPHANTS !! |
So, fast forward to the results. I could feel my heart racing in my chest as the woman stepped up to read the results. First she announced the 5th, 4th, and 3rd place winners. My student was not mentioned. I knew at that moment that she had to be in the top two. The runner up was not my student either. She WON first place, and I could not suppress my squeal of delight. I finally knew what it was like to be so amazingly proud as a teacher . Afterwards, her family thanked me profusely and took some photos of me with their daughter. Back at school, one of her other teachers bowed at me and told me it was because of me that she won.
Now on to the next contest!
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