13 July 2010

IPC Annual Speech Contest

by Moira Blake

(group): Justifiably proud: all the contestants with all the judges, Wayne Edwards, Neil Bond, Bridget Percy, and Tina Sims (front row) and the organiser Donal Crawford (back row). Photo taken after the contest was over.

Twenty-two students were brave enough to stand up in front of their teachers and peers and present their speeches, poems and ideas at the recent Annual Speech Contest. Most were not native speakers of English, and organiser, Donal Crawford, Assistant Dean (ESOL), commented that it was great to see the success of last year's first speech contest continued. He was delighted by the response of the students and the level of their achievement and congratulated all of them. There were four judges, three IPC staff members and guest judge, Tina Sims, Principal of Awatapu College. Speaking for all the judges, Ms Sims commented that speech making is not easy even for a native speaker, and also commended all the speakers.

The students competed in one of four categories, with native speakers and Foundation students having separate categories. All speakers could choose to present either an original monologue on the topic “A New World” or a non-original speech. They were judged primarily on their ability to communicate their ideas to the audience, rather than the absolute accuracy of their English.

Those who chose the original monologue interpreted the topic of “A New World” in a wide range of interesting ways, making the job of the judges very hard. The non-original entries also covered a wide range, with the winner delivering an impressive rendering of Barack Obama’s “Yes, I can” acceptance speech and the runner-up giving a magnificent reading of a children’s story. All the speakers succeeded in holding their audience with a variety of topics, both entertaining and thought provoking. The winners come from a variety of countries, as can be seen from the photos below.

Left to right: Guest judge, Tina Sims with Category 1 winners Phan Linh NGUYEN, Terava ATGER, Jonathan WUHRLIN, and IPC President, Wayne Edwards

Winner of Category 1, Phan Linh NGUYEN

Category 1 Winners Original Monologue (Non-native speakers only):

1st Phan Linh NGUYEN (Vietnam)

2nd Mariana Teravatureiariki (Terava) ATGER (French Polynesia)

3rd Jonathan WUHRLIN (French Polynesia)

Left to right: Tina Sims, Category 2 winners Wilda RIBKA, Kanami MURAMUTSU, Thuy Duong QUACH), and IPC President, Wayne Edwards

Winner of Category 2, Wilda RIBKA

Category 2 Non-original Monologue (Non-native speakers only):

1st Wilda RIBKA (Indonesia)

2nd Kanami MURAMUTSU (Japan)

3rd Thuy Duong (Sammie) QUACH (Vietnam)

Category 3 winners: with Tina Sims (far left) and IPC President Wayne Edwards, Hitomi KAWAGUCHI (1st Japan), Kohei WADA (2nd Japan), Anh Minh NGUYEN (3rd Vietnam)

Winner in Category 3, Hitomi Kawaguchi

Category 3 Foundation Students (Non-native speakers at IPC for less than a year, speaking as for either Category 1 or Category 2):

1st Hitomi KAWAGUCHI (Japan)

2nd Kohei WADA (Japan)

3rd Anh Minh NGUYEN (Vietnam)

Category 4 Native speakers, speaking as for either Category 1 or Category 2

Due to the small number of entries, only one prize was awarded. It went to Hannah Kane (New Zealand). Note – we do have students from Australia and Britain.

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