The past two weeks was filled with differing activities and one among the highlights is my learning from serving as chief judge of a regional speech contest organized by SEAMEO RIHED and MHESI ka.
Altogether there were 8 contestants from 6 from participating ASEAN countries+ Japan and Korea while there were 9 judges (1 ASEAN country decided not to nominate a judge ka)
I've been judge a few times but this was the first to be regional. The theme was, 'Promoting Caring and Sharing through Mobility'. The prepared speech was followed by an impromptu which gave contestants 15 minutes each to get ready.
I learned about the overall project as follows ka;
- To organize a regional speech contest is demanding in terms of detailed preparation of the participating countries and much more by the organizers to make sure the process is clear and fair ka. Even the impromptu topics, I was the only one assigned to think of them so the judges could choose and then our Thai judge in the meeting room helped print out for contestants to draw the lots....I couldn't talk to any of them about it at all. Several staff members had to man the room to make sure the info was communicated and each was timed to have a 15-minute prep.
- The contestants were selected according to each country's management and I was quite sure they had a certain degree of readiness and confidence....it wasn't so ka. One delivered it with pauses and even with keywords on her little note, she had a hard time. It was tough on her and so was on the audience.
Then, one contestant shouted, 'You can do it!' It broke the silence and filled the room in with positive energy and spirit sent to the contestant instead....from a friend not a competitor. She managed to finish it and because no judges asked any question, I had to! So I began with some encouraging words to her before giving her my question. She responded beautifully with much less stress and hesitation ka. Wow! and she did nicely for her impromptu one! In fact, all judges agreed that the impromptu round was much more fun when they were more of their own selves.
- One contestant showed real positive intercultural attitude sharing her stories going to Vietnam to enjoy the kindness of people which was totally different from what she heard and read. Even when her documents and US$ were stolen when she was in Laos, she retained her good feelings and said she wanted to go back visit ka!
I also loved it when she said she started comparing what she was exposed to her own country and realized that her country had some great strengths she took it for granted.
For me, this is the real benefit of mobility ka.
- A popular vote using mentimeter worked so all in the audience were engaged. It turned out the one who was most popular was the winner too (unlike most beauty pageants mai ka?)
- Talking about beauty contests, I sought the agreement of all the judges to make it a safer and more pleasant platform with recognition to all.
There were only 4 categories....meaning all were winners....5 third runnners-up, and 3 finalists who were second, first and the winner. What was different from the regular beauty contest announcement was that the first runner-up was announced for the audience to give the person recognition before going to the winner.
The judges and many said such a contest should be organized annually to give more learning, sharing, networking opportunities to the young gen! I couldn't agree more ka.
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