Speech Competition

On December 1st, I participated in a Mandarin Chinese speech competition. I had signed up, not in hopes of winning, but rather to build my vocabulary, practice speaking Chinese, and continue in the Rotary way of becoming even better in future speaking engagements.

I was given a list of eight topics which I could choose from when I signed up, all having to do with Taiwan or Rotary International! My topic was "Why I chose to come to Taiwan for language study?" Writing my answer to this question came easy.  I am passionate about my desire to learn the Chinese language and it is one of the reasons I chose Taiwan for exchange!  However, translating this into Chinese, with the help of my teacher, and learning the pronounciation and meaning of each sentence, was incredibly difficult. There were a couple of times during my speech preparation that I questioned my desire to come Taiwan and learn this incredibly difficult language - which may not be the hardest language to learn, but quite possibly is one of THE hardest languages to learn in the world! Ha! The passion I have to learn and speak Chinese has paid off!

My speech went smoothly, although I was just a bit nervous! I was competing against foreigners from all over the world and also Rotary Youth Exchange students in Taiwan! I didn't place 1st, 2nd, or 3rd.  However, the judges and audience members told me my pronunciation was impeccable and they thought my content was great. What an honor!  I won 600NTD for my effort. This will buy me a a couple days of MRT rides and a treat - which is nice!

I am so glad I entered this competition and cannot wait for the next competition so that I can see my improvement!