Judge O
I was recently invited to be a judge at the First Santai English Teacher’s English Speaking Contest. Yeah, it doesn’t really roll off the tongue, eh? In fact, despite this being the First, I was a judge at a very similar if somewhat smaller contest last spring. Previously the field of eight contestants wrapped up around noon but the recent contest fielded thirty-two entrants from around the county and looked to be an all day affair.
A week or so prior I was a judge at an internal school contest where four teachers vied for two positions. A bit uncomfortable, I wish I could have passed on that one since even though I was just one judge I can’t help but feel a bit awkward when discussing it later with those that were passed over. Instead I tried to focus on helping those that were selected to represent our school. The first part of the contest would be a prepared speech so that was the easiest thing to help them with. Since the time leading up to the contest was going to be busy for all of us I decided a good way to help him would be to read the speech they had prepared and record it as an mp3, (m-p-san they insist on calling it. Despite it being to English letters and a number they not only don’t think to pronounce it as m-p-3 but they think it quite funny when I do.), so they could listen and speak along at their leisure. It turned out that the prepared speech portion was just a small part but also integral in advancing to the next stage as the field was pared down to twelve. I was pretty proud that both of my teachers advanced.
Just as China has an incredible disparity between the richest rich and the poorest poor so to did this contest have an epic disparity between the best speakers and the, um, others.
The contest lurched and climbed with topics as varied as ‘All Work and No Play Makes a Doll Boy’ and ‘What is Love?’. Of course, Doll Boy turned out to be a typo but still a pretty well delivered speech. Since the morning was the speech portions of the contest all thirty-two contestants had an opportunity to speak. The scoring was based on the delivery and pronunciation and as scores were collected soon after a contestant finished it was nearly impossible to get a benchmark in order to decide what was a fair score. I suspect I graded rather low. The general enthusiasm of the teachers to show their spoken English skills was uplifting but the occasional topicthat delved into ‘America Sucks and Stop The War’ did lose a point or two for the topic matter regardless of whether or not I agree.
I was joined on the Judges Panel by Jason, a Canadian, eh? He lives in a small town, (but bigger than Santai), somewhere in the county. He couldn’t find it on a map. It was nice to have a fellow round-eye to chat with a bit. In the audience was Jarl, an Australian of Norwegian descent he was in support of his girlfriend who finished in the top ten.
By lunch the pool of contestants had been trimmed to a much more reasonable ten. If it sounds like having thirty-two was some cross to bear let me just add that it was an honor to be asked to judge. Additionally, it means that there was somewhere near a hundred teachers thoughout the county that competed to be one of the thirty-two and that is just great for encouraging their spoken English skills and will no doubt have boost to their confidence resulting in better teaching. I hope. It wasn’t such a burden to have so many as it was to have to listen to them through typically shitty Chinese acoustics. Just like every KTV bar, (Karaoke TV, baby!), and just about every other microphone you’ll ever find turned on in China they tweak up the reverb. Couple that with a tendency to put the thing in their mouths and you can see how the morning seemed to drag.
There were three activities arranged for the afternoon that all twelve contestants would participate in; a question selected at random with thirty seconds to prepare an answer and two(?) minutes to deliver it, a picture selected at random that they would then elaborate on with the same time limits and a round-table intended to showcase them interacting in English with each other on a preselected topic. I think. It seemed the last group really had the idea, having seen the two that preceded it have battles for the mike time as each contestant tried to show that their English was the best. The pictures were a complete crapshoot and it really was a make a break for a couple of teachers. Selecting a difficult picture was a tough corner to come out of for more than a few. Between these rounds we, and the audience, were updated to the standings which I found both odd and convenient. It made it quite easy to throw points at a favorite or to knock somebody down. See also, guanxi. Some of the questions were pretty obtuse but the winner went to a male teacher who drew, ‘If I Could be a Little Girl Again…’ to the approval of the audience.
The audience really cam in to play in the late round not so much by affecting the judges but by boosting the confidence of the teacher who taught at that school. She finished strong and her students were delighted. As for Tai Zhong? Both of our teachers finished in the top three.
Hooray!
