English Host Competition

Students and schools in China are very fond of competitions. Just this past week there was a translation competition, a career competition, an English singing competition, and a host competition. For a country who likes everyone to be the same and equal in almost all aspects of life, they certainly like pushing their kids to work as hard as they can to be the best of the best, beat everyone else around them, and win.

Last week, one of my students asked me if I was available to judge the English Host Competition next Friday (last night). I had heard about this competition and read about it on Olivia's blog (right here!!) so I was happy to agree to it. They needed two foreign teachers to be the judges so it was decided that Adam and I would be the judges (I kind of feel that, based off of the popularity of us together, it was more of a publicity stunt). So we put on our best Simon Cowell faces and prepared ourselves for a night of entertainment.

The competition had thirteen people participating, each of them had some kind of performance or presentation. Some pretended to be news anchors or TV personnel while others made up their own award show or travel shows (those were very popular). Some of the performances were excellent--one student presented the Academy Awards and was both the host and the Oscar winners where he imitated actual celebrities (complete with slightly offensive accents)--and others were a bit difficult to sit through--especially when they had to read their script off of a piece of paper :-/

Round One was their presentations. They could be on any topic and they were scored on things such as pronunciation, stage presence, fluency, timing, the actual content of their presentation, and then the Q&A from the judges. I won't lie--it was a bit intimidating knowing that I had to come up with questions based specifically on their presentation and word it in a way that they could understand and answer (luckily there was a Chinese professor who was one of the other judges [four of us altogether] and he always had something to say). They took all of our scores from round one and they decided the eight competitors that would go onto round two.

Two of my favorites--Academy Awards and Miss World Contest

Round Two was impressive to me. It was all about improv. They were given a certain scenario like hosting a TV or music show or reporting the news and things would go wrong--the lights would go out, the singer would be late, people would walk in front of them or bump into them--and it was up to them to keep going. I have to say, I would not have been able to do this... and English is my first language! Improv and thinking on your toes is extremely difficult--especially on stage in front of an audience, when you are being watched and judged, in your second (and sometimes third) language. 

One of the great improv groups interviewing a crazy actor

At one point during the improv section, two of the students were hosting a concert but the singer was late! So what do they do? PSH! Pull Adam up on stage with them!! To fill the time before the singer arrived, they somehow convinced Adam to sing a song for them... What song did he choose, you ask? Why the most American song you could think of: Take Me Out to the Ballgame. I was dying of laughter but I did manage to support him and sing along near the end.

 [If you are wondering, YES I did get a video of it... however, I am choosing to not disclose it as of right now. Can anyone say blackmail?!?]

 In the end, six winners were chosen. After the judges deliberated and offered our final thoughts on the competition (nothing but positive things to say, of course!), we chose 1st place, 2nd place, 3rd place, most creative, best pronunciation, and most entertaining. We had winners who presented on Thailand and India,  Best Roommate Awards, The Academy Awards, and the Miss World Competition. I really think that everyone did a very good job--it can be scary standing up in front of an audience and perform... and even scarier if it isn't in your native language! It was my first time working with the students outside of the classroom and my first public appearance at a school function (since we still haven't had the Sports Meeting and the current typhoon down south is making that look like a nonentity still) and I am really glad that I did it.

I think that last night was the first time that I really felt like a teacher on the campus. Of course I've been teaching my classes for almost 10 weeks now and we are right in the middle of mid-terms. But there was something about being asked to watch the students and judge them that... I don't know... made me feel way more grown up than anything else that I've done in China! Kind of silly when you think about it but I really enjoyed it and I hope I get to do it again in the future.

Until Next Time,
Amanda

PS- As thanks for taking the time out to attend the competition (on a Friday mind you!), the students bought all the judges gifts. I've been warned that the gifts can be a bit random and bizarre... I got a glass shoe filled with pickled vegetables... LOVE IT.