from PAGE to STAGE – an S4 Public Speaking Programme

With the belief that one who speaks more eloquently in English can have more opportunities in local and global arenas, three S4 students (4B Amreet-Kaur, 4C Grace Tsang, 4D Sharon Ho) stepped onto the stage of their first territory-wide public speaking contest at Peninsula Hotel on 23 May, 2022. With much excitement, we are glad to announce that 4C Grace Tsang has been chosen as one of the finalists and is going to compete in the final contest at the same venue on 19 June, 2022.

Entering the semi-final of the “21st Century Cup” National English Speaking Competition (Hong Kong Region) organized by China Daily, the three semi-finalists had undergone a series of training sessions and selection procedures before they flared in the local arena.

In December, all S4 students learnt writing a persuasive speech in class, and attended two zoom workshops in January and February learning public speaking skills hosted by professional public speakers from VDO English before each of them submitting a video of their speech to their English teachers for selecting the best 24 performances to China Daily to choose the semi-finalists.

The experiences gained by our contestants are like the topic of their speeches: “Not ordinary, but extraordinary”. The three students have shared their feelings about taking part in the competition below.

“Joining a public speaking competition for the first time, I had a great experience and got to learn a lot about public speaking. Now that I have known the feeling of speaking in front of the judges and the camera; it will be easier for me to speak in public in future. Although I didn’t win the competition, I am still happy I joined it and will continue to join other public speaking competitions in future. This competition is a great opportunity for me to learn and gain exposures to public speaking.”
Amreet-Kaur 4B

I am honoured to have joined this competition. The topic of our speech is “Not Ordinary, but Extraordinary”. It widened my horizons to see how everyone can be special. The favourite line from my speech is, “Please, don’t think that you’re a nobody, you may be inspiring others too in ways you’ve never ever expected”. Even though we may seem ‘ordinary’ on the outside, we still have our own uniqueness and we can make great influences to the people around us, and we are all worth being called extraordinary. It was a memorable experience for me and I’ll never regret joining this extraordinary competition.
Grace Tsang 4C

I consider this a great opportunity for me to confidently convey the values that I believe in and practise the presentation skills learnt during the workshops. I also got to respond to a follow-up question from the adjudicators without any preparation; that trained me to think more quickly on the spot. Not only is this an effective way to learn, but it’s also fun. Overall speaking, it is a valuable experience in helping me conquer stage fright and learn how to interact with my audience more effectively. Of course, there is room for improvement; yet, as I’ve also reminded myself in my speech, “improvement is always possible – and it’s important not for popularity, but for us to be a better person”.
Sharon Ho 4D