PUBLIC SPEAKING COMPETITION REGIONAL LEVEL #1

Trip Down Memory Lane #1

PUBLIC SPEAKING COMPETITION REGIONAL LEVEL

In this Trip Down Memory Lane post, I would like to share a significant memory where had cultivated my love for public speaking and sharing ideas. This set back to 14^th of June 2011 where I was selected to represent my school in a Regional Public Speaking Competition held by District Education Offices Kulim (Pejabat Pelajaran Daerah Kulim). The competition was held at SMK Taman Kenari, Kulim, Kedah.

I am writing this with my eight-years memory of the event. LOL

Arrival

I arrived at the place of the competition with my English teacher maybe half an hour before the competition start as the school where the competition is held is not that far from my school.

We had breakfast then head to the briefings around 8.30am.

Briefings

There I was, first time stepping into the battle hall. The place of wits and words. I can feel the butterflies in my stomach. I feel like my gut is exploding throughout the briefing.

The rules were explained (I cannot recall the rules) and we were informed of the sections in the competition. There were two main parts, which were, first, our own speech, that we had prepared before the competition, and the second part is the impromptu speech. I was not briefed by my teacher about the impromptu part and my mind went all over the place hearing those conditions.

Part 1

My turn was maybe around the sixth or seventh person among 15 to 20 contestant. We had to be quarantined during both sessions. During the quarantine period, all I rememberd was silence. It was like being in a deadly place. I could smell the sense of anxiousness in the atmosphere. All the contestant kept to themselves. Some sat there looking out the window looking for something to comfort them, while me, I kept reading, memorizing my text non-stop but the reality was, none of the words can comfort me anymore. I was defeated by anxiety, nervousness and forgetfulness. I just prayed that the judges would cut me some slack.

One by one the contestants leave the quarantine room and hit for the stage. We were able to see others once we finished our turn. When it was my turn, I could feel all hell break loose, I could not cover my nervous face anymore. Annnnndddd I forgot half of my speech.

I could not even reach half of my 3 pages’ speech. There were 2 bell rings, after the first bell rang, I only had about a minute to wrap up my speech. All the contestants were given around 12 to 15 minutes each for the first round.

After I finished my turn, I went to my seat in the crowd to see other participant’s speeches. I was feeling so low at that point.

Part 2

After a lunch break, it was time for our second session, the impromptu speech.

All the participants were quarantine once again, and this time we were given about 4 minutes to prepare. So the committees showed the topic of our speech privately to the contestant and we only prepared for 4 minutes. 

I remembered the topic given to me was, “if you could go back in time, what would you change”.  The topic caught me off guard as I was not prepare for that. All I remembered was talking about how I would change my WATCH. Yeah, my watch. It was horrible, I know. After my turn was over, I sat down with my teacher and watch others present their impromptu speech.

In the end, I didn’t win. Of course. But, those moments have taught me a lot. It taught me to be brave, witty, spontaneous and have literacy in English.

That is my memory of my first Public Speaking Competition, during my university years, we done a lot of Public Speaking and I came along way from the day I stepped on the hall at the competition being held.

Stay tune for next post for my speech I delivered during the competition!

Sayonara