The Provincial “FLTRP Cup English Public Speaking Competition” was held from the 7^th to 8^th of November 2020. United International College (UIC) champions Thomas Lee from ‘Media and Communication Studies’ and Cindy Qiu from ‘Foreign Language and Literature Studies’ impressed the seven judges and the audience to both score highly in a very competitive competition for a China-wide Public Speaking Contest.

‘The FLTRP English Public Speaking Contest’ held on the weekend of the 7^th of 8^th of November 2020 in Dongguan was a great challenge to the contestants; Thomas Lee and Cindy Qiu and they both did UIC and themselves proud.

Cindy Qiu received “2^nd Prize” in the competition, placing her in ‘20^th place’ with a score of ‘87.05’ and Thomas Lee received “3^rd Prize” in the competition, placing him in ‘57^th place’ with a score of ‘84.65’. These were highly impressive scores considering this was Guangdong’s semi-final round of the largest ‘China-based English Speaking Contest’ where Thomas and Cindy had to compete against 143 university champions.

Thomas’ topic was; “Please comment on this proverb: ‘One Flower does not Make a Spring.’ Thomas was on a roll and he was speaking well but failed to qualify because he ended his speech around 20 seconds too early. The contestants are usually harshly penalized for this by the judges. If Thomas had spoken for a full three minutes, he optimistically could have been placed in second place or even in the top 13 for the second round of the competition.

Cindy’s topic was: ‘The year 2020 has been difficult for people all over the world, but it has also given us the time to reflect. Please give your opinion as to how we can change the year for the better.’ Cindy spoke well and reached the allotted time of three minutes, however, she did glance at the screen 3 times to look at the remaining time left which probably made her score a little lower. Cindy remained in the top 12 until halfway through the second part of the competition.

Both Thomas and Cindy did a wonderful job considering the very high level of the contestants spoken English. Thomas and Cindy energized the audience with their eloquent speaking and as mentioned previously the level of competition was high. They both should be immensely proud of themselves for keeping calm and speaking well in a high-stress situation.  

Lisa Huang and Duncan Wood of the English Language Center (ELC) accompanied Thomas and Cindy to Dongguan. Duncan and Lisa both agree that the ‘FLTRP Speech Competition’ is a great chance for students to showcase their ‘English Speaking’ skills and to plan under pressure against some of the best English speakers in China.

Mr. Duncan Wood.

ELC Lecturer and Contestant Supervisor (ELC).