Judging Division A Speech Contest－六星級傷心酒店

Judging Division A Speech Contest

Sammy

I was invited to judge in Div. A speech contest again this year. Last year I went with Kevin, and this year I went with Andy. It was a very educational experience. Judging while training our Div. E contestant.

They had some really good speeches. They were the same speakers as last year, Sammy Su and Lester Lin. Our new friend Victoria Wang, president of China Trust TMC, won the second place in the speech contest.

Sammy's champion speech had a very strong performance. Her ability as a speaker evolved for the past year. I thought her speech was presented in a Div. contest with a national stage level. Totally impressive.

Although I still have some critical thoughts regarding her speech, I would keep them to myself for the time being. We can discuss it again after we all watch the contest DVD later.

The speakers were all really strong. I really enjoyed the contest.

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The table topic for the contest was,

"What was your worst experience in life? How did you handle it?"

Lester continued his previous speech tone and told his second worst experience. So within 1-2 minutes, he got to tell one story about the accident that almost killed his son, and another story about his childhood accident while jumping off the diving board that broke his head.

Thomas borrowed Victoria's speech and implied that he has not been a good father, and won the third place.

The reaon why I mentioned these two examples is that somehow it is not fair to have an extended speech built on the previous speech contest. Using a previous speech as a common knowledge is so convenient in conveying the speaker's idea that seems to be so unfair for the 1-2 minute constraint.

Obviously, the judges couldn't see past the myth.

However, they invited 7 judges with half male and half female conbination. It just seemed a lot more fair than the judge arrangement in our division contest.

Advice for our division: Working on something solid and meaningful inside is much more important than something beautiful and colorful outside.

白話: ㄧ個比賽最重要的是裁判，opening show 或是 judge comments 都是沒靈魂的畫蛇添足。

If a contest organizer can not comprehend this simple principle then they are a failure.

(唉! B 型人的老實話！)

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The most fun part being an audience in a table topic contest is to form your own answer.

Sammy's answer:

As a drama queen, it is difficult for me to identify one single worst experience. Because they all feel like the worst situation to me each time when a drama happened to me. When I was all dressed up and had my hair done for the toastmasters Christmas party 2004.

I was the host for the party. Just as I was to leave the house, I discovered that the lock on the metal door to my house was stuck. I could not open the door. To make the matter worse, I had to climb through a tiny window in my way-too-tight dress. It looked very looked scary because outside the window was a messy bush. Luckily, my husband climbed out first and cut down the bush for me so I could climb out easily.

I was lucky. Because in most of my panic crisises, I didn't really have to handle them. I have a loving husband to handle all of my worst situations for me. I guess the way I deal with my bad experiences is to marry a crisis manager to handle them for me.

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