English Contests

This year Yeongcheon had two English contests for the students: a skit contest and a speech contest. Each school in Yeongcheon sends one entry to each contest, the students must perform on a stage in front of an audience of their peers and then answer an "interview" question to test actual English comprehension, since the skit and speech largely show off memorization.

Since my school is one of the largest middle schools in Yeongcheon, and considered an English leader and example school, the principal had high expectations, and for each contest most of the English staff had to stay after school for hours practicing. But the real admiration should be saved for the kids who participated, who practiced endlessly in all their free time. We shared cheap dinners crowded around a table in the English office, flashlight-lit trips to the bathroom in the dark, deserted school, hours of practice interview questions, and even a few occasions of stress-induced silliness. Although I got pretty tired of, say, drilling the same questions over and over and hearing the same speech dozens of times a day, I really enjoyed the chance to get close to a few special students, all of whom are funny, sweet, hard-working and energetic.

This was probably one of the more memorable experiences I had here and definitely an interesting time. While there are things I could complain about regarding the actual contests (some schools' lack of appropriate preparation, an atmosphere too heavily focused on winning, memorization without comprehension, technical difficulties, etc.), I think it was a good experience for the students too and helped form some friendships that probably wouldn't have occured otherwise, as between the mix of 1st and 2nd graders shown above (A-hyun, Je-Gyung, Yoo-jin, Jenny, and Bo-ram).

More photos after the cut.

The play contest students practice in the auditorium. Our play was about plastic surgery. All the plays had to have a theme related to Korean culture or school, etc. I chose this script out of several, most of which were unbearably preachy and corny.

Je-Gyung plays the main character, a girl who wants plastic surgery so she can be popular in school. Bo-ram plays her mother, complete with stereotypical adjuma permed wig and apron.

The girls practice their pronunciation in front of a mirror. Some difficult words: old, wall, beautiful, plastic surgery, and Waltz, the name of the main character.

Practicing outdoors in semi-costume. We had to switch aprons to an easier one in order to facilitate Bo-ram's quick change. She doubled as post-surgery Waltz in a nightmare which ultimately convinces Waltz not to get plastic surgery. I told you it was corny.

The newly happy and popular Waltz celebrates her friendships.

Plus requisite group jump. I couldn't get a good mid-air photo, though, cause my camera is slow.

Nervously waiting on the morning of the contest. The girls didn't go to class that day. They just practiced the skit a few dozen more times!

Waiting outside the Citizens' Center. Each school was allowed to send a portion of their students to fill the audience. The number of students allowed to go was based on the school's size. Our school filled a third of the auditorium. Here's three of our school's classes milling around. A little intimidating!

We won first place at the contest. The big prize was a trip to Jeju Island English Camp for the girls. In case you didn't know, Jeju Island is a popular resort island in the south sea off Korea. It's one of the most beautiful places in Korea with the best weather and a trip there is considered very lucky.

Our certificate.

The school put up a sign commemorating the win.

Park Hye-eun practicing for the speech contest. As soon as the skit contest ended, practice for the speech contest began. The theme was "Yeongcheon or Korean Culture." Every school wrote about Yeongcheon (a very limited topic) except ours. I asked if we could please not choose that boring, over-done topic. So Hye-eun wrote a speech on Unification. She practiced it dozens of times a day, listened to a video of me reciting the speech for hours in order to mimic my pronunciation and rhythm, and practiced long lists of interview questions.

I didn't get a chance to take pictures during the contest, but long story short, we won that one too. Same prize. Afterwards, we went to eat a celebratory meal of fried chicken with all the students together as well as the English staff.

(Ms. Kwon Eun-hee, me, Yoo-jin, Hye-eun, Bo-ram, Mr. Lim Je-hwa, A-hyun, Jenny, Je-gyung, Miss Seo Hye-jin, and Mrs. Oh Mi-young)

Eating fried chicked! Many delicious flavors.

Hye-eun got a bouquet for winning the contest, which she insisted I take. I told her it was HER speech that won, not anything I did, but she felt bad about interrupting my internet time with interview practice, I guess! I told her not to worry about it. It's my job, after all!

Another celebratory dinner, this time with bulgogi. The girls excitedly discussed what they would do on Jeju, their different fears and experiences during the contests, and the stories of late-night bathroom runs. Also, Kim Jong-Il's death, which was announced to the public on this day.

On the day before Christmas Eve, the girls surprised us with a congratulatory cake.

And a congrulatory song. I wish I'd been able to take a video.

The cake again.

Eating cake with chopsticks. Makes kind of a mess, but decently effective.