International Students

International Student Public Speaking Competition 

On Monday night last week, I was proud to take part in a public speaking competition as a finalist. Five high schools participated in the competition: Thornbury; Macleod; Bendigo, Viewbank and our Northcote high school. This year, again, we were proud to be a host to welcome students and their parents from the other schools. 

It was my first time taking part in the competition since I came to Australia, and I was excited about it. Before the speech, Mr. Ramsay told my friend and me to guide the competitors and their parents from the other schools to the venue. I was nervous because I’m the first person to do the speech, my heart missed a beat when I walked up to the stage and saw my friends and my teachers cheering for me. I decided to smile and start to talk. I thought because of my nervousness, I was not talking fluently but luckily it was not too bad. After my speech, everybody applauded and I was relieved to get it off one's chest. 

At the end of the competition, we had a very good time together, made friends, took photos and thanked Miss Hill for preparing a lot of good food for us. Although I was not the winner, I also had a good time and gained valuable experience to be calmer and practice to improve pronunciation and content for next year (if I have the opportunity). I hope there will be more competitions like this so that I and my friends can have a knowledge playground to make friends and learn.

~Chloe Year 10