English Competition

When asking if we wanted to compete in the English competition that was held on Wednesday, the Head of School told us there were going to be three other schools all located within the Isan province of Thailand.  We felt those odds were fair and that we could have a solid chance of winning the competition, which was part of the reason why we decided to enter.  However, when we walked into the gymnasium on Wednesday morning there were at least twenty other presentation boards and students were still streaming in.  I'm pretty sure the teacher and I both had a mild heart attack.  After viewing some of the boards, we realized that this competition had many categories, including math, science, scouts, and one other that we still haven't deciphered.

Then it appeared that we had found the three other schools we would be competing against for the category ASEAN Nations- English presentation.  One school had an amazing presentation board and authentic Thai costumes.  They had brought little flags of each ASEAN Nation to set up with their presentation board.  In short, it was well thought out and very professionally done.  However it was all in Thai!  Teacher Dave tried to speak to the group about their project in English and he said that their spoken English was very poor.  So we were hoping that would be a mark in our favor because at least our entire presentation and poster was in English.

The second group did have a board in English and could speak English well enough for them to tell us about themselves and their project.  Then we found out they were M4-M6 students (about 10-12th grade) and our students were only M1 (about 7th grade).  We were a bit nervous that just their age could make them more confident speaking in front of the judges and that their English level would be better.  However, our board was much nice than theirs.  All in all, we had our work cut out for us if we wanted to win the English competition and move onto the next level.

Ours was the first group to be judged.  The kids did a great job; they were animated and expressive with hand gestures and facial expressions.  After the speech, the judges told us that we were the winners!  Turns out that the group with the board all in Thai was competing in a different competition about ASEAN Nations and they were not in our category.  The group of M4-M6 students was in a different division because of their age. So our group won and is now of to Korat!  The judges gave the students and Teacher Dave feedback on the presentation and what we need to work on to be successful in Korat.  While the judge was a bit harsh, he did have some good advice and hopefully that will help us win in Korat.  None of the students competing have ever been to Korat, even though it is only about 250 km from where they live and it is still in Isan Province.  Korat is considered the "Gateway to Isan" and is a city of about 1 million people.  The students are very excited to be able to participate in an overnight field trip.  We were also all treated to Swenson's Ice Cream.  Delicious!