PKU Speech Competiton

Sarah along with a handful of CIEE classmates are making a weekend trip to Chengdu and here I am all alone in rm 505. Ill survive I think.


(Front: That's Maggie, sadly no one is quite fond of her)

For the past two days the International Chinese School held their annual speech competition. I got to see Jess, Merrin and Alexi during the intermediate level. Jess talked about being the struggles of a white foreign babe in Beijing. Which was hilarious. The problems white students face
1) the "r's" of Beijing accent
2) whitening lotion. "I'm white enough!!" Jess exclaims at the drug store. "I don't want anymore whitening lotion. can't you see I'm white?" The staff at Watson's laughed their heads. off.
During her Q & A she continued to put on her 'foreigner' face and replied "I don't know" or "don't understand" to every question they had. The panel has no sense of humor.

During he advanced level speech competition. Jihoon was nervous so prior to showtime he smoked with Seiya.


We all cheered him on. When I stepped into the auditorium I saw little Korea. Never have I seen so many Koreans concentrated in one area and they all looked alike. The thick rimmed glasses, puffy coat, a baseball cap, a girlfriend, converse, hoody.....I love my Koreans.

Jihoon gave a heartfelt honest speech about himself. Revamped and completely opposite to the power point in class, which went as followed. "today I'm gonna talk about someone I know really well. That person would be me." Cynthia and I couldn't stop laughing in class. "My life can be split into 3 sections 1) childhood; as you can see, I'm the cutest boy on the planet 2)adolescence and 3) adulthood, I'm an adult as of now.


During the competition it was more inspiring and heartfelt. We heard the obstacles he went through life, the love for his family and overcoming the pain and going to college.

Keegan who got 3rd talked about personal dilemma's. Many talked about their experiences in Beijing and Zack won 1st with his story about Beijingers. While the judges were deciding he winners, a musical intermission took place. A few Korean boys sang a romantic karaoke song (a hit in the mainland I'm assuming). Then the second appearance were a group of West Point guys who tried to sing "一个家中国“ (One family: China) , but guess what they COMPLETELY BUTCHERED IT. Thus shaming the image of Americans; can't sing and can't dance at all.

Following the awards ceremony Keegan and I went to our CIEE follow up meeting (for annual students). Guess who's late? My adviser. 20 minutes late. Funny that Tian loashi and the CIEE staff can't show up on time when our buildings are 2 minutes way from another.