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32 finalists will compete for the highest honor in Dongguan's ultimate test of English. |
The final of the 2nd Dongguan Oral English Contest is set to make its grand debut this Saturday (November 6) at Dongguan Youth and Children s Center. 32 finalists will compete for the highest honor in Dongguan's ultimate test of English.
The finalists have come a long way to reach the final round of this contest. Over 3,000 English learners around Dongguan had competed for the first round of The 2nd Dongguan Oral English Contest which began last September. After several tough preliminary rounds, the 32 finalist got their admissions to the final competition with their excellences in spoken English.
Each contestant coming to the final podium will face a panel of inquisitors, who will evaluate their pronunciation, intonation and fluency in speaking English, speech content as well as their wit in answering questions. The panel includes educators in Dongguan local schools and linguists from two universities in Guangzhou, Guangdong University of Foreign Studies and Sun Yat-sen University.
While these finalists are the most excellent English learners in Dongguan, some of them are genius. Miss Zhen Wenke is a Dongguan native who studies in Hong Kong Baptist University. She had been a high school exchange student to the United States in 2007. There she took the college entrance exams and was enrolled by Harvard University, but finally had to give up the university because of the expensive tuition fee-50 thousand U.S. dollars per year.
Another finalist Mr. Li Huxiao is a border police officer in Dongguan. He was selected to be a member of United Nations Peacekeeping Forces in Haiti in the year of 2007 for his proficient English abilities. He was the interpreter for Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, when Ban Ki-moon paid a visit to the peacekeeping force in Haiti in that year, Mr. Li told reporters.
The final will be broadcast live on the Internet via www.dongguantoday.com and www.sun0769.com.
(By Morvin Chow)
