The Blog

International Impact at Speech Meets

Speech, known as an English-speaking activity, doesn’t really sound like the perfect activity for students who aren’t native English speakers. However at Nebraska Christian, a lot international students join the Nebraska Christian Speech team and have had great success.

This year, the Nebraska Christian Speech team has eleven international students. They are: Grace Wu (Varsity Duet), Trang Doan (Varsity Duet), Sophie Guo (Novice Duet and Varsity OID), Corina Ge (Novice Duet and Varsity OID), Isabella Yang (Varsity Duet), Alex Hao (Varsity Duet), Kyle Kim (Novice Serious Prose), Skyler Qu (Varsity OID), Melinda Kim (Novice Duet and Varisty OID), Gladys Choi (Novice Duet and Varsity OID), and Cream Masatit (Novice Duet). Throughout this season, the international students have won a lot of medals.

“The international students are hard workers as a group, and they have to overcome the language barrier to have success in the middle of an English speaking competition. The things they need to work on are the pronunciation of consonants in the middle of words, and word endings. I’m really glad that they can join the speech family,” said Charissa Smith, the head coach of the Nebraska Christian Speech team. When asked for something she wanted to say to the international students on the speech team, she said: “Being organized with your thoughts and presenting it in English under pressure makes you work hard toward success, and we see the results of that success!”

“Doing speech is tiring; however, I feel relaxed after I perform because it is a success every time we finish performing. It is beneficial to non-native English speakers like us,” said Gladys Choi, a speech member who is doing Duet and OID.

Congratulations to the international students for their success in Speech. It is more challenging for them to perform in an English speaking competition than native English speakers; however, they don’t give up and they keep working hard. We pray for them that everything can go well in the rest of their speech meets and they can perform to the best of their ability.

Pictured above: Isabella Yang & Alex Hao with their 2nd place Varsity Duet medals from Loup City; Sophie Guo & Corina Ge with their 1st place Novice Duet medals and Burger King crowns from Minden; Trang Doan & Grace Wu with their 3rd place Varsity Duet medals from Loup City.