A most challenging language competency test for high school students in Hong Kong, the Second Biliteracy Trilingualism Compostion and Speech Competition (全港中學「兩文三語」菁英大比拼 (第二屆) ), held by the Rotary Club of Hong Kong Island West and the Hong Kong Federation of Education Workers, had completed the two earlier rounds before the semi-final on 26 November 2005. The objectives of the competition are to promote the importance of mastering both English and Putonghua to our young students and to improve their ability to become truly biliterate and trilingual.

In the preliminaries, students contestants, nominated by their schools' language teachers, entered essays in both Chinese and English on the topics 「人類的未來」, "The Future of Human Beings", 「和而不同」, Harmony but not Uniformity". In the quarter-finals, the contestants had three hours to finish two more essays, one in Chinese and one in English, on topics that are not pre-announced.

In this semi-final round, contestants were divided into small groups, and they were required to discuss topics provided by the organizers by using Cantonese, Putonghua and English with only 15 minutes' preparation time. They first gave a one-minute self-introduction in Cantonese, then gave another one-minute presentation and sharing of a recent newspaper article in Putonghua, and finally engaged themselves in a group discussion in English on topics concerned with youth issues at school, at home or in the community.

Finalists participating in the final round on 17 December 2005 used both Putonghua and English to read out their quarter-final essays.

For a second consecutive year, the Rotary Club of City Northwest Hong Kong is a co-organizer of this competition organized by the Rotary Club of Hong Kong Island West and the Hong Kong Federation of Education Workers. Club Secretary Perry Yu, Education Consultant at Maplewood Education Services, was in the panel of judges for the semi-final round of the competition and reported that a generally high level of competency in thinking on the spot and language expression were displayed among the contestants. Club President David Ting was one of the presenters of awards to the winners in the final round of the competition at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

View semi-final photos.
View final round photos.

Semi-Final on 26 November 2005

Contestants arrive as early as possible to get their assigned news articles and discussion topics for presentation, prepare and wait anxiously
for their turn of competition.

The Junior and Senior Section competitions run in parallel.

The competition begins and different groups of students speak to introduce themselves, present newspaper articles, and engage in group discussions.

Some students make serious, rehearsed speeches ...

... while others speak in a more natural, pleasant manner.

Judges have a tough job as they need to decide on marks for both style and substance within a few minutes.

In group discussions, students have to be quick-thinking and use active listening before responding to each other accordingly.

The panel of judges Mr Ho King On, past Chairman of the Hong Kong Federation of Education Workers, Ms Mok Wa
of the Language Centre, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, PP Victor Lim of Rotary Hong Kong Island
West, Rotary City Northwest Hong Kong Secretary Perry Yu with organizers Mr Wong Kwan Yu, Chairman of the Hong
Kong Federation of Education Workers (3rd left) and IPP Lawrence Chan of Rotary Hong Kong Island West (1st right).


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Final on 17 December 2005
(Photos courtesy of Hong Kong Federation of Education Workers. More photos.)

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