Speech Contest

Yesterday Kosin held it's annual English speech contest for area high-schoolers. 176 students signed up to give speeches, and we spent the afternoon judging. The students could choose from 10 possible excerpts from famous speeches.

Last year, Martin Luther King Jr. was, well, king. We heard the "I have a dream" speech again and again. "Go back to Alabama. Go back to Louisiana...." again and again in Korean accents.

This year I knew it would be a battle between MLK and Obama, so I decided to keep tally. It was close for a while, but Obama really pulled it out at the end. All in all, yesterday afternoon, I listened to 18 recitations of parts of MLK's speech, and 28 recitations of two speeches from Obama.

They picked the strangest selections too. My favorite was the dozen or so times when I listened to young Korean girls say with enthusiasm, "I think it makes sense for me to thank the love of my life, the rock of the Obama family, the closer on the campaign trail. Give it up for Michelle Obama!"

Somehow I found the "I have a dream" speech a bit more moving.