Speaking of America, I rather like it

Today was the 10th annual Macau-wide speech contest hosted by MPI and the 1st non-annual time this kid helped judge it. This morning I helped judge the junior high school group for about 3 hours of 5 minute interviews. We start with common topics, then ask them to give a one minute speech on a randomly selected topic (grandparents, a present, your favorite book, etc.), and then we ask them follow up questions on their speech. The variety of speakers was interesting. I had people that were clearly forced to sign up (there's a money prize), and I had kids that were like my bff (if I were 13) in the way they spoke. One girl got the topic of shopping and went on to tell me about her whole closet was full of H&M and how her mom did not let her buy the things she wanted to wear. Another girl was talking about changing her grandparents' diapers. The opinionated ones were comical. I had Chinese, Macanese, Portuguese, and Canadian students interview.

It was pork dumplings for lunch and then back at interviewing again for 3 hours. This time I judged senior high. The format was the same, but the speech topics were different (Happiness, America, Olympic Games, and Clothes). The answers were fantastic. I had a Filipino girl who said, "When you know how to speak English, you know how to speak to the world." Can we get her on an advertisement advocating literacy and encouraging reading in America, please? There was a girl whose English name was Martharoot (I was rooting for her...). One of the follow up questions to her speech on America was "If you could change one thing about America or American people, what would it be?" She answered that she would lower the crime rate because her parents were afraid to send her there to study (told you it was safer here, Dad ;) ).

A girl named Dae reminded me a lot of (insert famous feminist of your choice here). She was sassy, but she's going to be a world changer and not take crap for it. She shared with us that she was a mixture of African, Portuguese, American Indian, along with others. Her name Dae comes from a beautiful African Princess in a story. She chose the 'clothes' topic--one that most people gave bland speeches about--she gave a speech about how clothes are just meant to cover and that fashion, materialism, and trying to create an identity through style are not right in her opinion. The same kid also expressed to us that the most difficult thing about learning English was the culture. She gave an example about how an older Brit might say, "don't hurt yourself, love," where love has a completely different meaning than the standard--smart kid who has been to or lived in many countries.

There was Kenny, who said that Taylor Swift was his favorite English singer. One girl said that she wanted to go to America so that she could go to Oxford....process that. Another student had an American flag watch, and I was really interested to hear what they had to say about America, but they drew the 'clothes' topic.

When asked if she wanted to go to America, one girl said she wanted to go to America when Barack Obama became President because she thought he could do miracles, but now she didn't think that about him anymore, that America needed a new President, she no longer wanted to go, and China was holding the life of America.

I'm wondering if me being in the room influenced any of the interviewees answers about America. When I wasn't the head interviewer, they could have very well thought I was from England since I wasn't speaking. Some people said China was better than America, others said America was better than China...so there was no single opinion on that topic. One student said America is in a depression...recession, honey, it's recession.

In our spare time between interviews, the other 2 interviewers (teachers at MPI originally from mainland China) and I discussed American politics and the global economy. I explained to them the positives and negatives of the housing bubble, how the primary elections work, etc. One of the teachers asked why Bill Clinton couldn't run for President again. I told her about the two term limit, and she said that was such a shame. Monica agrees. haha. Ok, I take it back!

I love hearing opinions from outsiders about America. Sometimes being comfortable at home in America can keep us from being aware of what people in other countries perceive about America/Americans. In an increasingly globalized world, the opinions of foreign investors and the citizens/governments of other countries are becoming more important every day. To that point: be alert, be informed, and be smart.

Your speech is now over. Thank you. Goodbye.