Judging an English Competition

Today I went to school number forty to judge an English competition for 37 students in grades 5, 6, and 7. School number forty is a specialized English school. Students graduating from there have a high level of English and are able to go on to University and usually are able to get jobs as translators.

I spent three hours listening to students describe a picture that they had randomly selected from a table. They had 15 minutes to prepare and then they had to come before a panel of three judge and describe their picture to us. I can't imagine how terrifying it would be to speak in English to a native speaker, especially when many of them have never seen or spoken to one before. There were a lot of trembling hands as they held their pictures.

Most of the time, my scores were very different from the other two judges (I guess I score a little too tough). It was my first time doing something like this and I wasn't really used to paying attention to grammar, phonetics, content, and vocabulary. It is hard to know how to judge a student when you don't know what is expected of them. Although it was a bit challenging (and probably not something that is one of my strengths), I had a really fun time interacting with the English teachers that were there. After the competition we had tea. Although most of the conversation was in Russian, I was able to follow it. The teachers seem to really enjoy each other.

Next week I am doing a three-day seminar for English Teachers. I will be teaching them how to use Power Point in their classrooms. I am looking forward to getting to know them even better.