English Speech Imitation Show

Tomorrow is Easter but to the average Chinese citizen, the first half of this week was the celebration of Tomb Sweeping Festival. Kinda ironic timing since Easter celebrates Christ rising from the tomb. From what I could gather, the purpose of the Tomb Sweeping Festival is for the Chinese to visit the burial sites of their ancestors and tidy the graves. As all of my relatives are buried back in the US of A with graves in fairly good condition, I kicked off the holiday on Sunday afternoon by watching my first year's English Speech Imitation Show.

The kids had been hard at work all week, perfecting their imitations of famous speakers such as Abraham Lincoln and Oprah Winfrey. Despite the holiday, I knew I had to attend when I heard a hilarious impression of Obama's acceptance speech from the mouth of one of my first years.

Days before the speech, a girl whom I know from English Corner approached me for pointers on her speech. I scanned her handwritten paper and immediately recognized the words as those from Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign resignation speech. We worked on her speech and I promised her that I would attend the competition on Sunday.

When I arrived at the competition, I saw several of my students’ names also on the list of those to speak. The girl who I tutored, dressed in a Hillary Rodham signature pantsuit, rushed over with a small gift for me and thanked me for coming. I think the speeches ‘speak’ for themselves and I have included one of them below (because that is all my internet will allow it seems).

MLK Jr- I Have a Dream

The next day, I smiled when I received the following email from the girl whom I coached:

Dear Molly I'm Anna.finally I got the third price.Thank you very much!I never thought i can get a price!.Do you like my present?it's a small bag.youcan put coins on it.I think you may like pink so i bought it.