Public Speaking

 

PLHKS Female Warriors – Team Efforts in ‘Girls Get Equal’ Youth Conference 2020/21

By Kasey Chan (5D), Toby Lai (5D) and Stephanie Luo (5D) 

 

We are Kasey Chan, Toby Lai and Stephanie Luo, students from 5D. This year, we participated in ‘Girls Get Equal’ Youth Conference 2020/21 hosted by City University of Hong Kong and the Plan International Hong Kong.

 

The reason why we participated in this youth conference is a surprise! One day, our English teacher, Ms Tam, encouraged us to voice out for girls’ global issues! When Ms Tam invited us to submit our application, we were very thrilled and looking forward to the conference. What's more, the topic ‘Girls Get Equal’ is very fascinating. We couldn’t wait to participate in the conference. We had got through a number of challenges before we were selected as a conference team. First, we did research on global girls issues and submitted position papers. Then we attended a 30-minute interview in which we had to do a presentation on gender equality in English! At the beginning, we found it challenging. Nevertheless, Ms Tam supported us a lot. She said, ‘it‘s ok, we can practice doing the presentation together!’. As a result, to our surprise, we spent the whole summer doing research, learning how to write a position paper and polishing our presentation skills. In return, we have acquired more information about gender equality. With Ms Tam’s unfailing support and help, we pushed our own limits and did it. Not only has our English speaking been improved, but we are also ready to voice out our opinions. Finally, we were selected to participate in the Youth Conference as a team!  

 

Our learning process

During the workshops, we acquired knowledge about how to build a successful and effective campaign on social media from Ms Anita Lam’ s sharing, who is the Head of Industries Facebook Greater China. In addition, we learnt about the marketing demographics of Plan International Hong Kong’s Facebook (FB) and Instagram (IG), which gave us more insights into creating our social media campaigns to reach the target audiences. Such marketing skills are very useful for our careers in future!

 

At the beginning, we were confused when we received the conference presentation topic “Trafficking in Nigeria''. We knew very about this topic and Nigeria. Therefore, we visited the United Nations websites, read tons of articles and reports in a view to dig deep into the issue. It is shocking, if not unbelievable, to figure out how prevalent trafficking is in Nigeria! Fortunately, our teacher provided us with an invaluable chance to interview a local Nigerian, Iwe, which enabled us to understand the perspectives of the locals and true cases of trafficking in Nigeria. We have found that the causes of trafficking are lack of education, displacement and poverty. If you dig deeper, you will find out actually, patriarchy, oppression and Europe’s demand for illegal girls' labour are the real root factors that contributed to the trafficking issue. We understand the desperation and hopelessness are the two biggest issues among young girls, particularly those living in Nigeria. If not resolved properly, many Nigerian girls will be trapped in the trafficking cycle continuously.

 

Social media campaign

We started to brainstorm the content of the social media campaign quite early, but we were bewildered. Consequently, we discussed the content with our teacher and we popped out a captivated idea! That is to create a comic! We have learnt that division of labour is an efficient way to complete a project! We assigned the right person to do the right task. Kasey was responsible for creating the framework. Toby colored the illustrations. Stephanie added the texts. By doing so, we created the comic and submitted it to the conference. Surprisingly, our team made it to the top three schools! What’s more, our campaign was posted on Plan International Hong Kong’s Facebook and Instagram in hope of raising awareness of anti-girls trafficking.

 

Our campaign objectives are to grow post awareness, increase engagement in content value and generate dialogues. We want more people to talk about the issue. We identify accomplishments with new likes among the school communities, comments and shares, our story being mentioned, more hashtags and evidence of reaching a bigger global community. In this youth conference, our main purpose is far more than completing a project. We hope the public can recognize the seriousness of girls trafficking, and learn more about our investigation into the matter of girls trafficking in Nigeria. As a consequence, we fully utilized the post and the resources of the campaign. We reached out to influencers and KOLs including feminist influencers like Ija Mayrock, Zhong Mingxuan, Coffee Lam, Cynthia Wong, and Agnes Wong. We sent our posts and messages to them through direct messages on instagram, in an attempt to gain greater attention from the public. It is a valuable experience to us as rarely could we learn so much in a classroom.

 

What we have gained

We share a sense of urgency fighting for women empowerment and gender equality. The clock is ticking and girls are sacrificing their lives in the world of gender injustice. We believe every girl should have the right to live with dignity. We uphold this belief and move our feet as quickly as possible for the next step of humanity. Every little step towards an equal world counts. Under no circumstances can girls be trafficked again.

 

From zero to 10 to 100, it is absolutely not an easy task. However, we did it! Despite the fact that widening our horizons is an endless journey, we will continue to work hard. By joining the youth conference, it cannot be denied that we came out of our comfort zone. We met talented students from other schools and we shared our feelings, perceptions on top of the topic of gender inequality. The performances of participants from other schools have also had great impacts on our aggressiveness. Although we are not the best, we really want to take initiative to improve and to become stronger. All in all, there is no fire without smoke. We have learnt that if you want to get to know an issue in depth, begin with the true stories. Our dear schoolmates and all, our belief to rights the wrongs of gender injustice is “One post one story, one story one change, one change one life, one life one dream”.

 

 

 

Results of the 72nd Hong Kong Schools Speech Festival 2020-2021 (English Section)

 

Brief summary of our results

Champion	2
1st runner-up	1
2nd runner-up	2
Merit	16

 

 

Solo Verse Speaking

Result	Class	Name
Champion	1D20	LUK HO WANG
2nd runner-up	3C23	TSANG YU SUM
Merit	1B25	TAM CHING
	2B17	LAM YUI TUNG
	3A03	CHAN HOK HIN
	3A06	CHAU TSZ YUI
	3A19	MA CHEUK LAAM
	4A23	LUK WING YIN
	4A24	MA CHEUK LUN JOSHUA
	4B08	CHEUNG LOK CHING
	5A13	LAM HAU YI
	5D18	NG YEE HUNG
	5D23	WONG YUN PONG

 

 

Public Speaking Solo

Result	Class	Name
Champion	5B25	YAU HIU YAN
1st runner-up	5B07	FONG LEONG
2nd runner-up	4B17	LEE SHUN YIN
Merit	3B18	NG YU FUNG
	3B07	GUO KA YUI
	4A24	MA CHEUK LUN JOSHUA
	4A31	YEUNG HOK YI
	4B08	CHEUNG LOK CHING

 

 

 

PLHKS’s English Gifted Program

 

 

PLHKS Public Speaking Group

 

PLHKS’s Public Speaking Group was founded in 2012 and is a strong and sustainable student body that nurture competent English student speakers who have performed excellently in contests, education occasions and quality meetings. We have a very profound establishment throughout years. Our signature program is Toastmasters International Youth Leadership Program where students are well equipped with competent public speaking and leadership skills. Our Group has been expanding for providing students with a variety of speaking experiences at the school level, university level and contest level.

We continue to fulfil our mission in transforming our students into confident speakers that shake the world.

 

The Path To Public Speaking

 

Sherie Ma (4B)

 

 

Myself

I’m Sherie Ma, the President of our school’s Toastmasters Youth Leadership Program, a global programme which trains gifted youngsters to become great speakers and amazing leaders. I’ve been in the programme for 3 years now, and this year I’ve had the honour of serving as President. This is also my year - my efforts paid off by winning the First Runner Up in Senior Division of Hong Kong Region, China Daily National English Speaking Competition 2018. I was also invited to be one of the change-making speakers in Toastmasters District 89 Youth Leadership Program (YLP) Convention 2018.

 

My Journey

When I began my public speaking journey 3 years ago, I was an introvert. I still remember in the first few meetings I would use the agenda to cover my face, while I sank in my chair and hoped nobody would notice me. Eventually however, the atmosphere of the club moved me. Everyone enjoyed the meetings, everyone cheered, everyone supported and learnt from each other. The committee members were really helpful and offered me tons of advice, and gradually I started to improve. At one of the meetings, the English public speaking teacher Ms. Tam looked me in the eye and said, “Sherie you’ve got potential, you’ve got talent.” I was shocked coz I never thought I had any sort of talent in public speaking. It was from that moment that I started to believe in myself and have faith.

 

My Milestone 

During the second year I became a committee member, and began to compete more. It was in this year that I won my first championship in the HK Speech Festival Public Speaking Solo competition. Not only did my speaking improve, but I began to know myself better.

 

My learning

This year, I became the President and have led our club. My role hasn’t been to boss everyone round, but instead to help them develop and make their own personal breakthroughs. I’ve learnt to take by giving. It’s here I’d like to thank my amazing committee members, who have offered me unfailing support and helped me push my own limits.

 

My future

Next year, I’ll become an advisor to help nurture our next generation of YLP students. Looking back on my public speaking journey, I really need to thank those amazing seasoned speakers who pulled me up to become what I am today. My wish for the future is that I can become one of them. My sincere hope is that students in our school will try out public speaking and fall in love with it, just as I have. If you can speak, you can influence; if you can influence, you can change lives. Let’s become change makers!

 

What will you do and learn in Toastmasters Youth Leadership Program (YLP)?

During club meetings, you will build “quick thinking” skills as you give one-to-two-minute speeches on general subjects during Table Topics. You will introduce speakers, conduct meetings and perform other roles that will give you plenty of practice in a variety of communication experiences. But your great learning will come from preparing speeches and presenting speeches based on the skills you have acquired in various Toastmasters’ workshops.

 

 

 

Sherie invited to be a speaker of Toastmasters YLP Convention 2018

 

 

 

Sherie winning 1st runner up of HK Region China Daily National English Speaking Competition 2018

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thomas Chow (5A)

 

You are standing in front of thousands of people. You walk, you stand and you speak. Everyone was amazed by your performance and you know, you have achieved your dream --- capturing people’s eyes in International Public Speaking Contest.

 

This has always been a childish dream of mine and I never really imagined it would happen. Still, 2017 was a year of grace and joy which broadened my horizons and made me all over the moon.

 

Till now, I have joined 3 contests in this academic school year and though I did not receive any prize in the category of team, I would like to thank my teammates Pearl and Yuki for giving me such joyful and playful speech experiences in the final year and I wish them all the best in their ongoing journey in Public Speaking.

 

Taking part in Speech Festival Solo this year was fresh - requiring a 5-minute prepared speech and Q@&A section right after. In the group of N195, having good public speaking skills could not help me stand out, in fact, most contestants’ speeches were well written. In this challenging task, it required a noble and globalized answer in the Q&A section. I told the judges I believe that Hong Kong students could think more about their goals in life instead of setting a university offer as a dream. Hence, I was so blessed to become a champion among all these great speakers and it’s such a great honor for me to compete with them.

 

What is beyond my anticipation is that I was even selected to participate in the audition for the International Public Speaking Contest 2018 in London. I have never imagined to compete for the chance of being the only HK representative to IPCS. The tasks I was required to do have become more precise, including 5-minute prepared speech, a Q&A section, a 3-minute unprepared speech and an interview section. The 3-minute impromptu speech was an uphill task for me. Though I have so much experience in speaking impromptu in my school’s Toastmasters Youth Leadership Program, (YLP), I still found it difficult. Training for this section was like walking on a single wire linking the edge. I always have to make sure I’m on the right track.

 

As an older member of the team, I would like to thank Ms Tam for all the efforts in training an ordinary guy like me. I would like to thank Mr Yau, Ms Pochwyt and Ms Lai for the tremendous support in speeches and YLP. I wish the other members could go on to take the challenges. Public Speaking is a lifetime investment and competing for the chance to London prepared me and broadened my horizons. I wish one day I could stand on the stage to compete for a world championship and I wish everyone in this team can surpass me.

 

 

 

PLHKS Toastmasters Youth Leaderhip Program Excom 2017-2018

 

 

 

Thomas Chow granted an audition for representing HK in IPSC 2017

 

 

 

 

 

 

Toastmasters International Youth Leadership Program

 

PLHKS has launched its very first Toastmasters International’s Youth Leadership Program in 2014. We also have the privilege to be the first and only school in Shatin to provide this internationally-recognized program. The Youth Leadership Program is designed to develop the English public speaking and leadership skills of young people.

By developing these skills, our students are better prepared to meet the demands and challenges of today’s world. There are eight sessions and each of the two-hour sessions features one English communication workshop conducted by seasoned Toastmasters including champion speakers and professionals speaking coaches in Hong Kong. The student participants learn how to prepare and present a speech in English, how to conduct meetings, and how to evaluate and develop effective listening skills. By the end of the eighth session, our student participants have developed public speaking skills, self-confidence, interpersonal skills and communication skills that are useful for the rest of their lives.

 

The learning activities of the Toastmasters International Youth Leadership Program are as below:
•    Evaluate present speaking ability
•    Organize and give speeches
•    Give impromptu talks
•    Control voice, vocabulary and gestures
•    Give constructive feedback and more

 

 

Ten Tips for Public Speaking

1.    Know your materials
2.    Practice, Practice, Practice!
3.    Know your audience
4.    Know the room
5.    Relax
6.    Visualize yourself giving your speech
7.    Realize that people want you to succeed
8.    Don’t apologize
9.    Concentrate on the message – not the medium
10.  Gain experience

 

 

Achievements 2019-2020

 

Shalom Yuen Sa Lun (4B) won 2nd Runner Up in National English Speaking Competition Hong Kong Final

 

Julian Leong (4B) and Shalom Yuen (4B) as Finalists in National English Speaking Competition Hong Kong Final

 

 

Achievements 2017-2018

 

Speech Festival Public Speaking Solo

Result	Class	Name
Champion	5A	CHOW HO YEUNG
	3C	CHAN YU KWAN JERRY
1st runner-up	5A	HOR PAK HO
	4A	FAN LOK YI
2nd runner-up	4A	CHIK YAN KIU
	4A	FAN LOK YI
	4B	MA HIU CHUN
	3A	MOK DICKENS
Merit	4B	YU BAO
	3A	CHENG CHUNG HO

Speech Festival Public Speaking Team

Result	Class	Name
Champion	2A	AU PAK HEI
	2A	JULIAN FONG LEUNG
	2A	LEE YEUK LAM
2nd runner-up	3A	CHAN YU HIN
	3A	CHOW WING YAN
	3A	MOK DICKENS
Merit	5A	CHOW HO YEUNG
	5A	WONG CHUN HIN
	4A	CHIK YAN KIU
	4A	FAN LOK YI
	4B	MA HIU CHUN
	4B	YU BAO

 

 

 

Achievements 2016-2017

 

Speech Festival Public Speaking Solo

Result	Class	Name
Champion	3C	MA HIU CHUN
2nd runner-up	4A	CHOW HO YEUNG
	2A	MOK DICKENS
Merit	5A	YUEN CHING HIN
	4A	HOR PAK HO
	4A	LO LONG HIN
	4A	WONG CHUN HIN

Speech Festival Public Speaking Team

Result	Class	Name
Champion	5A	AU YEUNG SZE UEN
	5A	WONG CHING YAN
	5B	CHAN PUI MAN
1st runner-up	3C	MA HIU CHUN
	3D	YU BAO
	2A	MOK DICKENS
2nd runner-up	4A	CHOW HO YEUNG
	4A	HOR PAK HO
	4A	LO LONG HIN

 

 

 

Achievements 2015-2016

 

Speech Festival Public Speaking Solo

Result	Class	Name
Champion	5A	CHAN YIN KIU ADELINE
1st runner-up	4B	LI YUET

Speech Festival Public Speaking Team

Result	Class	Name
1st runner-up	4A	AU YEUNG SZE UEN
	4B	CHAN PUI MAN
	4A	WONG CHING YAN

 

 

 

 

RTHK The Speaker English Public Speaking Contest

Result	Class	Name
Participation Award	5A 5B 5C	Adeline Chan Yin Kiu Joel Lau Chun Yin Kyle Cheuk Siu To

 

 

Standard Chartered Hong Kong English Public Speaking Contest

Result	Class	Name
Certificate of Good Performance Top Ten in Session	5A	Adeline Chan Yin Kiu

 

 

Achievements 2014-2015

 

Speech Festival Public Speaking Solo

Result	Class	Name
Champion	6C	Ng Wan Chung, Arick

 

 

Speech Festival Public Speaking Team

Result	Class	Name
Champion	3A 3A 3A	Au Yeung Sze Uen Chan Pui Man Wong Ching Yan
First-runner up	5C 5C 4A	Matthew Kong Otto Tsang Kyle Cheuk

 

 

 

Achievements 2013-2014

 

Standard Chartered Hong Kong English Public Speaking Contest

Result	Class	Name
Certificate of Good Performance	3A	CHAN YIN KIU ADELINE
	3A	SIT SAU YUNG ELLA
	3D	NG TSZ KIT
	3D	SZETO SIU HIN
	4C	CHING YU PO
	4C	KONG HIN LONG
	4C	KONG WING YAN
	4D	CHAN LONG HEI
	5B	CHAN YUEN YAN
	5B	WONG MAN LOK
	5C	NG WAN CHUNG ARICK
The Most Interesting Topic award	4C	WONG YUE

 

 

Speech Festival Public Speaking Solo

Result	Class	Name
Champion	5C	Ng Wan Chung, Arick

 

 

Speech Festival Public Speaking Team

Result	Class	Name
Champion	2A 2A 2A	Au Yeung Sze Uen Chan Pui Man Wong Ching Yan
1st runner up	3A 3A 3A	Chan Yin Kiu Adeline Cheuk Siu To Sit Sau Yung Ella
2nd runner up	4C 4D 5B	Kong Hin Long Chan Long Hei Chan Yuen Yan

 

 

 Achievements 2012-2013

 

Speech Festival Public Speaking Solo

Result	Class	Name
Champion	5C	Winnie Leung Nga Ting

 

 

Speech Festival Public Speaking Team

Result	Class	Name
Champion (Senior)	4C 4B 4A	Arick Ng Timothy Wong Leo Chan
First-runner up (Junior)	2A 3A 2A	Adeline Chan Kenny Chan Tiffany Wong