Busan Foreign School Speech Contest

Several weeks ago, Emily brought home a flyer about a speech contest being held for elementary students at her school. I gave it the cursory glance and tossed it into the recycling bin. Korean parents tend to push their students far harder than we would as Americans, and when it comes to things like the speech contest, I just don't love having another thing that the kids are expected to do. This was optional and I most certainly was not going to write a speech for her.

The next day Emily came home with a yellow sheet of paper with a small speech written on it, and announced she wanted to enter the speech contest. I immediately fished the flyer out from the recycling, and registered her. I was impressed with her initiative, her willingness to try something new, and the sincere speech she had written all of her own accord.

The topic of the speech contest was "Charity." BFS really does a spectacular job of fostering charity in their mostly affluent student population. There seems to constantly be a penny drive for Habitat for Humanity, a clothes drive for typhoon victims in the Philippines, or a toy drive for a local orphanage going on. There is always some way that even the smallest students are being encouraged to think outside of themselves, and I love it. I love how much it has stuck with my girls, too. They really have big hearts, and watching them learn about how fortunate they are, and how they can help others has been heartwarming.

Emily's speech went through several self-imposed revisions, and Tyler sat down with her and helped her type up her final version that she read on the day of the contest.

Tyler and I both went to listen to her speech, and could not have been prouder of our sweet little first grader. She stood up bravely (though visibly nervous) and read her speech all on her own. She was quite proud of herself for this accomplishment!

Reading her speech.

Group shot of participants.

And finally the speech (written entirely by Emily):

CHARITY: By Emily Allen

Hi, my name is Emily. I am from BFS. To me, charity means helping and giving. Some families have no things. Every year, my school gives money and goes on a trip to build homes. My school also donates toys. I went to the orphanage and gave the toys to the children. It made me feel really happy. I like my school because they care about poor people. I love my school because all classes can donate things. For example, last year my school gave clothes to the Philippines because there was a big flood. Charity is a nice thing so I hope everyone shows charity. Bye! I hope you liked my speech.