PARTICIPATING IN ESU NATIONAL FINAL

On the 27th February, 2016 the National Public Speaking Competition 2016 took place in the America House in Kyiv, Ukraine. The participants were the representatives of different oblasts of Ukraine: Kirovohrad, Kyiv, Cherkasy, Lviv, Zhytomyr, Khmelnytskyi, Vinnytsia, Rivne, Chernihiv.

The National Public Speaking Competition is the program which helps young people to acquire skills of public speaking, focus on learning English and meet new people at the same time. The winner of the National Public Speaking Competition goes to London to represent Ukraine in the International Public Speaking Competition.
The National Public Speaking Competition includes two stages: semi-final (delivering prepared speeches) and final (delivering impromptu speeches). All the semi-finalists express their ideas and interpretations on the topic given. This year the topic was “The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any”. All the shared ideas were exclusive and up-to-date. The finalists shared their points of view on the randomly chosen topics. All the opinions were innovative.

The winners were chosen by the qualified Judges. They were Seneca Ryan (Senior English Language Fellow, US Embassy), Charles Bonds (Fulbright Scholar from Indiana University, Bloomington), Victor Markovich (Defence and Threat Reduction Office, US Embassy), Nadiya Ivanenko (Associate Professor, Germanic Languages Department Kirovograd State Pedagogical University), Larysa Yarova (Associate Professor, Translation and General Linguistics Department Kirovograd State Pedagogical University).
The Question Team’s task was to ask question on obscure or vague points in the speeches. The audience also listened carefully and inquired the speakers on the topic or on their attitude on some additional information.

The atmosphere was rather relaxed despite the tensity which the participants experienced. All the present people were active listeners and paid attention to all the speakers equally, so it gave the feeling of confidence and responsibility for the uttered ideas. The speeches of all the participants inspired to deliver your own thoughts, to reveal some personal opinion and respond to some of the mentioned views. Moreover, it was impressive to meet so many new and exceptional people with such exclusive thoughts.
However, only one person was to be chosen to represent Ukraine at the International Public Speaking Competition in London, UK. The judging committee resolved Anna Tsymbalist to deserve to represent Ukraine. The runner up is Kateryna Ilchenko, and the audience choice is Iryna Manzholenko.

Yaroslava Lukina
3rd year student of the Faculty of Foreign Languages