More than a hundred contestants, including two silver-haired senior citizens in their 80s, showed off their English speaking skills yesterday at the Formosa Cup (
The nation's first English-language speaking contest open to non-native speakers of all ages and backgrounds took place yesterday at the School of Continuing Education at Chinese Culture University.
Inspired by the government's plan to make English Taiwan's second official language, the Garden of Hope Foundation and Learning Technologies (Taiwan) Ltd jointly organized the contest with sponsorship from the Taipei Times, ICRT, the Wan Hua Community University (萬華社區大學) and Internet service provider Tacocity (章魚網).
PHOTO: LIAO RAY-SHANG, TAIPEI TIMES
Eighty-five-year-old Lee Chi-chiang (
"I called to sign up for the contest immediately after I saw the announcement in the newspaper. I though it would be fun. In fact, I believe that as people get older, they should participate in more activities," Huang said.
Huang said that although he had studied English in school, his English did not really improve until he had the opportunity to speak with foreigners at work.
"My English ability improved greatly after I got a chance to talk to English speakers. Now my English is better than my granddaughter, who is studying in junior high school," he said.
Lee, on the other hand, said he has not had a chance to practice English for more than 50 years.
"I think this contest will be fun but at the same time, I hope I don't make a fool of myself," Lee said prior to the event.
But the two grandfathers demonstrated that they could speak English as well as the others after delivering their speeches.
Event organizers said they wanted to highlight the efforts of various groups in society to learn the language.
"Besides responding to the government's aim of popularizing English, today's contest actually focuses on those who often do not have as much English learning resources," Garden of Hope chairwoman Chi-Hui-jung (
Therefore, in addition to the three main groups of contestants -- students, English majors and office workers -- special groups were created for housewives, senior citizens, Aborigines and NGO volunteers, she said.
As an honorable guest at the event, the DPP's candidate for the year-end Taipei mayoral election, Lee Ying-yuan (
"We are confident that one day, with the efforts of the government and NGOs, English can be heard everywhere in Taipei," Lee said.
He also sat down to have a brief English conversation with the two oldest contestants.
The results of the contest will be announced on Wednesday and the prizes awarded on Sunday. First prize is a round-trip plane ticket but the destination has yet to be decided. Second prize is NT$10,000 and third prize is NT$5,000.
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