英语演讲稿13篇 英语演讲稿精选
演讲稿的内容要根据具体情境、具体场合来确定，要求情感真实，尊重观众。在充满活力，日益开放的今天，在很多情况下我们需要用到演讲稿，来参考自己需要的演讲稿吧！下面是范文网小编收集的英语演讲稿13篇 英语演讲稿精选，供大家赏析。
Firstly, I am glad to be here, let me introduce myself. My name is Li Wei, my English name is Aleevon. I am 22 years old. I come from the northwest of China, the most ancient city in China——Xi’an, the capital of Shaanxi Province. I am studying in the Foreign Language department of Minjiang University situated in Fu Zhou of Fujian Province.
I cross the whole of China to Study because I want to redefine myself; I want to stand on my own two feet. So I left my beloved home town, and started a new life in the southeast of China.
In the past 3 years, I learnt a lot about myself. I never knew that I could have a charming voice, but later I became a Broadcaster on the Campus Broadcasting Station; I never thought that I could have the courage to go on stage, but later I became the First place winner in Campus Host Competition and still do the host every now and then; I never thought that I could be an Inspiring person, but later I became the Head of College Students’ Art Ensemble; and I love to dance ever since I was a kid, I never thought I could dance professionally, but on campus, I became a cheerleader in our cheerleading squad, and we competed throughout the country, from provincial to regional, to the nationals.
I have found a new me in the past 3 years, a new me that I never knew before, and I am still surprising myself. So that’s me, an inspired young man, a cheerleader who will always smile even in the days of despair.
Life is not long, but many times choose, you have many choices come through today. Wait more than 60 days, you in turn to make a choice, but the choice is your life is very important, very crucial choice. The choice to a large extent directly related to your future direction in life, whether related to the future glory of life, and even the success of the big problems of life.
The last choice, because your young, largely by your parents or relatives to help you to make choices. Then the choice of their ability to help so you can create conditions to help you (for example, taking your difference, they can give you the money you read Choosing Health). Entrance options, but this largely depends on yourself decide the. Because: First, the difficulty of the selection bigger, some parents and relatives also lack guidance capability; second is the choice of policy, a more equitable, they may have money, but you also can not score enough money to help you. So many choices in this and future autonomy of the major is in your own hands.
Select certain subjective and objective conditions. The university entrance exam already created the objective conditions of choice. For example, the University has long been the face of the door here open for each student, you can enter with their conditions. Another example is that the state's admission policy is not directed against an individual, but against all the candidates this year, has been formed, you can only prepare the conditions required by policy to choose. Another example: you face the teachers and the teaching environment of objective factors in the last more than 60 days are basically constant. You can only adjust themselves to the further adaptation. Therefore, the objective conditions of your current studies, as if we can only face each generation has been formed as the productivity of conditions, can only be subjective on this basis up efforts to promote the development of the existing productive forces, not to complain about now have low productivity. This year's college entrance
examination, you can only have been formed by the face of these subjective and objective conditions to efforts to improve their academic performance. Not to complain about the objective conditions than me.
In addition to other life choices, and many give up. But a lot of life to give up in order to better choices. You this time, the face of the university are beckoning to you, you can choose not to give up. Can also say: You give up a lot in the past, that is, to this choice. Example, Why did not you work outside the home? Why not stay at home farming? Why seeing your parents morning to evening, busy doing farming work, and even sick exertion in the field, and you share those concerns did not go home for their problem-solving, can you give up so they are not all for this time of choice?
Both gave up so much, they chose today, why not try to choose tomorrow? Beckon you do not choose to have this as another of the universities? There is the further purification of your soul, raise your quality, and increase your survivability, and improve your quality of life in the future to achieve greater value of life your furnace.
Good morning everybody, I’m very glad to stand here and give you a short speech. We all know that Bingxin has a famous saying “we always admire the beauty of flowers but its sprout was watered by tears of struggle and rained by blood of sacrifice”. So for the majority, behind their success, are filled of sweat and tears. Eagle flying in the vast firmament, must be experienced the pain of countless times fall under the cliff, then hammered out a pair of volley wings. A shinning of pearls, inevitably suffered countless body friction and numerous waves’ shock. In this view, a real successful people, and he must experienced numerous times to stand up again and agin after failed, because without sweat and tears on the life road ,no one can casually get the beautiful flowers. Alfter a heavy fall Shi Tiesheng lost his legs, it must be a heavy blow for anyone. But he didn't lose faith in life, but use his brain and hands to show the infinite love of life;
Beethoven was blind and deaf, but he still had written the "Hero""Destiny"nd so on a large number of music works, in his unfortunately life, he doggedly gripped the "fate of the throat. They all had a fall, but they are strong enough to stand up, fight against fate and misfortune, finally they succeed. So for each of us, wrestling is not terrible, lose confidence and courage in life is the most terribe thing. In my opionion, the sweat and tears during the life’ journey are very important for us, they hone our will, and enrich our experience. As the saying goes, how can you see the rainbow without a rainy day, while you don't work hard and not struggle, how can you gain the successful flowers. All in all, the sweat and tears on the struggling road is inevitable, don’t look for shortcuts anymore, steadfast walk every step, we will succeed in the end. So belief yourself, nothing is impossile, just do it. Thank you for taking your time to listen to my speech, I hope in the near future we all can be successful.
大家早上好,我很高兴站在这里给你一个简短的演讲。我们都知道冰心的一句名言“我们总是欣赏花的美丽,但其发芽被眼泪浇灌的斗争和牺牲的血雨”。所以对于大多数人来说,他们的成功背后,是充满汗水和泪水。鹰飞翔在辽阔天空,必须经历无数次的痛苦下悬崖,然后敲定一对凌空的翅膀。闪光的珍珠,不可避免地遭受了无数身体摩擦和许多海浪的冲击。在这个视图中,一个真正成功的人,他一定经历过无数次失败后再次站起来,反对,因为没有汗水和泪水的生活道路上,没有人能随随便便获得美丽的花朵。Alfter重下降摘要史铁生失去了他的腿,它必须对任何人来说都是一个沉重的打击。但他没有对生活失去信心,而是用他的大脑和手显示生命的无限的爱;
贝多芬失明、失聪,但他仍然写了“英雄”的“命运”nd等等大量的音乐作品,在他的不幸的生活,他固执地抓住了“命运的喉咙。他们都有下降,但它们足以站起来,对抗命运和不幸,最后他们成功。所以对我们每个人来说,摔跤并不可怕,对生活失去信心和勇气是最差劲的事情。在我opionion,汗水和泪水在生命的旅程是非常重要的对我们来说,他们磨练我们的意志,并丰富我们的经验。俗话说,你怎么能看到彩虹没有雨天,你不努力,不奋斗,你怎么能获得成功的花朵。总之,汗水和眼泪苦苦挣扎的道路上是不可避免的,不再寻找捷径,坚定的走每一步,最后我们会成功的。所以相信自己,没有什么是impossile,就这样做。谢谢你带你的时间听我的演讲,我希望在不久的将来我们都能成功。
Good morning, everybody!
In this world, there is one thing that is very fair to everybody, whether you are a male or female, young or old, rich or poor. Does anybody know what it is called?
Right. It is time. The topic I am going to present to you today is called “ Treasure Every Minute”.
The clock is running. Make the most of today.
To realize the value of ONE YEAR, ask a student who failed a grade.
To realize the value of ONE MONTH, ask a mother who gave birth to a premature baby.
To realize the value of ONE WEEK, ask the editor of a weekly newspaper.
To realize the value of ONE HOUR, ask the lovers who are waiting to meet.
To realize the value of ONE MINUTE, ask a person who missed the train.
To realize the value of ONE SECOND, ask a person who just avoided an accident.
To realize the value of ONE MILLISECOND, ask the person who won a silver medal in the Olympics.
Treasure every moment that you have! And treasure it more because you shared it with someone special, special enough to spend your time with.
And remember that time waits for no one. Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift. That's why it's called the present!! The clock is running. Make the most of today.
Good luck, everybody!
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen,
As I stand here speaking to you in English, I am already globalized. While shopping, I see the fair Chinese ladies carrying Prada handbags, I find they are globalized. Watching Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings with friends—yes, you can anticipate the refrain, we are all globalized!
In this era of globalization, we are one way or another all globalized. But realize this: when people’s heads turn to the fresh things that globalization literally delivers to our doors, the traditional things which we take for granted become ignored and sometimes forgotten. ConsiderLao Qiang, an ancient form of opera. It has almost vanished from the stage and only fewer than 20 people know how to sing it. So, how can we discover and explore our traditional culture? How can we rejuvenate and share them with the whole world? Well, there are three factors we need to keep in mind.
To begin with, the mass media plays a vital role in discovering traditional culture and connecting it with the widest possible audience. One evening in 20xx, for example, when my father and I were watching the final round of the popular TV showStar Road, we both became fans for a contestant named A Bao. We were attracted by his high pitched tenor voice, his traditional Shaanxi folk tunes and Shaanxi costumes. Apparently we were not his only fans. Star Road has aroused great popular interest in Shaanxi folk music. Such media can help popular audiences to discover lost arts and introduce people to them for the first time.
The mass media raise the people’s popular interest in the traditional arts, but it is the performing artists who really develop the people’s understanding of traditional culture. Yang Liping’s dance show Yunnan Image, based on primitive Yunnan dance style, has had an enormous influence in and out of China. Yang has recovered for us the primitive life in Yunnan. It is the raw and unadorned beauty of nature in her dancing that moves her audience most. We desperately need professional artists’ endeavor to discover traditional arts, to train apprentices, and to project our traditional culture on the global stage.
The third strategic factor in promoting our culture in global competition is an audience who knows what and how to appreciate our culture. But today’s youth—tomorrow’s explorers—are ill equipped to appreciate the traditional culture. Take myself as an example: I have had no painting or music classes since senior high school! No extracurricular activities like Chinese painting or calligraphy since primary school! What paltry little we learn about our traditional Chinese culture is relegated to a few lines and pictures in history books. We need our government and our school system to give us a better opportunity to embrace our traditional culture and discover its rich legacy for ourselves.
Ladies and gentlemen, the age of globalization should be a time for cultural discovery, not cultural extinction! Our traditional culture needs our concern and support to survive! With our combined efforts, we can save our valuable culture from extinction and showcase it, so it can shine brightly on the global stage, shared and enjoyed by people all around the world!
“What would you do if you had only one day left to live?”
I asked this question to my young students when teaching English this winter. What were their answers?
“I would watch television!” the first answer. “I would play with the computer!” the second one. “I would play with computer TOO.” The girl finished her sentence perfectly with a serious smile. Indeed how cute and innocent that smile was, but how seriously my heart was hurt. I was too frightened to listen to more answers like that.
Ten years ago, at their age, I had a different answer: I would spend the last day of my life gazing at the face of my dear grandmother until I inscribed every detail of it onto my mind.
When grandmother was getting old and weak, my family bought her a telephone so I could save time and the trouble of traveling to her home by making phone calls instead. Later we bought her a television so she could watch modern dramas by herself. Then grandma must have been, we assumed, very contented and happy.
But I never really knew how grandma felt. She silently passed away without a word one night. When I heard about her death, a chilling pain pierced my empty heart. The pain grew even sharper as I tried to remember in detail exactly how grandma looked and I failed completely! How could I remember? I had not visited her for ages—it seemed like a century! My memories of her dissolved into thin air and leaked away like water.
Even though I have a telephone, can she hear me now?
Even though I might be on television, can she see me now?
Even though I have modern telecommunications, can she still communicate with me now?
With all these “tele”s, I was powerless.
Don't people just love the word of “tele”, which means far away. Indeed this is how modern technology has changed our world. But please don't forget this other word with “tele”: telepathy: which refers to human beings' inborn ability to connect to our loved ones. Our minds are supposed to read each other's minds; our hearts are supposed to feel each other's hearts — and fulfill these without any forms of tool!
But the moment I desperately struggled to remember grandmother's face, the telepathy between her and me had shut down forever. With the help of modern technology, I killed our telepathy.
This shall never happen again! The “tele”s are great inventions. But “telepathy” gives them the warmth of a human face. Let's harness the power of television to excite our kids to develop their telepathy with nature… so that they can read the secret language of flowers. Let's make the telephone lines provoke us to preserve our telepathy with each other, so we can connect in a warm and feeling way. Let technology keep our “telepathy” ALIVE! We need to wake up and make this happen.
I told my grandma's story to those young kids that day. They got very quiet. They asked me for a second chance to answer the question. They had come to a new understanding – that very moment they had made to me and to our future together, a dear promise.
Thank you very much!
The fairytale of Aladdin has always been my childhood favorite. I was mesmerized by how Aladdin used his three magic wishes. As a small girl, I dreamed of having the magic wishes to go wherever I wanted to go and see whatever I wanted to see. As you can probably guess, I haven't found my genie in the lamp yet, however, I have found something just as exciting and it has made marvelous changes in not only my life, but the lives of all human-beings. It is called technology.
I still remember how my father told me about his childhood back in those days when China was not as open and developed as it is now. Children would run for kilometers to school, make toys with wood by themselves, and the biggest dream of a child was holding two jars of sugar, one white, the other brown in each arm and having the choice of eating whichever he wanted. Just look at what we have now. Magnificent technological advancement has opened up a whole new world to us.
However, just as our lives become more convenient, problems arise from this new life style. We seem to be caged in the modern technology; we are thinking alike as a result of using the same search engine, we are getting lazy as most of our work can be done by machines, and we are alienating people around us for we are more comfortable talking on phones and typing in front of a computer.
If I was given the chance to make my magic wishes now, I would wish we could go back in time and live for three days without advanced technology. I wonder what we would do in those three days. Here is what I imagine:
On the first day, people would be feeling so uncomfortable with the new situation that they would probably be confused and just not know what to do. The world would be in a mess for the whole day.
On the second day, as life goes on, people would have to find alternative ways to deal with their daily rituals: students would have to go to libraries for information they wanted instead of searching on Google; boys would have to express their affection to girls in person instead of sending an annoying txt message; and the young people of today would have the chance to experience the childhood of their parents. On this particular day, we could recover all we had lost in the modern world.
Then comes the third day. After the previous two days, we would gradually come to realize that we should have paid more attention to our studies and work as we actually have so much creativity and potential within ourselves. We would also realize that we should have spent more time with a friend, a parent or a child as we do love them, but we don't really understand them due to the lack of personal communication. We shouldn't have been so dependent on modern technology as it wasn't invented to confine us, but to inspire us. This last day would be spent in sparks of new ideas and sweet moments with our loved ones.
Maybe some would argue that it is just my imagination, and that magic would never work in our world. True, but magic can always work in our hearts, helping us understand that we, instead of the machine, are the masters of the world. The key is to treasure our human initiative and connections, to see the world with our own eyes, explore the unknown with our minds and treat others with our hearts. Just like Aladdin didn't choose to use magic to gain a happy life, we can make our choice, too. And when we do, we will live, as in the fairy tales, happily ever after. Thank you.
With the development of science and technology, change has penetrated into every aspect of our daily life. To illustrate that, I'd like to make a comparison of these two seemingly insignificant things: milkman and mailman, whose differences indicate our changing way of living with the times.
Home milk delivery has almost gone extinct in China now, also gone with it are the milkmen, who once delivered bottled fresh milk door-to-door. On the other hand, mailman's business or the courier service has thrived as online shopping gains popularity. However, in retrospect, I find something has been lost in this transition, something Shakespeare called as “the milk of human kindness”.
When I was a kid, milk wasn't for sale everywhere. For the families who need it, they depended on the milkmen to take it from the local dairy farms to their houses. In our neighborhood, there was such a milkman, whose arrival was much anticipated by the children and always brought us laughter and joy. He knew the name of every kid and could easily see through our tricks. If we didn't behave, he would side with our parents and threaten to rob us of the nutritious drink. The entire neighborhood was acquainted with him; saw him as a member of the community just like the many residents or street vendors. There was a bond between all of us for it was not only the commodities that been transacted, but also a sense of caring and dependability. And that small box fixed onto our door, other than being a drop-off point for milk; it was a communication junction between the people as we took the initiative to reach out to others.
Fast forward to today, milk is ubiquitous with no dedicated delivery system. But the convenience level of our live has gone up a notch. Almost everything is for sale online, which spares us all the travelling and talking. With a few ready clicks, shopping is done. The rest is left for those speed delivery companies. Usually it's a grumpy mailman, who reaches us through cell phone, urging everyone to pick up their parcels as soon as possible. And the minute the receipt is signed, we rush back to unpack while the courier dashes to the next destination. There is barely a conversation carried out, nor do we feel the need to talk to such a stranger, who changes from time to time frequently. It seems that people are always in a hurry now, though we have more conveniences, still we run short of time to stop and stare, to speak and share.
Call me an old-timer, but I think the personal touch represented by the milkman is what has been missing in the modern society. William Wordsworth once wrote that “Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers.” Modern technology may have multiplied our possessions or gave us more conveniences, but we run the risk of reducing our values if we lay waste our power of interpersonal relationships.
Happiness is like a snowflake, each one unique because the perception of a meaningful life varies from person to person. To many people, happiness means a simple life without any ups and downs, but my happiness comes from a life full of challenge and experience.
When I was a child, happiness was the rare taste of independence, a brave leap from the mundane. I remember the first time I tried to to ride a bike by myself without the support wheels. I went back home with a flat tire, skinned knees, and the biggest grin my face could hold. While other toddlers preferred the safe and secure, I was tumbling down hills and swerving off sidewalks. Even now, I can still recall the exhilaration I had felt when I managed to stay atop that bike for those few short moments.
Later on, overcoming challenges that I encountered in life was what brought me happiness. You see, I started learning the violin. It was extremely hard and I sounded like I was flaying a cat every time I picked it up. My fingers were awkward and the bow slipped off the strings more times than it stayed on. I spent three hours everyday, sawing at my violin. My fingers bruised and my neck ached, but gradually the mistakes lessened and I was making music. Three years later, I was First Chair violinist in the school orchestra. I still remember the pride I had felt when I took my very first bow in front of an applauding audience. Happiness had felt so much sweeter after a hard won success.
When I got older and saw more of the world, I wanted to contribute more. So when most people my age chose to spend the three months before college relaxing, I decided to get a part-time job as a TA at a summer school. I woke up at the crack of dawn, took an hour's bus to the school every day and spent most of the summer vacation sitting in the back of classrooms, grading papers and taking notes on the lecture and tutoring students. It definitely wasn't the most glamorous summer, but it was one of the happiest and most memorable moments of my life. It didn’t just make me happy because it had been my first part-time job. I was happy because I had spent my time doing something worthwhile. I had contributed in my own way, and the children were going to do better in school in the coming year.
Over the years, I’ve had my fair share of cuts and bruises, but the scars left behind are the testimony of my own unique experiences and the fulfilling life that I want to pursue. Our time is limited and I want to experience as much as life can offer. My happiness comes from living an exciting and worthy life, true to myself and true to the world.
If personal happiness were a self portrait, then each day would be a stroke of the brush, each experience a splash of vivid paint. And when we are old, we can look back upon our life and the dots will connect, every brush of color will come together and reveal a life worth living and a person worth being.
Today I am very glad to be here to share with you my ideas of success. What is success? It is what everyone is longing for.Sometimes success would be rather simple. Winning a game is success; getting a high grade in the exam is success; making a new friend is success; even now I am
standing here giving my speech is somehow also success.
However, as a person’s whole life is concerned, success becomes very
complicated. Is fortune success? Is fame success? Is high social status success? No, I don’t think so. I believe success is the realization of people’s hopes and ideals.Nowadays, in the modern society there are many people
who are regarded as the successful. And the most obvious characteristics of hem are money, high position and luxurious life. So most people believe that s success and all that they do is for this purpose. But the problem is wether it is real success. We all know there are always more money, higher position and better condition in front of us. If we keep chasing them, where is the end? What will satisfy us at last? Therefore, we can see, to get the real Success we must need something inside, which is the realization ofpeople’ hopes and ideals.
Different people have different ideas about success; cause people’s hopes and ideas vary from one another. But I am sure every success is dear to everybody, cause it is not easy to come by, cause in the process of our striving for success, we got both our body and soul tempted, meanwhile we are enlightened by the most valuable qualities of human beings: love, patient, courage and sense of responsibility. These are the best treasures. So now I am very proud that I have this opportunity to stand here speaking to all of you. It is my success, cause I raise up to challenge my hope.
What is success? Everyone has his own interpretation as I do. But I am sure every success leads to an ever-brighter future. So ladies and gentlemen, believe in our hopes, believe in ourselves, we, every one of us, can make a successful life! Wish you all good success!
I was seventeen, almost a senior in high school. I was riding my bike to school. I had taken a special route to pick up a gift, but that day, "the road less traveled by" led to disaster. Crossing a road, a drunk driver ran a red light, slammed into me, and shattered my left knee.
It made all the difference.
I was forced to postpone college, plunged into painful therapy . . . but eventually, I also learned much about life and myself. I found the strength to withstand adversity, learned compassion, and above all, I learned that the road not taken is not just about regrets or choices but also about the perpetual now and the always-coming future.
When I first studied Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” in middle school, I was unable to grasp its ambiguity. I always thought that Frost’s persona chooses “a road less traveled by” and lives life being subversive and irreverent. I was wrong. In the poem, both of the two roads that “diverged in a yellow wood” are actually “about the same.” But there has to be a choice, and sometimes, they it can be involuntary (as I learned the hard way). This makes me extremely thankful and resolute when I can make conscious choices and plan for the future, and so I know now that Frost's poem is also about "the road not [yet] taken."
For everyone, this means something slightly different. For me, it means constant vigilance, learning, and love. Our journey is hard, complex, and it often presents unexpected twists, but reflecting on the roads not taken and not yet taken each day gives us a little more strength and confidence. Life cannot and will not me perfect, and the truth is it will end. But as Willa Cather would say, “The end is nothing, the road is all.” The road not taken in the past, and the road not yet taken that lies ahead.
But about the present? It joints the past and the future. What then, is “the road not taken” in the perpetual now? Personally, I find an answer in these lines from Alfred Lord Tennyson’s “Ulysses”:
Tho’ much is taken, much abides; and though
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
Thank you.
With the development of science and technology, change has penetrated into every aspect of our daily life. To illustrate that, I’d like to make a comparison of these two seemingly insignificant things: milkman and mailman, whose differences indicate our changing way of living with the times.
Home milk delivery has almost gone extinct in China now, also gone with it are the milkmen, who once delivered bottled fresh milk door-to-door. On the other hand, mailman’s business or the courier service has thrived as online shopping gains popularity. However, in retrospect, I find something has been lost in this transition, something Shakespeare called as “the milk of human kindness”.
When I was a kid, milk wasn’t for sale everywhere. For the families who need it, they depended on the milkmen to take it from the local dairy farms to their houses. In our neighborhood, there was such a milkman, whose arrival was much anticipated by the children and always brought us laughter and joy. He knew the name of every kid and could easily see through our tricks. If we didn’t behave, he would side with our parents and threaten to rob us of the nutritious drink. The entire neighborhood was acquainted with him; saw him as a member of the community just like the many residents or street vendors. There was a bond between all of us for it was not only the commodities that been transacted, but also a sense of caring and dependability. And that small box fixed onto our door, other than being a drop-off point for milk; it was a communication junction between the people as we took the initiative to reach out to others.
Fast forward to today, milk is ubiquitous with no dedicated delivery system. But the convenience level of our live has gone up a notch. Almost everything is for sale online, which spares us all the travelling and talking. With a few ready clicks, shopping is done. The rest is left for those speed delivery companies. Usually it’s a grumpy mailman, who reaches us through cell phone, urging everyone to pick up their parcels as soon as possible. And the minute the receipt is signed, we rush back to unpack while the courier dashes to the next destination. There is barely a conversation carried out, nor do we feel the need to talk to such a stranger, who changes from time to time frequently. It seems that people are always in a hurry now, though we have more conveniences, still we run short of time to stop and stare, to speak and share.
Call me an old-timer, but I think the personal touch represented by the milkman is what has been missing in the modern society. William Wordsworth once wrote that “Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers.” Modern technology may have multiplied our possessions or gave us more conveniences, but we run the risk of reducing our values if we lay waste our power of interpersonal relationships.
Hello, ladies and gentlemen. Today my topic is The Road Not Taken in Life.
“Why are you doing this? Don’t you know it’s a total waste of time?” That’s what my mom yelled at the ten-year-old me, when she found out that I had signed up for an English story-telling competition.
I bowed my head; yes, she was right. By then I was entering Grade Six, faced with the biggest challenge yet to come—the examination to enter my dream junior high school. For that, I had given up my beloved piano lesson, my favorite cartoon program and even the playful weekend family reunion with my cousins. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if my very-strict-university-teacher mother got furious at me when I chose to do anything besides study at that crucial moment.
But that’s not all to it. Now please take a good look at the twenty-year-old me, and imagine what I was like when I was ten. Here are the key words: nervous, timid, shy, tongue-tied when facing strangers, and essentially a bookworm. These signs looked fatal to my mother, and possibly to you, too; she thought that I could be anything but a good public speaker.
Well, I myself actually said no to my English teacher at first, because I had never done anything like that before and I was afraid. But he told me since I liked reading so much, why not try to tell a story I love to everyone? He also promised me that the judges were not frightening at all; just think of them as carrots and cabbages in a vegetable patch.
The ten-year-old me was persuaded by my teacher’s words. The feeling of telling my beloved stories to someone else ignited a spark of anticipation in my little chest. So I chose to endure my mother’s ranting for an entire hour, then raised my head bravely and pleaded: “Mom, please. I just want to try.”
My mother looked as if she was on the verge of another outburst—but she only sighed. I took that as her permission, and started working with my teacher day and night to find a story, to illustrate the details, and to practice my facial expressions and gestures in front of the mirror. On the day of the competition, I went on the stage for the very first time in my life; I could feel the nervousness threatening to bring me down, and I felt cheated by my teacher: it was impossible to picture the judges as mere carrots and cabbages. But I went on. Although I only got the third prize at that time, on that stage I stayed ever since, even to this very moment.
I should thank my teacher and my mother for letting me take a road that I have never taken before. Little did I know then that this road would one day lead the shy little ten-year-old me into a wonderland; it led me to meet all of you here today. I can tell you from the bottom of my heart that it isn’t so terrifying to venture into the unknown at all; all you need is a little courage and determination. See where my road has led me, and bravely take your first step.