No Room for Shyness

This past week was the annual Territory-wide System Assessment for the sixth graders in Hong Kong. These exams, given in both English and Chinese, are designed to assess schools, and their students' performance, throughout the city.

The English exam consists of two spoken parts. In the first, the student must read aloud a paragraph or two with correct intonation and pronunciation, as well as eye contact. Then, he or she must answer a couple of related questions in complete sentences. Doesn't sound too hard, right?

But the second part is where it gets interesting. The student is given a set of six or so pictures along with a topic. For example, pictures of six different locations -- London, Kenya, Beijing, the Bahamas, Alaska, Japan -- and the questions "Which destination would you choose for your next summer holiday? Why?" Then, the student must speak for a full two minutes on that topic, after having only three minutes to prepare (and no pen and paper allowed).

Now, as someone who speaks in front of a class 30 students for at least a few hours each day, that isn't so hard. But as an 11- or 12-year-old child, speaking in a foreign language?! I am truly amazed at my students' abilities. At their age, I would have been nervous to read aloud in class or be put on the spot by a teacher's question, and could no more have given a two-minute presentation in English (my native language) than I could have climbed Everest.

But, one of my main observations of students here in Hong Kong is that they are almost universally less shy than students in the US, partly because they are forced to be so. Music students in primary school are already playing solo works, and those who won at the city-wide competition performed on stage in front of our entire school, which has about 900 students. Even little first-grade students stand on stage in our weekly assemblies, reciting a prayer or Bible verse alone into a mic they can barely reach.

In the long run, of course, these students will most certainly benefit from the public-speaking skills and confidence they develop from doing the things mentioned above and more. I just hope they won't be pushed too much because after all, they are just kids!