On 7 December, the Semi-final of the Secondary School Category of the “21st Century Cup” National English Speaking Competition (Hong Kong region) took place at Wai Kiu College in Hong Kong. A total of 54 contestants from 31 secondary schools passed the preliminary online selection criteria to take part in the competition.

Seven contestants from the Junior Secondary Category and Six from the Senior Secondary Category have been selected based on their scores to go through to the final, which will be held in Hong Kong on 18 January, 2020. The names of the finalists are listed below (in alphabetical order).

Junior

ALI Dua
BAUTISTA Samantha Jane C.
HO Yan Ching Isabelle
Lewis Gilbert
LY Wai Yin Gloria
Sham Pui Yan
Yunxi ZHAO

Senior

CHAN Ka Lo Carol
FONG Leong
HUNG Tse Hong
LEUNG Gloria
LI Tsz Hing
YUEN Sa Lun

The Junior group’s speech topic was “The changes I would make to my life”, while the Senior group presented speeches on the topic of “Doing things right or doing right things”.

The contestants are waiting

The judges are busy

Nine judges scored the contestants. They were Ms. Carrie Yuen, Ms. Wong Kit Wah Natina, Ms. Wan Wai-Kam Virgini and Mr. Liu Chee Chiu Frank from the English Speaking Union Hong Kong, Dr. Danny Leung from the Open University of Hong Kong, Dr. Ruby Yang from the Education University of Hong Kong, Dr. Sarah Lee from Hong Kong Baptist University and Dr. Holly Chung HO-Ying and Mr. Kyle Steven Thorson from the Hang Seng University of Hong Kong. They spoke highly of the students’ performances while also encouraging them to practice.