“Dear Amorette, thank you for your great help all these days. I have learned a lot from this whole process. Although finally I didn’t manage to get qualified for the national competition this year in Texas, I feel happy to be with this adorable team and to learn so much.”
This Monday morning, the first one since the end of the competition season, I was writing a thank-you letter to the coach of my forensics team. It is hard to say good-bye, especially when it means leaving so many friends and fantastic experiences, and when you feel your journey hasn’t come to a final close.
Let me explain. For the past three months, I have been competing on North Dakota State University’s forensics team. Forensics teams compete in the art of public speaking and debate, and back in China it is a really popular pursuit.
NDSU Forensic Team: (from left to right) Timothy J. Bill, Dandan Chen, Eliot Tyler Olson, Keith Bistodeau, Jess Bob, Jeff Fricker, Sarah Budde, Shane Wehlage, Kristen Jewel, Nigel Haarstad and Amorette Hinderaker. (Photo by Amorette Hinderaker)
Now you may scream at me: “But you are an international student from China! And you are competing against Americans at speaking in English? Are you kidding me???”
But actually, in China almost every university has its own English forensic team and there are also lots of English debate and speech competitions. Some of them can be as marvelous as those in America. So giving speeches or debating in English is not new for me, and I adapted to the American forensics very well and grew rapidly.
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