Washington, D.C. student wins Chinese speech contest
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WASHINGTON, D.C.
Ben Omer, an LDS student attending Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., recently won the highest award in the toughest division of a Chinese speech contest, the Jiangsu Cup Speech Contest. He credits his success to skills he honed as a full-time missionary.
A member of the Washington D.C. 2nd Ward, Washington D.C. Stake and a native of Lehi, Utah, he took intense Chinese courses his freshman year to go along with his studies in international business.
The following summer, he received a mission call — to Canada, not Taiwan, as he'd expected. He returned from the Canada Toronto Mission (Chinese-speaking) last summer to resume his studies at Georgetown.
A teacher told him about a speech contest open to undergraduates studying Chinese at universities in the Washington, D.C. area. He was one of seven Georgetown students who applied for one of the 18 spots in the contest, which tested language proficiency. He competed in the advanced division.
He said his mission experience gave him the opportunity to hone his conversational skills in Mandarin, as well as learn to use good study habits.
"Having conversations with people on my mission helped me be familiar with answering questions," he explained, noting that two-thirds of the contest required answering questions on the spot. "I was lots more comfortable in that situation."
In addition, the ability to focus and study a lot in a short amount of time was valuable. A critical part of the application was a three-minute self introduction in Chinese, which he recorded on the online application after spending many hours with his teacher writing, revising, practicing and improving it.
He then had less than two weeks' notice that he had been selected to compete in the advanced division.
"In the thick of midterms, I added study of contest reference materials to my busy schedule," he said. "My most concentrated study and practice happened in the two days before the contest, when I had no other obligations to focus on."
The contest had two rounds, the first with a one-minute self introduction, followed by questions about the reference materials and the second a three-minute impromptu speech, followed by questions on the speech's content.
"I was given the prompt five minutes before speaking," he said, "and at that point I could only rely on the preparation and prayers that I'd put in beforehand."
He serves as president of the small Latter-day Saints Student Association (LDSSA) at Georgetown University and plans to use his Chinese language skills in a career in international business.
As the Gold Award winner in the advanced division of the Jiangsu Cup Speech Contest, he was offered a scholarship to earn a master's degree at Nanjing University, but because of his sophomore status he is not eligible for graduate studies. He said he will keep the Gold Award certificate and crystal trophy but take the Silver Award prize instead — an eight-day tour of Jiangsu Province next summer.
The George Washington University hosted the contest, jointly sponsored by the Jiangsu International Cultural Exchange Center and Nanjing University in China.
