Berita Kampus

Dreams Do Come True – for Those Who Persevere

Lin Meiyi, the 1st Runner-up in the Star-HSBC Public Speaking Competition flanked by Dr Oo (left), Director of EMSD,
Ms Manjula (right) Head of Division and lecturers from EMSD.

This year marks an eventful occasion in the annals of TAR College Extra Mural Studies Department and, is “a dream come true” for Lin Meiyi. It does not only signify the third participation of the TARC student in the Public Speaking Competition, jointly organized by the Star, HSBC and English Speaking Union, but also a winning streak for our very own Meiyi, who won at the national level with her speech entitled “Elementary, My Dear Watson”.

Earlier, a total of four keen students from our college participated in the 2007 TARC Public Speaking Competition. Apart from the winner, Lin Meiyi (DCB 2), these students were Thavarupani Subramaniam (DMS 1), Menaka Chokalingam (DAC 1) and Geneviene Olivia Sim Wenling (DFA 1).

Prior to the competition, the participants attended a workshop which provided them ample guidance to gear them up towards the competition. This year’s workshop was held on the 16th February 2008 at Kolej Kasturi, Kuala Lumpur. Among the activities conducted were ice-breaking sessions, practices on impromptu speech, watching the recordings of the previous winners’ performances at the 2007 International Public Speaking Competition held in London and listening to a talk by the 2007 winner who represented Malaysia in London. Participants agreed that the workshop had indeed been helpful especially in guiding them in writing their speeches and sharpening their oratory skills.

Meiyi impressed the judges with her oratory skills.

“New Horizons, New Frontiers” and “If I could Change the World” were the two themes given to start off this year’s Preliminary Rounds and Semi-finals respectively. “Interesting themes but definitely challenging”, claimed one of our participants – Geneviene, who, together with the others had put in a lot of effort in practising before the competition which was held in Kolej Damansara Utama, Petaling Jaya. In fact all our four participants were glad that the date of the competition was postponed from 8th March 2008 to 15th March 2008 due to the polling held in our country on the original date. The participants welcomed this extra time to practise hard and for Meiyi, the hard work has indeed paid off. She was not only selected to compete at the Semi-finals, but as faith would have it, she went on to win the national championship – winning an all expense paid trip to London by becoming the first-runner up in the Finals held at Eastin Hotel, Petaling Jaya on the 29th March 2008. Together with the other winner, Meiyi will represent Malaysia in the 2008 International Public Speaking Competition which will held in London.

Meiyi’s win has indeed proven that the initiatives undertaken by the college to promote English through the various English Language Campaign activities organized by EMSD has come to fruition and perhaps this will also serve well for future students taking part in Public Speaking Competition organised by the department. As for Lin Meiyi, her third attempt to win the trip to London since she first set her mind on it in 2005, is indeed a mark of perseverance.

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