The Power of Words and the Graduation Speech

At the end of the whole study in language school, there is a graduation held every Friday, and when you graduate, you need to speech in front of everybody. Of course, you could just said "thank you" then finished, go back to your seat. On the other hand, it was a great opportunity to practice English and tell people how your feeling while you were studying there. I think the whole enviornment just so great and made me have willing to try more when I speech.

It is amazing that I finally feel relax and not panic about speech in front of people. I always very nervous and my legs were shaking during the whole occasion.

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On the right side of the picture, is my graduation : my teacher Judy and me in Christchurch. I still remember my speech. I said although only stayed 2 weeks, teachers are still gaving me a lot of help and homework. :) I explained that I was going to Auckland then to have a trip around New Zealand. But the funny part was when I referred to "The country behind the mountain" , to point out our Swiss classmate Stephan, coz we were always making a joke about Switzerland being the country behind the mountain that has no industrialization at all. The graduation in Chch is laughing all the time!

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And another one, of course is Auckland's graduation speech. I had prepared the line for a week, but I was a little bit paniced and I forgot many words. Basically just showing thanks to teachers that I enjoyed the every second of the class time, except test :) And it has been a great honour to share experience with all the classmates, and friends from worldwide house.

One thing beyond my expectation, that after the whole graduation finished, one of the other teachers told me "What a nice speech!" Especially since she wasn't my teacher which means those words were not for her, but she complimented my speech. That encouraged me very much, I realized that once you prepare more, the better you will show. For the first time I felt the power of words in English.