It was a strange sight, but the noisy room buzzed with excitement as 16-year-old Benjamin Wu stood in a circle with other young people in London as they recited speeches they were attempting to memorise, careful not to get thrown off and to stick to their scripts.
The group had been selected to represent their home countries and regions in the English-Union International Public Speaking Competition 2024, held in May, and the game was a fun way to remember their scripts for the competition.
Benjamin, who will be in Form Five at Diocesan Boys’ School this year, locked in his ticket to represent Hong Kong after winning the English Public Speaking Contest 2024 in April. The competition was hosted by The Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups and the English-Speaking Union Hong Kong, who also sponsored Benjamin’s trip to London.
Surprising success
Winning the semi-final round in London, where he gave a speech about Chinese revolutionary Sun Yat-sen, came as a surprise to Benjamin. He felt the other 38 contestants were “pretty top-notch” and did not think he would advance to the grand finals. “I walked out of there thinking, ‘Yeah, I’m not making it,’” he recalled.
To his astonishment, he was selected as one of the six grand finalists, meaning he had to memorise and present a six-minute speech by the next day. The prompt for the grand final was: “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”
The teen used it as an opportunity to teach the thousands in the crowd about his home, Hong Kong. His final speech, sprinkled with anecdotes about the city and its culture, was a personal story about changing his mindset and focusing on self-betterment.
“When you’re speaking on the international stage, you have the opportunity to speak about where you come from,” Benjamin said. “You’re in a room where people ... probably know nothing about Hong Kong. So you have a chance to bring your perspective of where you come from to them.”
While Benjamin did not walk away with the top award, he left London feeling confident about his public speaking skills. “I was pretty impressed with how far I went. In terms of my abilities, I’d say there was substantial improvement,” he said.
Building confidence in speaking
Benjamin has been a member of his school’s English debate team for a few years, dedicating countless hours to developing the skills needed to give an impactful speech. Still, he has a few difficulties. The hardest part for him is always choosing a topic, but there are three factors he considers when trying to decide what to discuss.
“I think of a topic that will interest myself, that will interest the audience, and that is something that I feel needs to be said,” he explained.
“Over the past three years, I’ve found my niches [or] specialities that I just can ramble on about for days. I think finding what you’re passionate about and being able to talk about it is a really useful skill to have.”
Benjamin explained that he only needed to memorise a few points from his script before giving his speeches. Instead of word-for-word memorisation, he focuses on the ideas supporting his speech and commits the keywords to memory.
Public speaking tips from a Hong Kong comedian: how to feel more confident in front of a crowd
“On one hand, you don’t want to forget your speech halfway through, but on the other hand, you don’t want to sound robotic or monotonous,” he said.
Benjamin’s advice for students just getting started with public speaking is to improve by gaining as much experience as possible, adding personal touches to their speeches, and cultivating a support system consisting of speaking coaches, friends, or family.
All these tips can help you improve at public speaking, a necessary and relevant skill that can translate to other areas of life.
“Public speaking gives you the confidence to find the right words, to say the right things,” the teen shared.
“Maybe you’re doing a presentation, or maybe you’re just speaking in front of your family and friends; the confidence that you have in public speaking carries on to every other aspect of life.”
