19th Korean Speech Contest

warning: its a long post, go grab a coffee or make yourself comfortable before reading. 

"Everything went blank as soon as I got up the stage, I mumbled any words I can, the end" 

One fine day in April, a korean language center instagram acc that ive been following for a long time reposted a poster announcing a “Korean speech contest”. I quickly took a screenshot to save it in my gallery so I’ll think of it again when i glance at it.  

Speech contest? yea right. easy. i can make a speech. ofcourse. in a room with 0 people. 

but korean? you dont know how much this language has impacted me. It has led me to literally a whole new world- new way of thinking, new friends, new people, new fun, new opportunities, new experiences…you name it. Im living the best of both world and i cant be grateful enough that I started learning it back in 2021. Its only been only 3 years but there are just so many things happened. Crazy how not limiting up yourself, embracing a foreign language in your life, has opened up so much doors for me. Saying i love korean language comes with its risk because of the prejudice i’ll get (oh you like kpop, oh youre a koreaboo, youre too obsessed), while i do love it bcs its such an interesting language, but i’ll say i love everything that learning Korean has brought into my life.

A korean speech contest? Just another opportunity knocking at my door. how bad can it be. I’ll just stand, and talk. in korean.  forgotting the “in front of a lot of people” part, i thought lets just do it. 

Oh, and the grand prize? Ten weeks of studying in Korea and a two-night stay in Jeju—straight-up fulfilling my dream. I WANT TO GO TO JEJU AGAIN. 

anyway. 

To apply for the contest, I needed to create a script right away. Basically, I had to submit my application with a ready-made speech script. 

The application dateline was 3rd of may, and it was the last day of April when I saw it. and the poster was posted on 3rd April. so i got 3 days left. great. “tak sofea la kalau tak buat kerja laju laju, i need to get the script ready asap. No problem”. I saw the topic options, and drafted them in my head. The options are:

1. You before and after learning korean -Nah, too much to talk about. i dont want to make it all about myself.
2. “If you were to go to korea in winter” -If they ask me my experience during it, i’d be happy to tell them abt how i was stuck in the snowstorm and how i was freezing to death and cursing korean winter. but its a future tense question. 
3. Malaysian food that you want to introduce to koreans -hmmmmm, doable. I can just goreng abt this. 

I chose number 3. 

The next morning, i did some research on the food i want to talk about, and i started on the greetings. 

around 3 hours later, im done. Hahahaaha. i dont know what i did but i was so done with it. So i’ll just go with it, and applied. Email sent. Not knowing what i signed up for. 

i had no prior knowledge of this contest, its process, let alone, ever been to any speech contest before. 

how naive I was to think that sending the email was all there was to it. Im gonna talk in front of a lot of people confirmed. but nope, theres 2 rounds i need to pass. 

Few weeks later I received an email from the organiser. “Congratulations, youve passed the first script screening round and here’s your interview time” 

err, thanks but what do you mean, “Congratulations”?? i thought i was already in?

i knew about the interview but i thought it was a procedure for everyone who have applied and its just to assess your korean level. so i prepared nothing for the interview considering its only for 25 minutes. 

I joined the zoom call, talked to the interviewer (she was really nice btw, and she’s one of the judges). Exchanged our hellos,  “so are you ready?” she asked me, 

“for what?” i thought to myself. Isnt this just a level-checking interview? oh no….was i wrong…..

She asked me to introduce myself, asked me abt the script, asked me everything outside of the script, and we talked a lot in korean. it went well i think if its a job interview i’ll get the job. 

Then, she said something very encouraging: "If you pass this round and make it to the final, you have to do your best."

“what round?? final???” i thought in my head. i still didnt know what was going on. As i said, i thought i was already in?

“okay….” i replied. a simple answer concealing all of my confusion.

fast forward, i received another email the next week, 

“Congratulations, youre the finalist of this year’s speech contest”

wuhuu, thanks man. i remember feeling excited yet fearful, a mixture of emotions churning in my stomach. But it's okay, I'll practice and give it my best shot. its just 5 minutes of talking (the speech has to be less than 5 minutes) 

so, I practised everyday, taking my time to remember 2 paragraphs a day, and started to practise it out loud once I remembered everything. I set the timer to 5 minutes, making sure i didnt exceed the time limit. my script was too long, so I trimmed it down a lil. whenever I found a spare 5 minutes, I'd practice again.

honestly, i felt like throwing up bcs I've repeated the same thing every day. so i took a rest for one or two days. sometimes, i was so used to it I thought my script was so boring the audience might not enjoy. But it was too late, ive already submitted and I have to commit. But overall, the practice went well. I thought I was ready for d-day...

I am very very thankful for all the support system I have in my life (you know who you are), they were so excited to come and support me on the day but I beg them not to come. I know for sure, 101%, I will screw up when I see someone I know in the audience. Please don't add up to my nervousness. 

So, my parents dropped me off at the venue, showering me with endless encouragement before they left. As I stood there alone, I noticed a group of people- teachers and students from schools and universities, who had come to support their classmates. I saw families too, which was heartwarming to see. They were cheering for them, even did their own "cheer" song everytime their classmates went up on stage. Teachers being the kris jenner, busy supporting and recording the speeches of their students. and some even sat among the audience, silently mouthing the script to their students for added support. I thought, "oh? is that right...?" nevermind, i dont really care. 

It was a bright atmosphere, people dressed up, sang, and danced on the stage. Me? 

I was so nervous I didnt even take a single meal, just few water. I came dressing up in Hanbok (it was my dad's idea to rent it), which is a korean traditional dress, thinking it might earn me few extra points from the judges only turned out to be such a discomfort to the people sitting beside me. The dress was so big and voluminous I have a petticoat ring underneath to hold out the skirt. 1st regret- I shoulve just worn a baju kurung. Much much more comfortable, and this made me realize why Koreans don't wear their traditional clothes as often as we do. we wear them even to work! #melayuforever

Kind of, this big. you can imagine how it kembang it'll be when I sit.

A small and blurred one cause im shy but still want to show my baju. Picture by mom. 

I also bought some pax of the food I was talking about, intending to share them with the judges and the audience for them to taste. That turned out to be another challenge. (I felt like crying typing this) I was alone, carrying a 10 pax of foods and planning to give them out to the judges. I don't even know If anyone ever did it and if it was even allowed. 

I approached the crew, "um, do you know how I can distribute these foods when its my turn?" I asked, looking so suspicious. Only adding to the chaos to the crew. They were panicking, and discussing among themselves. Oh no i am so sorry. 

"Do you have anyone coming with you to help?" She asked. 

I felt like crying, "why cant you help me? Im alone, youre the crew right?" ofcourse its only in my head. I was hoping my eyes could convey my true message. which ofcourse they didnt catch. 

"Oh, no, i came alone, its okay i'll handle it myself later, can I just leave it here?" I gestured toward a spot in front of the stage, knowing that with my voluminous skirt already taking up so much space at the seat, there was no way I could manage to carry ten packs of food as well....ah. damn. not a good start. I wish I have someone to help, but it was also my wish for them not being there....

The contest began, my turn was the 17th so I got to relax and observe on others first. I was shocked by how good they were. And how confident they were on stage. I could never...

Their scripts seems to go on FOREVER, and thats when I realized no one was actually checking the time limit. Whhaat? I had even trimmed my script down to comply to it but no. one. actually. cares? Their script was much much much longer than mine, and it was much much more fun that mine. 

"Yep, i cant win. Thats it, its okay lets just get this day done for" i thought to myself. feeling defeated and already tired of everything. 

btw, the person beside me, the right side, was soo nice, she was so nice and we talked a lot, giving encouragement to each other. "Fighting! we can do this" i told her sincerely since she looked so nervous. I genuinely supported here from the audience, because like me, she also came alone. I think it was only the both of us, who came alone, because it was only the two of us, who were not students there. Alhamdulillah for her. 

people continued to go up and down the stage, cheers echoed from their supported, laughter filled the air, and applause resounded throughout the venue, it was finally my turn. The audience, clapped for me, but I didn't even hear it. 

As soon as I went up the stage, grabbed the mic, I saw all eyes on me, I saw the judges, I uttered my first line... and then, for what felt like an eternity, I stood there in silence for like a good 15 seconds, I was standing, silently, the audience were staring and me, and i returned the gaze. My head went blank. Shit. sorry for cursing. 

Oh my god, everything that Ive practised when "pooof!" from my head. I felt betrayed by them like they were mocking me "so long suckers, we're outta here" and I saw them leaving my brain. I tried to do my best with what I remembered, and I cant help skipping some lines of it......it was suck. 

But, I made eye contact to the judges, I saw the nice women who interviewed me, the judges were very nice btw, they reacted to my questions, they nodded along with my points, agreeing to it, chuckled at my jokes, the audience too. Oh, and when I told them I brought the food with me for them to taste, they were like "haaaa?? waaa" and I laughed bcs they were so cute. 

still, as I trimmed down my script to make it short, my speech just ended like that, abruptly. ugh, such a disaster. I went down not feeling relieved, but feeling so down that It wasn't the best one. My practise was much much better than that.

The person beside me said I did well but I knew I didnt so I can't really accept her words, but it was very nice of her. She's so kind. 

I sat down, watching the turns after me, they were all very good, practised a lot more than me, their stories were much much more engaging and I just want to go home and cry hahahaha. but its okay, Ive planned to have a good meal after this, hoping it would be my comfort after everything (it was), so I just stayed till the end. I texted Aliya and iman instead, craving for their comforting words. I love them. may Allah reward them. 

Quickly, I changed out of the uncomfortable Hanbok into a much more comfortable shirt I prepared and my favorite tudung. It felt like a 180 degree improvement in my mood. "its ok, its for my experience. you being here, was such an achievement sofea" i thought to myself. It doesnt really help but I felt a little better. "you can try again" i cant believe that words was from me cause i dont feel like trying again at all. 

I want to buy 10 more of this tudung

They announced the winner, the person beside me got placed 3rd, so proud of her. the 1st place, was sooo deserved. She deserved it so much. cause again, she was TOO good. 

You know what, I know I did bad, I forgot my lines on stage, but my script was too short and boring comparing to other contestant (which i think exceeds 5 mins) that even if I didn't skip any line and did very well, I just can't win with my script. So one lesson, actually two. First, make your script more interesting. second, do not care about the time limit. 

and............yeah? that was pretty much it. My parents, and my friends were incredibly supportive, they comforted me with their words, even the host of the event comforted me saying "Although the result is important, but you have to remember that the process to, is important". But the line that touched me the most was when my Korean friend said, "Even if you didn't win I was already proud of you." those words meant the world to me, and I felt immensely grateful for my support system. Thank you all so much <333 may Allah bless, and ease all of your affairs, searching for jobs, stress at work, married life, love life, health anything may Allah ease. Despite the exhaustion, the experience was surprisingly fun. Allah have always sent me good people my way Alhamdulillah. 

I know its not easy to be where I am now, they said there were 81 applications and only 20 were selected to final. I didn't even know what I did, just trying for the first time, and straight away went to the final? that was a great achievement for me. I realised it quite late. When people said they respected me for entering the contest, I initially denied it cause I know i didnt deserve the compliment but I've come to realize that sometimes I just need to accept the compliments instead of constantly undermining myself. but ofcourse everything comes from Allah. Alhamdulillah. 

its okaaaaaaay, everything turned out well in the end. People were so kind to me, except for myself.

I had my meal, didnt even finish it. thank you for finishing it up for me (you know who you are) hehe and went home. 

Anyway, it was such a long journey and im so glad its now done. So I can now focus on my next project! yes! 

Thank you for reading this until here, you deserve a token of love from me if you're reading this line. It was such a long post. anyway thank you again! Nak puasa bahasa korea, sebulan. and jom g jeju, guna duit sendiri je zzzz.