An English Composition

I am at high school. We have just finished final exams. We are going to have the end of term school meeting to wrap the term off.

It’s going to be a special occasion for me. I am told that I am going to read my English composition at the meeting to over 2,000 students. The composition was done during my just finished English exam. My English teacher is very impressed with it and very proud of me. He believes that I should share my composition with all students.

I am at home, preparing for my speech at the meeting. My sister Joan is helping me to make up my face. My grandparents keep asking me what I wrote in my composition. They are going to attend the meeting together with my parents and my neighbour Elaine (Elaine is my neighbour while I lived in Wellington in the last four years).

The meeting has started. Somehow I don’t feel ready as I haven’t found my script. I am in a frantic rush, desperately looking for it, bearing in mind the composition was done during an exam in a tight time frame which makes it hard to recite from my mind.

I find my English teacher in the crowds. He tells me that he is gping to read my composition in Chinese before I start, so that those audiences who don’t know English can understand the excellence of my composition.

It is a good arrangement, I must admit. However, I still haven’t found my English script. The meeting has already started. I can hear that the headmaster has kicked off the opening speech. I go upstairs where the school broadcast studio is and ask them when my turn is. They tells me that my turn is next.

I realise that I don’t have time to muck around looking for my English script. I decide to borrow the Chinese script from my English teacher after he finishes and translate into English instantaneously. The only problem is: my original English composition, after being translated into Chinese, then being translated back into English, even I myself am not sure it’s going to be as good as my original composition.

Anyhow I am now on the stage in front of the audiences. I feel slightly nervous but I soon tell myself to calm down and read my composition as if I am talking to just one person. I learnt this technique from Suzanne Jeffers in her ‘Fear the fear and do it anyway’.

My opening speech is: ‘The composition I am going to share with you is dedicated to all the people I love, especially to my English teacher, Mr Zuo…’ Then I start translating the Chinese script as if I am reading the original English version. It goes well on the first page. However when I come to the middle of second page, I note that two sentences are poorly scribbled and very hard to read. I am annoyed with whoever wrote this down as apparently he/she is not a very responsible person. Fortunately there are only two sentences which I can make it up in my own imagination and words using my quick wit.