Fall Issue, 2014

F ounded in 2013, the non-profit organisation SpeechExpress originally targeted Hong Kong teenagers who fear speaking English in public. In August 2014, the organisation extended its efforts beyond Hong Kong and organised its first summer camp in Yongchun, Fujian, titled “Dialogue with the World” which provides the opportunity for students to encounter Western cultures and receive training on English-speaking practices. “Education in Mainland China is facing the same problem as in Hong Kong. It is exam-oriented,” said Alison Song 宋明潔 (BBA(Law) Year 3), the founding member of SpeechExpress. “So we picked Fujian – an economically middle- ranged area on the Mainland with a reasonable standard of English education where most of the service organisations seldom pay attention to.” With 68 secondary school students participating in the programme, Alison and six other volunteers from Indonesia, India, Bangladesh and China took the responsibility to teach the students new knowledge based on English speaking techniques and global issues such as ‘globalisation’, while also drawing some attention to interest developments in the areas of drama and dance. Adopting a pedagogy of “Learning by Doing” to intensively train public speaking skills of students in Dialogue with the World - SpeechExpress Learning the Macarena in the first warm-up session. It acts as a means of relaxation, comfort and enjoyment. 34 SERVICE 100