Angry Birds and Action Words

About two months ago it was, the first time I heard the term "Choral Speaking". Unfortunately, it was as part of the sentence "The mentor will teach us how to do choral speaking - won't you, Miss Emily?" Apparently this is something that we do in the west. Yes, I know, it's the first time I've ever heard of it too... So online I went - I do so love Wikipedia and YouTube, truly they are a teacher's friends. 

Choral Speaking is something that used to be done in British schools, as a way to improve students' memories, to make them work as a team, and to focus on diction and pronunciation. Presumably in 1950s Britain, this meant stuffing little West Country kids into a Queen's English mould. In Malaysia, it's become a big deal - schools that win the national contest get major bragging rights for the year. But before you get to national level, you have to get through state level. And before you get to compete at state level, you have to win at the zone level. And it was at zone level that I was asked to assist my schools, not just in choral speaking but in various extra-curricular activities that the schools would be competing in for a two-day Extra-Curriculum Competition (kind of a talent show, but better respected...) 

It was only after I'd been helping each of my school for a few weeks that I was told I would also be required to judge them. I didn't feel guilty at all, honest.

So. Monday and Tuesday was the zone competition, two loooooong days of watching children dance, sing, recite, tell stories, give speeches, speak chorally (because that's the official verb of the noun Choral Speaking, really), sing actionally (ditto for the noun Action Songs) and generally show off all their wonderful skills. The action songs in English were lots of fun - even though I'd had to listen to endless hours of Heads Shoulders Knees and Toes and Do the Hokey Pokey during practice, it was still lovely to finally see their hard work in action, in costume, on the stage. I do find it a little odd that the kids get tailor-made Angry Birds costumes for 7 minutes of performance, but the budget can't be found for a decent laminating machine in the staff room, but you know, priorities, right?

But aren't the kids just the most beautiful happy little kids you've ever seen?! This was one of my schools, one of the teams that I worked really closely with - they came second:

The next day was the Choral Speaking. There're a lot of rules for this - I had to read 4 pages of them out loud for the audience (in English, even though most of the parents didn't speak a word - but the competition has to be in English, and therefore so do the rules), and it was tough to judge and remember the rules. The winners were clear though - they won by a huge margin. The conductor also won a prize, which made me so happy as she's one of my favourite students, and we practised for hours together on her public speaking competition (which she also won - yay!)

After the English-speaking competitions came traditional dance. I was thrilled to see some of the most popular kids in school participating in this with such enthusiasm - I can't imagine an English student performing the Morris Dance with much joy... But then in Dusun dancing you get to beat gongs and leap around, and bellow like a wild thing...

Some of the kids did dances from other tribes as well - the ones below were (I think) presenting a tribal dance from Sarawak. There are plenty to choose from, as between them Sabah and Sarawak boast of around forty ethnic groups, each with their own clothing, basketry, artworks, dances, songs, musical instruments... I'm privileged to live in a very diverse part of our world.

The last competition (before the inevitable speeches by local VIPs) was the singing. Now, I do like a bit of singing, me. The singing was lovely. It was the make-up that was disturbing. It was mainly the fact that while listening to these little girls sing, if I watched their faces for too long then I got a terrible shock when I happened to look away, and realised that they were only four feet tall.

It may also be a result of my childhood - I'm only jealous, because I never got to dress up as a glittering princess...

This gorgeous child's teachers took the theme of Malaysian Unity seriously, and dressed her in a combination of Chinese, Dusun, Malay and Baba-Nyonya clothes.

And don't be thinking that the boys get away with it either. The winning male singer (incidentally the same popular boy that led the winning dance group) did a wonderful love song, complete with imaginary tears falling from his devastated face, and a full-on, lime-green Malay costume, sword and bling attached.

In England this might be called child abuse; I'm glad I'm living in a place where it's called pride in your heritage...