KUALA LUMPUR: A Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin student’s confidence and eloquence has earned himself the honour of representing Malaysia at an international public speaking competition in London next month.
Shah Nizam Mazlan, 20, who is pursuing a course in Teaching of English as a Second Language (TESL) wowed judges and triumphed over 12 other finalists with his 10-minute presentation on ‘Peace is not an Absence of War’.
The national-level Public Speaking Competition 2017 was held at the University of Nottingham Teaching Centre here today. “I didn’t expect to beat the other fine finalists and my focus now is to represent Malaysia to the best of my ability in London,” Shah Nizam, who is from Selangor, told Bernama.
Today’s event was co-organised by London-based international educational charity body, English Speaking Union (ESU), Malaysian Institute of Debating and Public Speaking and the University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus.
Malaysia chairman Tan Sri Tunku Dara Naquiah Tuanku Ja’afar said the competition, organised since 2002, was an effort to encourage young Malaysians, to study and speak English well. “We (Malaysia) won this competition in 2012.
Malaysia has always ranked in the top five among over 50 participating countries. We hope this year we can bring back the trophy,” she said.
Besides public speaking competitions, she said ESU Malaysia was also active in organising public speaking workshops and fun English programmes in rural schools in a bid to encourage the young generation to be familiar with and have the courage to use the English language. -- BERNAMA