On Friday 18th May, Johanne Jazmin Tan Jabines from the Philippines won our International Public Speaking Grand Final.
The International Public Speaking Competition grand final, took place from 2-4.30pm at the Royal Institution. The finalists, all aged between 16 and 20, spoke on the theme: ‘The best way to predict the future is to invent it.’
The International Public Speaking Competition (IPSC), now in its 38th year, is the largest public speaking competition in the world, involving over 600,000 young people in more than 50 countries.
The final week of the competition brought together the 51 young speakers, each the winner of their own national public speaking competition, to London for a week of cultural exchange and public speaking contests. In so doing, it acts as one of the clearest manifestations of the goals of the English-Speaking Union: providing students with an opportunity to develop the vital skills that enable them to be confident communicators, and promoting international engagement and understanding.
The six other participants who made it into the Grand Final were Harpreet Singh from Hong Kong, Andrew Chanho Kim from Republic of Korea, Alison Ruth Cohen from the US, Xiong Ziqing from China, Kamel Ali Wehbe from Lebanon, and Markus Aksli from Estonia.
Alan Johnson, former Home Secretary and the Chair of Judges at the final, addressed the young people after the final and praised them for their eloquence, confidence and intelligence. He ended with, ‘I think that we have seen some of our future leaders and I’m enormously encouraged by that.’
We live streamed the final of the International Public Speaking Competition on our facebook. You can watch the full video here.
