Just a normal day in my life…

The other day, I was graciously given the opportunity to judge a singing competition.  No other foreign teachers were able to go, I was flying solo.  I have judged a couple English competitions, so I thought this would be routine…no big deal.

That evening my students hurried me from class without dinner, so that we could arrive 45 minutes early.

Once there, everyone shoved me to the front of the performance hall where I sat all alone at the judges’ table for 30 minutes…right where everyone could see me.  I read over the rubric and got acquainted with the schedule.  I also noted that the Compulsory song would be Porker Face.

I then had a student come explain to me that one of the finalists would be chosen by me.  When the time came, I would need to send a discreet signal to one of the MCs.  This is when I started to get nervous.  I had no idea when this would happen, how I would choose, and what was truly expected.  So while I was judging (they give you roughly 15 seconds to judge and tally your score after the performances), I was keeping notes.  With my notes, I knew who I thought would be the top three performers.  I knew if they called on me, I could confidently choose who would be the third person to go to the finals.   

(The other issue at hand is that it is all in Chinese…so through the entire night I have to listen to all the Chinese words with the hope that I hear them when they say, “Something, something, Lizzie, something something.”)

The next problem was, the top three went to the finals, I had to choose a 4^th place (as opposed to the 3^rd place I had planned on).  ARGHH!!  They were then coming my way with a microphone.

So with a microphone shoved in my face…and a couple hundred people waiting for my answer…I did what any ethical judge would do…I chose the first student that I recognized.

Good news – she was actually pretty good and the other (Chinese) judges generally agreed with my choice.

Afterwards, I was pushed away from the judges’ table and realized that I was the one responsible for granting the awards.  I then had to stick around for a couple hundred pictures, so that the finalists could say someday, “Oh yeah, that’s me with the blonde foreign teacher…can’t remember her name though…”