英语比赛演讲稿1
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen:
Before western and Chinese civilization came into close contact, Chinese people had always longed for a life depicted in traditional Chinese paintings. Those paintings present a harmonious coexistence of people and other life forms. Regarded as the essence of ancient Chinese philosophies, harmony has been deeply-rooted in the minds of the Chinese people. On the one hand, it has contributed to the unique continuity of Chinese civilization. On the other, Chinese people became too much contented with their achievements to desire any further changes. As globalization deepens, it is bound to affect our ideal of harmony.
First, globalization urges China to speed up its modernization, which threatens our regard for the harmony between Man and Nature. For instance, many dams and hydropower stations are being built for economic benefits at the expense of the well-preserved natural habitats. However, ecological malpractice of such kind goes against the notion of harmonious coexistence in ancient Chinese philosophies. More than 2,000 years ago, long before the concept of environmental protection came into being, DuJiang Weir, a great irrigation project was built in southwestern China's Sichuan province. It succeeded both in controlling floods and in facilitating the agriculture without posing a threat to the environment.
Moreover, globalization has brought with it intense competition. Traditionally, moderation is a golden principle, presiding over inter-personal relations in China. Today, however, motivated to come to the top, some people become so self-centered that they choose to sacrifice love, friendship and even family ties.
Last but not least, diverse cultures have met in China as a consequence of globalization. Therefore, a clash of cultures becomes inevitable. Unfortunately, the past decades have witnessed a huge loss of cultural heritage in China. In cities like Beijing and Xi'an, hundreds of century-old Chinese-style houses are being demolished to make room for skyscrapers, shopping malls and eight-lane expressways.
From these examples, we see the disharmony brought about by globalization. Yet it is not globalization that is to blame. As long as we approach globalization with harmony in mind, its benefit will outweigh its cost. Take my hometown, Hangzhou, for example, thanks to the strenuous efforts made by the municipal government in achieving eco-development, various water birds have returned to the West Lake, calling it home again after years of migration elsewhere. From the lake bank, we see skateboarders and trick cyclists showing off together with people flying kites and kicking shuttlecocks on the plaza nearby. Although they compose a picture quite distinct from traditional Chinese paintings, this picture conveys a modern sense of harmony in this era of globalization.
Ladies and gentlemen, to conclude, I would like to quote from British philosopher Bertrand Russell. In contrasting Chinese and Western civilizations, he observed: "The distinctive merit of western civilization is the scientific method; the distinctive merit of the Chinese is a just conception of the ends of life. It is these two that one must hope to see gradually uniting." As we see the tremendous progress China has been making drawing on experience abroad, we may also expect the Chinese traditional value of harmony to enrich the world. I look forward to the time when Russell's prophecy comes true.
Thank you very much.
英语比赛演讲稿2
I Love You, China!
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, I’m very glad to make a speech here. Today my topic is “I love you, China.”
Since the day I was born, I began to have a proud name—Chinese. Since the day I began to talk, the most beautiful sentence I’ve ever learnt has been “I love you, China!”
I love you, China, and I’m so proud of being a Chinese. I’m proud that I’ve got the beautiful yellow skin, black eyes and black hair. I’m also proud that I speak the most beautiful language in the world—Chinese.
I love you, China, for I can feel the deep love you give me every day, every minute. Last year, I got an opportunity to visit the United States of America. During my staying there, my father’s boss once invited my family to dinner. While at table, he looked at me and asked: “Little boy, how long have you been in America?” “About a month,” I answered, “How lucky you are!” he said, “If you were living in China, how could you learn such perfect English?” I smiled and told him proudly that all the students in China are able to learn English at school. I saw his surprised eyes and said to myself, “I’m proud of you, China. For you are offering us the best education.”
When I came back from the USA, my friends asked me: “How do you feel about your staying there?” “Wonderful” I said. “Then why do you come back?” Hearing this, I told them there were lots of beautiful countries in the world, but none of them can compare with our own country—China. How true the saying is: “There’s no place like home!”
I love you, China. As a young student, all we should do is to study hard and devote ourselves whole-heartedly in the future, to the great cause of building you into an even stronger and greater country in the world. I love you, my dear motherland! I love you, China!
Thank you for your listening !
英语比赛演讲稿3
this is a glass of water, tasteless, right? however if you add sugar, it will taste sweet, but if you add vinegar, it will become bitter. the same is true with our life____ the flavor is created by our choices.
if kindness is added to a strange you will have a friend; but if hostility is added, you will have an enemy. if love is added to a pile of red bricks you will have a home, but if hatred is add to those bricks , you will have an concentration camp.
so my dear friends, never complain that life is boring and the world is disappointing. if don’t like the taste of your life, change the ingredients.
three year ago, i weighed more than 100 hundred kilograms which caused significant embarrassment and frustration in my life. like always failing my p.e examinations, like always being laughed at by girls, like being terrified to speak in public. it was my grandmother’s encouragement that revived from my passive attitude to become confident in myself. she said “ my dear, if you can’t change you figure, why not treat it as your own style. so i began to cautiously employ the new way of thinking. by choosing to change my outlook on life, i developed the confidence to make a difference and finally i found a totally new world.
so my dear friend, if faith, hope, love, endurance are added to your life, you will find the confidence to conquer your limitation and embrace new challenges. and hopefully with my speech included, you will have a fantastic speech contest.
英语比赛演讲稿4
I'm studying in a city famous for its walls. All visitors to my city are amazed by the imposing sight of the city walls, silhouetted by the setting sun with gold and shining lines. With old, cracked bricks patched with lichen, the walls are weather-beaten guards, standing still for centuries in protecting the city.
Our ancestors liked to build walls. They built walls in Beijing, Xi'an, Nanjing and many other cities, and they built the Great Wall, which snakes through half of our country. They built walls to ward off enemies and evil spirits. This tradition has been maintained to this day as we still have many parks and schools walled off from the public. I grew up at the foot of the city walls, and I've loved them since my childhood. For a long time, walls were one of the most natural things in the world.
My perception, however, changed after a hiking trip to the Eastern Suburbs, a scenic area of my city. My classmates and I were walking with some international students. As we walked out of the city, we found ourselves flanked by taller and taller trees, which formed a huge canopy above our heads. Suddenly an international student asked me, "Where is the entrance to the Eastern Suburbs?"
"We're already in the Eastern Suburbs," I replied.
He seemed taken aback, "I thought you Chinese have walls for everything." His remark set off a heated debate. At one point, he likened our walled cities to "jails," while I insisted that the Eastern Suburbs were one of the many places in China that had no walls.
That debate had no winners, but I did learn a lot from this international student. For instance, he told me that universities like Oxford and Cambridge were not surrounded by walls; the campuses were just part of the cities. I have to admit that we do have many walls in China, and as we are developing our country, we must carefully examine them, whether they are physical or intangible. We will keep some walls but tear down those that impede China's development.
Let me give you an example.
A year ago, when I was working on a term paper, I needed a book on business law and found a copy in the law school library. However, the librarian turned down my request with a cold shoulder, saying, "You can't borrow this book, you are not a student here." In the end, I had to spend 200 yuan buying a copy; meanwhile, the copy in law school was gathering dust on the shelf.
At the beginning of this semester, I heard that my university has started not only to unify its libraries but also link them up with libraries of other universities, so my experience will not be repeated. Barriers will be replaced by bridges. Through an inter-library loan system, we will have access to books from any library. With globalization, with China integrated into the world, I believe many of these intangible walls will be knocked down.
I know globalization is a controversial issue, and it is hard to say whether it is good or bad. But one thing is for sure: it draws our attention to China's tangible and intangible walls and forces us to examine their roles in the modern world.
And how about the ancient walls in my city and other cities? Should we tear them down? Just the opposite. My city, like Beijing and other cities, is actually making a great effort to preserve the walls. These walls attract not only historians and archeologists but also many schoolchildren trying to study our history and cultural heritage. Walls have turned into bridges to our past and to the rest of the world. If the ancient builders of these walls were still alive today, they would be proud to see such great change in the role of their walls. They are now bridges that link East and West, South and North, and all countries of the world. Our cultural heritage will survive globalization.
英语比赛演讲稿5
When I was still a freshman in college, one Scottish professor complained to me about being overcharged at a grocery store. He explained that many business owners in China would assume that white “foreigners” are rich and unable to understand Chinese. My amiable professor, unwilling to start a conflict, would always pay the undue price even though he was only meagerly paid by my university and was able to speak perfect Mandarin.
As a student of humanities, I’m particularly intrigued by the ramifications of cross-cultural encounters entailed by the new era. We have to bear in mind that whenever we talk about the new era, there is always an old era that keeps haunting us in various ways. Last year I went to the University of Tokyo for a one-year exchange program. Before I left, my grandma seemed quite distraught and apprehensive: she told me to take care of myself as if I was about to go to the battlefield.
But we Chinese are not the only ones infested by outdated misconceptions. When I was bidding farewell to my American professor at an academic writing class in Japan, she stopped me and asked me, “Are you really from China?” At first I thought she was pointing at my handsomeness, asking me whether I had been to Korea for plastic surgery. Well, clearly this is another stereotype that we should get rid of. But to my disappointment, she was actually referring to my English skills. “I’ve never met any Chinese student who can talk and write like you do,” She said, “You must have been stayed in the States for some time, haven’t you?” It does seem that even a specialist in linguistics can’t escape the illusion built up by the last generation of Chinese students: gauche and diffident, unable to articulate themselves in English.
Nevertheless, such stereotypes are becoming a thing of the past. When professors around the globe meet with an increasing number of students from China with both language proficiency and academic competence, well-qualified students will no longer be a surprise. Moreover, with more people going abroad and enjoying firsthand encounters with different cultures, people like my grandma will no longer be subject to the fossilized, antiquated narrative of the past. The interesting thing is, after I told my grandma my experiences in Japan, how clean, safe and beautiful their cities are and how nice, polite and considerate their people are, she gladly removed Japan from the list of least-want-to-visit foreign countries and put it instead to the most-want-to-visit one.
Even the shop owner near my campus is now repenting for his peccadillo. When gradually more international purchasers become his patrons, he would no longer treat them differently. And he would even occasionally call out for them, yelling “come, come,” “cheap, cheap,” “thanks thanks” with a very strong Chinese accent. Meanwhile, my Scottish professor has now equipped himself with Wechat and Alipay, assimilating seamlessly into the local life here.
The old era is like a cocoon, protecting us from possible dangers outside and providing us with warmth and comfort. However, an overreliance on memories and experiences of a long-gone past can also hinder us from genuine, meaningful interactions for the future, just as the cocoon can also serve as a wall to bar us from the beautiful world outside. But in order to make a brand-new attire or to build a modern silk road, we have to plunge the cocoons into hot water and obtain the silk despite the pain. So ladies and gentlemen, don’t be trapped by the old era. Transcend it, and embrace the new one.
Thank you.