Speak Up! Voice Competition winners highlight how society judges us based on our sound and confidence
Shaik Mogdoom Rasmiyah (centre-right) won in the Senior Secondary category.Out of the many entrants who joined the Speak Up! Voice Competition, 14-year-old Tifany Fan and Shaik Mogdoom Rasmiyah, 16, were crowned last year’s winners.
The competition, which ran throughout October 2018, got creative with the question: “Why is vocal confidence a crucial skill not just for school, but for life?”, and asked competitors to record their entries on their smartphones.
Shaik, in her winning answer (Senior Secondary category), focused on how we make assumptions about people from the way they speak.
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“We are often judged by our physical appearance and then our vocal skills ... so if you don’t speak boldly, with confidence, the value of the things that come out of your mouth will plummet,” said the St Mary’s Canossian College student.
In her winning answer, Tifany, (Junior Secondary category) emphasised how sounding more confident will help you get heard above the crowd. “First impressions are critical to get right, and just by changing the tiny details of the way you speak, you might just get that one job among hundreds of other equally capable people,” said the German Swiss International School student.
David Pope, founder of All Voice Talent and organiser of the competition (along with Young Post and Top Schools), said: “What stood out for the judges were entries that not only answered the question creatively, but conveyed it with clarity, the right emphasis, and with a real sense of authenticity. This is not easy to do but the two winners delivered brilliantly.”
Both winners will receive voice coaching from Pope, Hong Kong’s leading Executive Voice Coach.