The "gate of heaven" times of young English talents

(Baonghean.vn) - At the 3rd National "English Talent" Olympic Competition, Central region, which just ended in Da Nang, Hoang Bao Linh - a 5E student, Trung Do Primary School (Vinh City) was the youngest contestant from Nghe An to win First Prize.

It has been more than a week since returning from Da Nang, but the echoes of the competition are still fresh in Bao Linh’s mind. She is only in 5th grade, but her confidence has already been revealed. This is also the advantage for Linh to conquer the audience and win, even when falling into the most “disadvantageous” period.

Although only in grade 5, Bao Linh is a very confident student.

Before joining the Nghe An team with 6 other members to participate in the national English talent contest, Linh was the 40th person, the person with the lowest score after the IOE contest, to participate in the province's qualifying round. With that "mindset", Linh did not have much hope when entering the contest.

The first round was the writing round, which Linh did not have much difficulty with. However, in the interview and debate round, Linh was stuck because she was asked a question in a field that she was not interested in: "Tell me about an animated film that you like." Recalling her feelings at that time, Linh said: "I really do not like watching animated films because "it is so childish" and I have never watched a complete film."

Hoang Bao Linh is the youngest member of the Nghe An team participating in the 3rd National English Talent Contest in Da Nang.

Necessity is the mother of invention, Linh "composed" a movie for herself with the title: "A good dream". The content of the imaginary movie revolves around the story of a pretty girl, but lazy, not neat and clean, playful, not helping her parents. But after a dream, the girl repented and promised to change, become hard-working, clean, tidy...

During the interview, the teachers asked Linh about the harmful effects of watching TV, she answered: “Watching TV gives me a lot of useful information, but if I watch too much it will waste my time and affect my eyes. Being engrossed in watching movies also makes me forget other tasks that need to be done and become lazy.”

A member of the jury commented on Linh: "Although only a 5th grader, Hoang Bao Linh is quite mature, grown-up and especially not afraid to express his own opinions. Bao Linh also shows creativity, rich imagination, and very childish thoughts."

Bao Linh (orange shirt) and other first prize winners of the contest.

Passing the provincial qualifying round, she entered the national final round in Da Nang. This time, Bao Linh's speech topic was "What is your favorite activity at school?" She did not hesitate to give her opinion that her favorite activity was recess.

“Maybe people think that at school the main activity is studying, and we have to like some learning activity, but I believe that not only me but many other friends also like recess, like to rest. During recess, we have many games such as: jumping rope, playing soccer, running, or doing gymnastic exercises. During recess, we can also do group activities, discuss many topics. Therefore, I find recess very interesting and useful.”

In the remaining two contents “What's the topic” (Students look at pictures and come up with a common topic), “Are you a good communicator” (watch videos with topics and handle situations), Linh said she had experience from regularly watching videos, reading books, and looking at pictures at home. The only thing is, “everyone competes individually, so I don't know how the students before and after me competed, I just speak according to all my thoughts and understanding”. Perhaps that's why when receiving the information that she had surpassed nearly 100 candidates in the region to "win" the first prize, Linh was extremely surprised.

Self-study time of Linh (middle) and her friends.

Hoang Bao Linh started learning English in the second semester of first grade. The most favorable thing for Linh was that her older sister was studying in the English major at Dang Thai Mai school, so whatever her sister learned, Linh learned too. Linh's parents did not put much pressure on her, but let her freely develop her interests such as buying CDs and DVDs, letting her watch videos online, reading books, and looking at pictures at home.

Video about "English Talent" Hoang Bao Linh

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Ms. Dong Thi Van, Linh's English teacher at Trung Do Primary School, also shared: Maybe, in terms of grammar or vocabulary, Linh is only relatively like her friends. But Linh has standard pronunciation, is confident in her ability to express herself well, and is in control of the stage. Linh's secret to learning English is also very simple: listen a lot and practice speaking a lot. Usually, Linh watches clips online, and after understanding the content, she stands in front of the mirror to practice with the correct intonation of the character. Besides, Linh also often reads bilingual books to enrich her vocabulary.

At 10 years old, for Linh every success is just the beginning and she will certainly have many more achievements in the coming journey.

My Ha

Clip: Milky Way - Thanh Hai