Brandon Learning Centre: British Education - process, preparation and practicalities

I watched one of our Brandon students practising for the HKSMSA Speech Festival today. She has a terrific voice and the interpretation of her poem is sensitive and engaging. In short, a terrific performance. If you are preparing for a speech festival, try to focus your efforts on your voice and face. Your facial expressions should follow and complement your voice. Try the following: Practice by reading in front of a mirror. Does your face show the emotion you are trying to put into your voice? If not, is it working against you? After a few readings, you will be able to understand the connection between your two main tools and will start to create a perfect performance!

I recently spent a very entertaining few hours discussing Chinese tea and planning a perfect dinner, a key part of which would be pork in all forms but especially  barbecued pork (cha siu) and suckling pig. I was reminded of Charles Lamb's extremely elegant "Dissertation Upon Roast Pig" from his Essays of Elia which contains the following memorable description. "There is no flavour comparable, I will contend, to that of the crisp, tawny, well-watched, not over-roasted, cracking, as tis well called - the very teeth are invited to their share of the pleasure of this banquet in overcoming the coy, brittle resistance - with the adhesive oleaginous - O call it not fat -  but an indefinable sweetness growing up to it - the tender blossoming of fat - fat cropped in the bud- taken in the shoot- in the first innocence - the cream and quintessence of the child-pig's yet pure food - the lean, no lean, but a kind of animal manna, or, rather fat and lean (if it must be so)

I spent a wonderful morning in the British Museum. The Benin bronzes, crisp, powerful figures glowing in their cabinets, the glories of the Greek collection and the confident dominance of the Assyrian carvings overwhelmed and inspired me. Any poem you ever encounter can be triggered by a future experience. Today, Ozymandius was at the front of my mind as I wandered through the remains of great civilisations as was Byron's powerful Destruction of Sennacherib . You will have your own internal soundtrack which will excite, exhilarate or console when required. Reading poetry is laying down knowledge and you never know when it might be useful. For images: http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/cultures/middle_east/assyrians.aspx And for inspiration: THE DESTRUCTION OF SENNACHERIB,   The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold, And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold; And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea, When the blue wave rolls nightly on