Chantilly Rotary Club – English Public Speaking Competition

Chantilly Rotary Club – English Public Speaking Competition – 23 March 2018

Senior students from 3 of the 5 Lycées in the Chantilly area took part in this, the 9^th Public Speaking Competition, which was held at the Mairie on a very cold Friday evening. The theme was “The Digital Revolution”, topics were advised in advance, but the students were only told 20 minutes before the start which one they would be speaking about. Hence they had a very short time to prepare a presentation of 3-5 minutes each.  Francophones and Anglophones were judged separately, and the topics of the two winners were “Although we may shape the construction of algorithms, they end up shaping us” and “My privacy depends on my dumbest friend”, not easy concepts to put forward a case for or against at the best of times. Prizes included a cheque and an aerial sightseeing trip of Chantilly.   The judges as it happened were all female, and included the wives of the Chantilly and Epsom Rotary Presidents, the Chaplain of St Peter’s Church, two lady Rotarians and a couple of English teachers. The chairman of the judges, however, was a man. The official welcome was given by Deputy Mayor Bénédicte de Cacqueray.