Movie Dubbing Contest

I was invited to judge an English competition. Being an English teacher, it's a fairly common occurrence to be invited to participate in such functions. Eric, one of my students, asked me a few weeks following class one day: "Kyle, can you help with an English dubbing competition?"

"an English what?"

"English dubbing. Movie dubbing."

"oh, I see."

I paused momentarily recounting my previous judging experience for a speech competition while working in my former university (2005-2006). I had been asked by a school across town to participate in their competition within their English department. Expecting no more than 2-3 classes worth of English majors, I was surprised when I went into a lecture hall filled with almost 300 students--and I was the only foreign teacher.

However, I have learned to expect the unexpected in China. Most events usually involve copious amounts of formality, and the Chinese always love a good speech. When faced with such events, I have found it amusing to play to the formality as much as possible--usually hamming it up with my speeches and answers to questions. They love it, and it usually makes for a much more entertaining event from my perspective.

"Sure" I answered, "I'll be happy to help with your competition."

When I arrived that evening, it was a small class room with a mini-stage, screen, and projector. I was actually one of two foreign judges--Nate was the other guy, another teacher from my school who is from Chicago. In all, there were four judges, including a couple of Chinese English teachers.

I was happy to know that two of my students were the masters of ceremony, and a few more were actually contestants. Every team consisted of 2-5 students who did a live dub over a clip from a movie. Most of the movies were newer animated films like Ice Age Three, Finding Nemo, Shrek, and Alvin and the Chipmunks. I never knew how appropriate it was that three Chinese girls' voices could fit the part of the three talking chipmunks so well.

I was thoroughly entertained with the film clips with Chinese accents. Everyone tried exceptionally hard to fit the voices, even adding sound effects. At the end of the competition, everyone enjoyed themselves, and received a prize--including us judges, who received chair cushions (mine was baby blue with cartoon dogs drawn on it).

You never know what's going to happen when you teach on the other side of the world.