Once, when I was giving a speech in an English speech contest, I talked about the importance of resilience. The whole speech was clear and well-thought out, and I even referenced the movie Legally Blonde.

I thought I was going to win, but I ended up getting fourth place. When I went to ask the judges the reasons for their verdict, they told me that I didn’t use any hand gestures, and that they hadn’t seen the world famous Legally Blonde.

That was when I realized that English competitions in Taiwan are stupid and your English ability has no bearing on whether or not you succeed.

English competitions in Taiwan are dumb. They employ bad judges, have bizarre scoring criteria, and are unfair.

The judges in English competitions don’t know what they are doing

A lot of judges for these contests aren’t qualified to be judging serious competitions.

Normally, the organizers just pick someone who looks like a foreigner and speaks English with a British or American accent. Or, they just ask each school participating in the competition to supply an English teacher as a judge. There is no criteria for experience or ability to judge a speech. It doesn’t matter whether or not the judge has any special expertise.

For example, at debate contests, judges don’t always have debate experience or special knowledge about the topics debated. This means there are often conflicting decisions from each judge. Some judges don’t care about evidence, some judges care a lot about grammar in speeches and rebuttals, and some judges only care about the conclusion of the debate. These judges don’t have enough experience to tell which team is better at debating.

Arbitrary scoring criteria

Besides the fact that English competitions in Taiwan don’t hire qualified judges, these judges also make decisions based on weird rubrics. They may prefer style over substance and disregard the content of a speech or presentation.

For example, anyone who’s been in an English speech competition in Taiwan knows that judges, for some insane reason, prefer contestants who use exaggerated hand gestures and unnatural intonation. I’ve seen contestants run in place and pretend to swim on stage because they think it enhances the quality of their speech – and in the eyes of these judges, they are right. While these speeches are hilarious to watch, gimmicky gestures shouldn’t determine the quality of a speech.

Furthermore, judges only want to see polished and “advanced” looking scripts and essays. They love bloated vocabulary and cliches. The speeches and essays that win use words and phrases people would never use in real life.

Judges like students who sound like textbookey nerds; they only care about grammar and spelling. I have never had a judge care about unity, flow, depth, or quality of analysis. In other words, the scoring criteria in English competitions in Taiwan is shallow and dumb.

Discriminatory towards people without access to resources

Since judges favor students with “advanced” English skills, people with access to resources like tutors and cram schools have a significant advantage over people who don’t. A lot of speech and debate competitions in Taiwan ask you to prepare in advance, so students with private tutors get more help and instruction. Some students even have teachers write their scripts for them.

English competitions in Taiwan are also dumb because there are big gaps in English ability between students from different economic backgrounds.

According to Education’s First English-language proficiency index, Taiwanese citizens’ average English proficiency level is low, and is ranked 48th place out of 88 countries. This means that Taiwan’s English education system needs a lot of work and improvement.

Since Taiwan doesn’t offer strong English education in public schools, and rich people can afford to send their kids to private English preschools and cram schools, students from rich families usually have better English skills than students from poor ones.

Also, judges favor students with western accents in speech competitions, even though a lot of students who speak English with Taiwanese accents are perfectly understandable. According to a study out of MIT, kids need to start learning a language before they’re ten if they want to have language proficiency similar to native speakers. Therefore, a lot of kids who went to English preschools and cram schools when they were small don’t have distinct Taiwanese accents, and they have a more natural grasp of grammar and phonics

Speech contestants who started learning English early have an advantage in competitions that place a premium on grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation. However, the kids with the best English abilities don’t always have the clearest deliveries, the most moving speeches, or the deepest critical thinking.

For example, I have been learning English at a private English school since I was two years old, and throughout my life I have always been more proficient at English than my classmates. I have been a contestant who benefited from the inequality of English competitions. I almost always won English speech, essay, debate, and spelling competitions, and unlike my classmates, I didn’t really have to spend much time memorizing vocabulary or grammar rules.

However, during these competitions, I realized that I wasn’t always the one who had the best communication skills, the most confidence on stage, or the most logical thinking. Yet, I was the one that got the awards because I had the best pronunciation and grammar because I was lucky enough to get to go to private schools to learn English.

Doesn’t allow people with dual nationality to participate

Another way English competitions in Taiwan are unfair is that they don’t allow people who are not exclusively Taiwanese to participate in important competitions. People who have different citizenships can only participate in less recognized competitions like spelling competitions, and not speech or essay contests.

The government has this rule in place to make English competitions fairer for “Taiwanese” people. People with dual nationality and kids from other countries are also Taiwanese students, and they should be given as many opportunities as everyone else. The government is assuming that everyone with connections to other countries is good at English. Having different citizenship just means that they may have been born overseas, and does not guarantee good English skills.

The government is just barring people who aren’t solely Taiwanese for show. They say that they are doing this to make English competitions fairer, when the solution should be improving students’ English proficiency instead.

People with different nationalities participating in English competitions is not the main reason why these competitions are unfair. The reason why English competitions are unfair is because of our bad English education system. The government should be addressing systemic problems if they want to address fairness, like improving English education in public schools. Instead, they choose to make competitions even more discriminatory by ensuring certain people can’t win.

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In conclusion, English competitions in Taiwan are dumb because they pick unqualified judges, have arbitrary standards for winning, and are discriminatory towards poor people and people who aren’t exclusively Taiwanese. These competitions don’t award contestants with the best writing and speaking skills, and they are unfair for most students in Taiwan.

Therefore, English competitions in Taiwan are pointless and the people who set them up are stupid.