One story, two ways

Giving a speech, with money pinned to him

The other day I went to a ceremony for English students to receive their certificates of completion. This was the first ceremony of this type ever held in that particular village, and it was quite the experience. I've been to dozens of ceremonies, but this was by far the most intense. And while the style wasn't particularly to my liking, it occurred to me that it might have been very much to the liking of another person. So here's a description of a couple notable parts of the ceremony, told two different ways:

There were so many people at the ceremony! The town square was filled with chairs, but there were far more people than chairs. And what an excited crowd! There were old people and kids, and everyone wanted to see what was going on. 

The number of people was intense. Even though they'd set out chairs, the number of people standing dwarfed the chairs that were set out. And the crowd kept getting closer in on the stage too. Teachers had to stand guard to stop the crowd from completely blocking the view of those in chairs.

It was such an exciting day! Everyone had to compare notes on what was going on, explaining the skit to each other, talking about all the people who came to the event, criticizing anything that went wrong. What great topics for conversation! It's a shame the speakers kept trying to talk over the crowd.

The speakers had to yell to be heard, despite asking the crowd to quiet down multiple times. It was surprising that the emcee didn't lose his voice. The poor students who were giving speeches hardly had anyone listening to them.


Speaking of speeches, every student had the chance to give a speech to demonstrate his or her new skill in English. And what beautiful speeches they were! (even if no one could understand them) They used wonderful phrases and at the end their family and friends showered them with gifts and flowers.

Oh, the speeches! Every. Single. Student. gave a long speech, using phrases that were far beyond their level of English. They each spoke for a minute, with the crowd speaking over them the entire time, then their family and friends bombarded them with affection. Flowers! New clothing! Money! Some even interrupted the speech in order to wave money in the student's face (obviously helping them in their speech making) and then toss it on them.

So, was it a good ceremony? That probably depends on who you ask.