The English Speaking Union’s International Public Speaking Competition 2025
The competition will be the same as for last year, the details to be sent to schools in January 2025 and are the same details as given below.
Hungary’s final will be in Budapest on 4th April 2025 at Vörösmarty Mihály Gimnázium – Budapest, Horánszky u. 11, H-1085
Theme for Hungary Final: ‘Unity, to be real, must stand the severest strain without breaking.’ (Mahatma Gandhi)
We have scheduled the national competitions as follows:
| Main Competition | Junior competition | Deadline, Date |
| List of students and schools entering 16 to 20 year olds on the date of the final of the London competition, 12-16 May 2025 | List of students and schools entering 14 and 15 year olds on the date of the final of the London competition, 12-16 May 2025 | Monday 27th Jan 2025 |
| Local finals | Local finals | Monday 27th Jan 2025 to Friday 21th March 2025 |
| List of winners to organisers from the organiser of the local round | List of winners to organisers from the organiser of the local round | Friday 21th March 2025 |
| Semi-finals for the entrants selected by the schools Final for the six winners of the semi-finals | Final | 4 April 2025 (details to be specified later) |
| WINNER International Final | n/a | LONDON 12-16 May 2025 |
The Organisers
The organiser of events for the International ESU in Hungary is the chairman, Steve Jones (steve@singlish.hu). Information on the ESU can be obtained on the website www.singlish.hu. The organiser to whom all entries should be sent and enquiries should be made is Judit Borszéki (borszekijudit@gmail.com). We’ll need to know about all the entries in each school to decide where we’ll need local finals, so please keep to the deadline.
The Junior Competition
The junior competition is for those who are too young to enter the main competition. This gives an opportunity for younger speakers to practise in front of an audience with feedback in a competition situation. Prizes will be awarded. The speech will be of three minutes duration and no questions will be asked. The topic is the same as in the Main Competition.
The Main Competition
The main competition will follow the pattern of previous years i.e. a 5-minute speech (minimum length 4m 30s, maximum 5m 30s).
Speeches are to be given without ‘props’, displays or other devices (If in doubt ask the organisers in Budapest), however the speaker may use prompt cards to indicate the speech point by point. A speech should never be read from a prepared sheet.
Prizes will be awarded and the winner will present their speech at the International competition organised by the London ESU 12-16 May 2025. The winner must be available on these dates.
A bit of good advice for PSC participants
‘Unity, to be real, must stand the severest strain without breaking.’
The subject of your speech is of your own choice but based on the title given above. (You should announce your own title before you begin your speech, along with your name and your school)
Try to make your speech …
- Of length 5 minutes (minimum length 4m 30s, maximum 5m 30s)
- Supported by crib cards indicating (using single words or brief phrases) the next point
- Without the use of props other than your crib cards
- Personal to you – perhaps with an anecdote or based on your own experience.
- Exciting with a good beginning designed to get the audience’s attention
- Well structured with sound logic and explanations
- In a clear voice at a good tempo with suitable breaks and silences
- Humorous in parts and serious in others
- End in a suitably memorable way – related to the topic and your personal aims
Questions will be asked at the end of your speech so be prepared and know your subject. Try to anticipate questions which might be asked but don’t repeat the question before answering as this may annoy judges. Try to structure your replies clearly.
When preparing all of this, try to get your friends or teachers to question you on your speech so that you can get used to answering the question asked, briefly and precisely. Make your answers short and to the point. It will not help your case if you ramble on and around the topic.
There are some things you should try to do:
- Dress in an appropriate manner and make sure you have everything you need.
- Try to remain calm throughout the speech.
- Use movement to illustrate your speech – but remember too much movement may be distracting.
- Identify several people in the audience and direct your speech to them, not to the judges.
- Practice speaking to a person or group of people and make sure you can be heard clearly.
- Answer the person asking the question but remember everyone wants to hear the answer so keep your voice up.
- Use appropriate language throughout both the speech and the questions – the use of slang might be part of your speech but should not be part of questioning.There is a shield which records the winners. The present shield is the third and was first presented in 2022. The photo below shows the whole shield and the central panel.
