Event Review | November Speech Contest Concludes Successfully!

This year's theme was "Learning Beyond Comfort Zones: Growing Through Challenges in Cross-Cultural and Foreign-Language Environments".

The contestants shared the challenges and insights they encountered while studying abroad and adapting to a completely new environment. Each story was sincere and touching, narrating their unique journeys of how they broke through their limits, learned from difficulties, built resilience, and ultimately grew.

We sincerely thank the judging panel for this competition. Their professional feedback was invaluable to the contestants:

After fierce competition and careful deliberation by the judges, we are pleased to announce the list of winners. Congratulations to all!

Every contestant who stepped onto the stage shared their unique growth story. These true and vivid experiences are the most vivid interpretation of "stepping out of the comfort zone":

Her life has always been a journey across different countries, languages, and cultures, and she admits she has never truly had a "comfort zone." Born into a Chinese family in Slovakia, she grew up bilingual. At the age of 5, she returned to China and had to learn a difficult local dialect. Seven years later, when she went back to Europe, she had forgotten Slovak and felt like a "stranger in her hometown." She learned English at an international school and was exposed to German when studying in the capital. These repeated shifts in identity made her realize that growth is not just about adapting to the environment, but more about finding oneself. A sense of belonging never lies in a single place; it takes root deep within oneself.

When she first arrived in China, she had to adapt to a completely new digital ecosystem, food, and climate—everything felt unfamiliar. However, as time passed, she gradually accepted these differences and even began to enjoy her daily life filled with these "new experiences." She achieved her own growth through this process of adaptation.

Hailing from the small city of Tai'an in Shandong Province, she used to be an anxious, introverted girl lacking courage. After enrolling in AEBS, the language barrier of all-English teaching and the impact of the multicultural environment left her terrified for a time. However, from expressing herself freely for the first time in a group discussion to growing from an ordinary member of the Student Union to its president, countless experiences of "pushing herself to take on challenges" helped her accumulate courage and a sense of responsibility. She transformed from a timid girl into someone who dares to stand on stage and take on responsibilities.

He centered his sharing on "the art of asking questions." He believes that information is as boundless as the ocean, yet people are often trapped by their fear of "not daring to ask." He explained that a clear way of asking questions can lead to the desired answers—just like how a child firmly believes that asking will bring a response. This, he says, is the key to stepping out of the comfort zone and achieving growth.

She began her speech with a poem, pointing out that growth never happens in the warm comfort zone. When she first arrived at AEBS, she experienced the beauty of cross-cultural interaction with the warm help of senior students. However, she also felt confused by the professional terms in math and accounting classes. After summoning the courage to ask her teachers for help, she gradually found effective learning methods—proactively previewing lessons, daring to ask questions—and finally kept up with the course pace. She firmly believes that growth is a path one paves for oneself; if you dare to take the first step, the world will make way for you.

When he learned that the speech had to be delivered without notes, he almost gave up on participating. But he realized that stepping out of the comfort zone is essentially about facing fears and breaking expectations. In the three months since he came to Shanghai, this unfamiliar city once left him confused, but it also embraced him with an inclusive attitude. He realized that language is never a barrier to communication—sincerity and courage are. To truly understand different cultures, one must experience them deeply rather than just reading about them in books. Moreover, the process of learning a new language is even a process of reshaping one's thinking and personality.

She focused on learning and growth in a cross-cultural environment, sharing the challenges she and other international students faced when dealing with the Chinese language context and unfamiliar ecosystems. She believes that overcoming the fear of the unknown, expanding the comfort zone, and learning to be independent are the core of adapting to a new environment. Furthermore, giving back to the community through her own experiences and enabling more people to grow together through communication is her best interpretation of "growth" after stepping out of her comfort zone.

At the age of 15, she flew alone to Canada to study abroad. The 16-hour flight, the first time using English to communicate, and the school's lack of uniforms, mixed-grade classes, and classrooms with classmates from multiple nationalities all came as a huge shock to her. The difference in the format of science exams led to her first failure, but she regrouped, sacrificed her leisure time, and passed the make-up exam. Drawing on her own experience, she encouraged everyone: hard work never lets anyone down. While striving to do one's best, one should also have empathy and respect for others.

As a person of Chinese descent, he grew up speaking Yunnan dialect and studied at a Chinese school in Thailand. His experience of learning Mandarin Pinyin in the fourth grade is still vivid in his memory. A "scam" experience during a trip to Beijing when he was young taught him to be cautious. At the age of 17, while working in a Chinese restaurant in Thailand, the encouragement from a Chinese businessman inspired him to study in China. Additionally, his curiosity about a girl led him to pick up English learning, which he once thought was "irrelevant." He always remembers: hard work will never betray you; if you want a better life, you must take the initiative to step out of your comfort zone.

As an international student, she once failed the CSC math exam which required answers in Chinese. Instead of backing down, he spent a whole year in the preparatory program honing her math skills. Faced with university-level math courses, she shifted from avoidance to acceptance, using all available resources to overcome difficulties. He understands that math is unavoidable in the Business Administration program, and true growth does not come from hoping for fewer difficulties, but from becoming stronger through perseverance.