The BEST weekend in Sliven
A few weeks ago I was invited to join the BEST Fall East Regional Tournament as a judge which I happily accepted. The tournament was held in Sliven, eastern Bulgaria, this weekend (December 1 and 2).
The Bulgarian English Speech and Debate Tournaments Foundation (aka BEST) was one of the organisations we met in the Dom na Ucheniya a few weeks ago while presenting Bulgarian Youth Forum. This foundation was created by American citizens who come to Bulgaria as Fulbright English Teaching Assistants.
This time I didn't travel with other Bulgarian Youth Forum volunteers, in fact I traveled all alone, nevertheless as soon as I reached my destination this changed. The Zahariy Stoyanov Western Language High School, where the tournament was held, was full of people. Students from different eastern Bulgarian cities, judges from different nationalities and other collaborators spent together a special weekend where we all learned and enjoyed at the same time.
The tournament was divided into four different categories: oratory, poetry, duo and debate. Many participants surprised me with their excellent linguistic skills. Not only their English level was really high, but they knew everything about body language and communication skills as well. This made my task as a judge quite difficult as many were worthy of winning.
