Lingnan students win Second Runner-up and Best Impromptu Speaker in 21st Century Cup Hong Kong SAR English speaking competition

After leading the ranking in LingnanSpeaks 2026, three Lingnan University students moved forward to the semi-final of the China Daily 21st Century Cup National English Speaking Competition (Hong Kong SAR), and two of them, Hoang Thu Trang (English, Year 1), and Seemi Nisar (Economics, Year 4),  went on to the final, held on Saturday 9 May 2026 at the Hong Kong Exhibition and Convention Centre. The two Lingnanians, mentored by the Visiting English Tutors at the Centre for English and Additional Languages throughout their journey, won the Second Runner-Up and the Best Impromptu Speaker prizes, respectively.

Seemi was the second of the finalists in the university category to take the stage and give her four-minute prepared speech “Setbacks are one’s greatest guarantee of success”, followed immediately by a three-minute impromptu speech and a two-minute question and answer session. Trang made her prepared impromptu speech last, and then there was the agonising wait for the results. The impromptu speech topics selected at random concerned the abolition of GPA at universities and the increasing popularity of dining alone, and both students managed the challenge very well.

Congratulations to Hoang Thu Trang and Seemi Nisar on their wonderful performances, and all the effort they put in to preparing for the final.