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Young and old arrived in leaps and bounds, or in the slow shuffling of age-tired feet, up the three steps, through French doors that led to a well-lit atrium. In the early morning hours, when the winter sun doesn’t bother to care and just hits the snooze button, the light seemed to be emerging from within, as if the people entering were sparks coming back home to a bonfire lit long ago. It was warm inside too, despite the cold streets left behind.

For every hundredth haiku that has survived the bonfires of History there is another, like this one by the 18th-Century Japanese Poet and Painter Yosa Buson, that distils expression and meaning into the simplest poetic reverie, only to be seen, iridescent, by shielding our senses, like the blinding midday sun leaking between pillars of a long-abandoned ruin. This is when our imaginations are startled into play.

There are as many ways we can read poetry as there are poems and readers in this world.

We can read it silently, under the bedcovers with a smuggled torchlight, or nestled in an armchair nibbling on an apple, stitching a broken heart, warmed by a smouldering fire…

One account of what growing up entails is learning to live with contradictions. Whether as individuals, groups, or nations, if we are seduced by the notion of attainable purity (of race, ideology, creed, or even knowledge) we inevitably become blind to our very nature: imperfect, incomplete, and in need of others. To grow up is to learn to have enough, rather than to strive to have it all.

This year’s theme for Duologue and Poetry is “Voices of Wonder: Tales and Verses Through the Years.” In honour of our 20th Anniversary, we’ve selected poems and duologues that have been especially popular in these competitions throughout the years. We hope this selection inspires our students to open their heart to the wonder and delight of speaking in English!

The morning of Saturday, 14 June arrived with hushed drama—cold, grey, teasing an ever-retreating sun that wouldn’t deign to warm us anyway, deep now as it was in early winter slumber. Clouds hung low like closed books with stories untold…

Throughout the ceremony, we aimed to answer this question: Why learn English in a Spanish-speaking country? To this effect we invited several guest speakers to try and answer it from their personal and professional experiences. We also wanted to proudly show how the English-Speaking Union Chile has helped in making our nation one that values the English language and fosters cultural exchanges.

“Unity, to be real, must stand the severest strain without breaking.” These words—this year’s Public Speaking Competition theme—were written by Mahatma Gandhi in reference to the age-old and seemingly unending fractious enmity between Muslims and Hindus in India. Gandhi’s Satyagraha was a distinct and influential form of non-violent political resistance, in which unity was forged through the shared experience of bearing the strain—or more precisely, the consequences of that strain—by enduring pain (in all its forms) rather than inflicting it.

We’re fairly sure our 2024 champions, Colegio Internacional SEK Pacífico (you can also spot our 2024 Public Speaking winner, Cristóbal Clavijo in the picture above, second from the left), will hate the comparison, cheeky bunch that they are. But, try as we might to find another, this one keeps coming back, leaving us with no choice but to surrender to it. We’ll trust that the high they’re feeling right now will offset any annoyance at the allusion to fairy-tale princesses.

Lovelorn Count Orsino spoke these famous first words from Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night: “If music be the food of love, play on!” Struck with the pangs of unrequited, boundless, and—let’s be honest—purely imaginary love, he fittingly sought sustenance from the most ephemeral and intangible of art forms: music. Which happens to be, of course, this year’s ESU Poetry Recitation Competition theme!

This year’s theme for Duologue and Poetry is ‘MUSIC’, the perfect framing for our youngest and dearest, who through their dialog recitations must follow pretty much the same variables that make or break a musical performance: proper tone, using the right volume, hearing and responding to your partner, making your content legible to the audience, have them enraptured with enthusiasm and conveying your emotions. Did we mention that all of this is achieved by 1st and 2nd graders? 

¡Feliz 18! From all of us at ESU Chile we wish all people that call this beautiful country their home, a great long weekend with

ESU OUTREACH IN THE SOUTH OF CHILE The English-Speaking Union (ESU) recently organized two workshops for English teachers in Puerto Montt, Chile, at the University

AND WE HAVE OUR 12! 12 Teams have entered this year’s ESU Tournament, which brings us back to pre pandemic levels. These are the schools

May You Rest In Peace!

The morning was decidedly cold on Saturday, June 8th. With skies overcast and ever-threatening a downpour, our twenty finalists arrived in a steady drizzle up the road to the Mayflower School campus in Lo Barnechea, Santiago. Huddled at the feet of the Andes, all carried multitudes inside themselves, ready to be unleashed on the scariest of adversaries: a blank page.