I am Who I am (Sophie)

Good evening, dear friends. I am Sophie. This is my CC1 speech.

The title of the speech comes from one of my pet phrases. And it made me quite well-known my work place thanks to a joke made on me by one of my colleagues. Here is the joke.

One day after six hours of teaching, a thin and short physics teacher stepped into the classroom to start another two-hour class. He started his class as: hey guys, do you know there is a teacher Cui in the English group. She quarrels a lot with Nancy, another English teacher. Every time they argue with each other, teacher Cui will say: YOU THINK WHO YOU ARE! That joke with vivid body gestures made both me and my pet phrase well-known among the students.

In real life, if you ask me with the same question, I always reply with “I am who I am!” Well, who am I?

I still remember the first time I introduced myself at this club as a guest. Last June, mother of this club, kind, enthusiastic Susan invited me to join the meeting and encouraged me to take the role of “Grammarian”. Although knowing little about the role, I told myself: OK, take the chance, do it, if you screw it up, nobody knows you. That time I introduced myself as a Gemini, a fresh graduate and a single dog, not literally. This self-introduction was being used for several times. Because during that period, I didn’t want to tell others I am an English teacher who teaches middle school students at a private school. I didn’t want to answer questions like “why didn’t you take a better job?” I didn’t take a better job because I wasn’t qualified to be admitted by those famous shining companies. Now we know that Sophie is an English teacher, she teaches middle school students and she hates losing face in front of others.

But now, if someoneasks me to introduce myself, I would say it proudly that I am an English teacher. I teach at XDF. I babysit middle school kids. I would say it proudly because I love my job. Here are two conversations between me and my roommate.

Conersation One:

 Sophie: Hey buddy, do you know it?  

Roomate: Yeah, I know.

(The conversationends. So awkward.)

Who am I. I amSophie. So next time I start like this:

Conversation Two:

Sophie: Hi, have I told you one thing in work I am really proud of?

Roomate: Eh, you mean which one? You are proud of so many things.

Believe it or not, this kind of conversations happened quite often in my daily life. The point of the above conversations is: now I really love my job. It is not just a job helps me pay the rent. It has become a source of happiness and sense of achievements. Now we know Sophie loves her teaching job, also she is a little talkative and noisy.

Since I became a teacher, plenty of colleagues have urged me to change my English name. It is awkward to say the name in front of teenagers, especially the naughty boys. We all know the TV commercial “苏菲”. I rejected their kind suggestions. I won’t change my name. Not just because I have kept this name for many years. My high school politics teacher told me “sophie” is a part of the word philosophy, which means wisdom.

I won’t change myname because I believe as long as I stick to be myself, stick to be the best one who I am, I can give more meanings to the name. I won’t change my name for no reason. Even in the big complex adult world I need and I will stick to be the best one who I am, keep doing right things, never give way to the bad.

My dear friends, I am Sophie. I am neither slender nor glamorous. But I am smart, I love English, I teach English. I love my job. I want to be myself. I am who I am.