Youth Alert exposes gaps in language fluency in BT
Language fluency suffered a huge test on Saturday afternoon at Nanzikambe Arts Cafe in Blantyre when over two dozen youths failed to impress in the first auditions of the Youth Alert radio show.
The tongue, brain and lips could not sing the same alphabet. Some of the contestants wrote attractive radio programme scripts, but their ascent did not do them any favours as most of them failed to pronounce ‘r’ and ‘l’ during their presentations, which included writing and reading a script and another from Youth Alert.
In addition, most them failed to speak close to the microphone and the worst was exposed during the second round of the auditions which was tongue twister, giving the three judges; Chikondi Mmanga, Yvonnie Sundu and Marvin Hanke a simple task of choosing the final five.
Living Waters Radio presenter Virginia Khunguni, Robin Pemba, Macphallen Mbewe, Shadreck Kulemeka and Peter Chidothi got the nod and will face three finalists from the Northern and Central regions in the finals slated for March 1 in Lilongwe.
According to Youth Alert programme coordinator Martin Kalima, 25 youths contested in Blantyre and 17 from the North while the contestants from the Centre will battle it out on February 22 to choose the three finalists.
“It was a tough competition because most of them could not speak a script, they lacked language fluency, confidence and creativity. But we are happy that we got five successful finalists and we believe after the national finals, we will have the best two to present the Youth Alert programmes from mid0year,” said Kalima.
Kalima said Youth Alert has been quiet due to funding hitches.
“We did not close shop. Our initial funding expired. We now have support from the Germany government through KFW and USAID and we will resume the programme after the auditions,” he said.
This year’s national finalists will take the number of Youth Alert programme hosts to six to join Ricky Nyaleye, Caroline Whayo, Martin Kalima and Carol Maziya.
During the auditions, musician Lulu entertained the patrons with hits from his new album.
Among the songs that thrilled the audience were Ndzalera, Palibe Bvuto, Mwachenjera Darling and Mtima Wakana.
