Japanese Speech Contest for International Students

Aimee Michaud

 Somewhere in November, I received an email from the GEC office inviting exchange students such as myself to participate in a Japanese Speech Contest for International Students. As a student in search of novel experiences, I immediately clicked on the Google Form link to send in my application form.

What is it?

 The Japanese Speech Contest is a contest organized by the Global Education Center with the goal of creating an opportunity for international students to utilize their Japanese public speaking. Held in December, I had a month and a half to prepare myself for the contest. Thankfully, you do not need to confront this challenge alone! Each participant is teamed with two Japanese students to help with the writing, correcting, and speaking aspects of the contest.

The Preparation

  Although I am a very last-minute person, I pushed myself to follow a strict schedule in order to complete an essay I was satisfied with for the competition. With the help of my teammates, I redacted and corrected a speech script following the theme of  “childhood dream and my dream now”.

The Experience

 The day of, in the sky hall, you could feel the anticipation and tension from the hallway. 4 judges lined the front of the stage and listened through the 12 speeches planned for the day. I remember going up on stage and deciding to give it my all, just as I had practiced.
 What pleased me most from this experience was the aspect of participating in a challenge along with other exchange students. As language learners, we do not often get the opportunity to practice in formal contexts such as a speech context, and standing alongside my peers was a very empowering experience.