Abiko International Relation Association - The 18th Abiko International Speech Contest

The 18th Abiko International Speech Contest

September 25.2016：In the 18th Abiko International Speech Contest eight people made speeches: two native Japanese speakers expressed in English and six non-native Japanese speakers in Japanese.

　　　　Date and Time: Sunday, September 25 1:00 p.m. ~ 4:00 p.m.

　　　　Venue: Abiko Civic Plaza Hall

　　　　Speakers: Eight people, Two in English and six in Japanese

　　　　Judges : Five people, Mr. H. Sato, Mr. A. Aoki, Mr. T. Kurabe, Mr. W. Kischuck and Mr. J. Bauman

　　　　　　　　　　(Refer the undermentioned name list for detail)

　　　　Emcees: Mr. Koji Ishihara and Ms. Phyo Thiri Kyaw (Myanmar)

After emcees declared the opening of the contest and introduced the judges, Mr. H. Sato, President of AIRA made an opening address. He emphasized the importance of speaking with passion. “Passion is more important than fluency when you make a speech. Try to make your point clear to the audience.”

Mr. J. Hoshino, Abiko Mayor, expressed his hope in his congratulatory speech, that the international speech contest would be kept continuing to enhance international friendship in Abiko. “Cuban Judo players visited us in July this year, and we are planning to invite Taiwanese softball players to Abiko when the Chiba Softball Tournament will be held in 2018. There will be more occasions for international exchange in Abiko in the coming years.”

Now the contest started. Speeches in English were given first then speeches in Japanese followed.

Each speaker talked about their experiences on how they were inspired or impressed by differences of cultures and customs.

For a student from China vending machines installed at every few meters away in Japan looked like one of the symbols of convenience in Japanese society. He was impressed by coffee vending machine from which he could get any kinds of coffee, such as black, café au lait, calorie-off , slightly-sugared, and so on.

A Korean student spoke about the difference of job hunting between Korea and Japan. He felt Japanese companies considered students’ eagerness to work as more important than their educational backgrounds or qualifications.

A student whose mother is from Poland spoke about what experienced when she visited her mother’s hometown. What impressed her the most was that Polish people habitually enjoyed conversation very much at the dining hours.

Most speeches showed the speakers’ great sensibilities and their stories gave the audience good opportunities to look at Japanese lifestyle and culture from other angles.

When presentation by the eight speakers were over, judges moved to the judge’s room. Meanwhile “audience-judge sheets”, on which every audience check-marked one speaker’s name who they judged the best, were collected and taken to the judge’s room.

While people were waiting for the announcement of the judges’ results, there was an introduction of AIRA activities at the floor. First, Ms. Ch.Yamaguchi, who teaches English at AIRA, reported about the days of Northern America University students’ homestay in Abiko in last June.

Mr. Y. Hesaki, AIRA Volunteer Section Chief, explained the AIRA activities throughout the year, e.g. dispatching free translators to various events around the town such as International Open-Air Art Exhibition and Japan Bird Festival, Japanese Language Classes for Foreigners, Foreign Language Classes, and so on. He called for those who are interested in international exchange to join AIRA.

Following that, there was a special presentation by Ms. Patricia Kato, who is from Chile and a student at AIRA Japanese Language Class. She received a prize in the 7th Yomiuri Newspaper Essay Contest “My memory of good taste”. She read aloud her essay titled “Power of Chikara-Udon” (Chikara means power and Udon is noodles in Japanese).

She read with emotion and gave audience a deep impression.

The full text of Ms. Kato’s essay can be seen on this site.

The results of the judge were announced as follows. Each prize winner was awarded on the stage and given encouraging comments by the respective judge.

It was extremely difficult this year to choose winners because every speaker performed very well. Three speakers were given the audience judge awards.

After the award ceremony Mr. T. Kurabe of Abiko Education Board, gave a general comment and the contest was concluded by Mr. M. Hayasaka, chief executive of the contest.

Following the contest there was a tea party emceed by Mr. Kuroda. Short comments were given by two judges, Mr. John Bauman of Chuo Gakuin University and Mr. A. Aoki, Abiko Vice Mayor.

Finally, the party was concluded by Mr K. Murakoshim, AIRA Vice President, with a ceremonial hand-clapping Ipponjime, as usually seen in a Japanese gathering.

As a memento of the contest every speaker was presented a book titled “Travel is Trouble-Part Two” authored by Mr. Yasuharu Koh, well-known world trotter in Abiko, who very kindly donated these books.

Award	Winner	Title	Contents
AIRA President Award	Sekiguchi Anna （Third year student at Kohokudai Junior High School）	Poland　ａｎｄ　Ｊａｐａｎ	Mother from Poland and father from Japan. Comparing the difference of culture and customs between the two countries and pointing out what Japanese people should learn from them.
Abiko Mayor Award	You Xiao Ting （Exchange student at Chuo Gakuin University）	What I learned from tea ceremony	Learning tea ceremony, one of Japanese traditions. and Japanese culture through the word “wa-kei-sei-jaku” (peace, respect, calmness, loneliness)
Abiko City Education Board Award	Ahmed Manzoor （Third year student at Fusa Juior Highschool）	Ahmed Manzoor （Third year student at Fusa Juior Highschool）	Japanese people are kind. There are also bad people, though. But I want to realize my dream in Japan.
Chuo Gakuin Universty Award	Xiao Kai (First year student at Chuo Gakuin University)	Living in Japan as a foreign student	Gaps between the image of Japan when living in China and the real Japanese society and culture. I want to study hard to work for the friendship between the two countries
Kawamura Gakuen Woman’s university Award	Kazuki Tsukamoto （Fourth year student at Kawamura Gakuen Woman’s University）	「ＭｙｌｉｆｅｉｎＣｈｉｃｈｅｓｔｅｒ」	Experience to be helped by classmates while studying in the UK. Impressive Sagrada Familia in Barcelona and tasty local cuisines during the trip in Europe. New finding of Japanese culture after coming back to Japan. Delicious Japanese tea and polite Japanese people and etc. were another kind of culture shock.
Audience-Judge Award	Kim Yo Seung （Exchange student at Chuo Gakuin University）	Japan I’m looking at with great interest	I want to work for food industry in the future and visit restaurants in Japan to learn from them Clean restaurants, multi-function vending machines, etc
	Woo Seung Yoon （Third year student at Chuo Gakuin University）	Job hunting in Korea and Japan	Differences in job hunting I noticed after I came to Japan. Internship programs in Japan, etc.
	zhang chun ling （Student at AIRA Japanese Class）	New finding in child-rearing	I gave my grandchildren sweets, which resulted in their bad teeth. I learned the importance of rearing children considering their life-long happiness, not just one-moment joy, and their good health.