MLTAQ Brisbane Languages Speech Contest

Griffith University came alive on Sunday 6 August as hundreds of multilingual students from dozens of schools all over Brisbane descended on the Nathan campus to compete in the Modern Languages Teachers Association of Queensland’s Speech Contest. With six languages on offer—Japanese, Chinese, French, German, Russian, and Spanish—five Mount Alvernians signed up and spent a month in preparation for the Japanese and Chinese contests.

2023 is only the second year that Chinese has been on offer at this contest, and numbers have steadily been growing, which is fantastic.  The Japanese contest is, as it long has been, numerous and busy with eight divisions of competition spread amongst classroom learners and background speakers (those who speak Japanese at home or have gone to school in Japan). Between the eight Secondary divisions on Sunday, there were 132 competitors, five of which were from Mount Alvernia.  Well done to our hardworking and capable students:  Hannah (Year 7), Hannah and Sarah (Year 9), Joanna and Grace (Year 10). We received excellent compliments on the day as to the quality of our students’ speeches and their comportment, and all ought to be congratulated for their fine work.

It's always exciting to bring home medals and special High Commendation awards from the judges, and it is certainly true that it isn’t always possible due to the highly competitive, quality competition.  Happily, this year was the year that we were able to bring home both!  Congratulations to Joanna, High Commendation for Japanese, and to Sarah, 3rd Place in Chinese!  This is the first medal in Mount Alvernia’s history in this contest; well done, Sarah!

Well done to our Contest Team for 2023, you’ve done yourselves and your College proud. Thank you to Ms. Hatchman for her support in the lead-up to this event, and to our competitor’s parents for giving up their Sunday morning to accompany their daughters.

Victoria Uhr

Japanese Teacher

MLTAQ Japanese Secondary Contest Convenor