Japanese Speech Reflection 

The Japanese Speech Contest concluded on the 31st October. A few months ago, when our Japanese teacher told our class about the contest, I was a little intimidated by it. First, I have never done something like this, and second, I am not extremely confident in my Japanese skills. Well, it turns out that the team need more people, hence I joined.

The speech consisted of two parts: one fixed passage about the liking of Japanese music, and another longer one explaining why I study Japanese. Over the next few weeks, we had a few run-throughs together, and Ms Johnston helped us correct some mispronunciations and grammatical errors. My two classmates have managed to memorise more speeches than I did. Honestly, I panicked a little bit. But this was also a source of motivation for me. Gradually, we not only had a better understanding of the content of our speech, but also intonation, stress, tempo, movement, and gestures. After a few weeks, we had become quite proficient with our speeches. 

On the day, 23 participants from four different schools attended. Despite having practiced countless times, I still felt nervous. The order of the speeches was completely random and was not disclosed to the speakers. At around 10 a.m., everyone took their seats as the contest got started, and you could feel a mix of nerves and excitement in the air. Both of my classmates were called up relatively early and delivered them with notable proficiency.  The more you wait, the more unbearable it becomes. I felt increasingly nervous as time passed. At long last, I was called up as the 4th fourth last speaker. I still cannot recall much about the process of my speech; all I thought about was giving the best speech I could. And it went well. It was, in fact, one of the only times I avoided making a single mistake. I could not be more satisfied with my speech. If I go back in time and do it again, I doubt I would have done any better. 

Overall, considering how limited the time was, our team did exceptionally well. With one placing 5th and another one 7th, our members have put in an enormous amount of effort towards this contest. I would like to thank all the staff, judges, and everyone who made this event a reality. I also want to give special thanks to Ms Johnston and Chisa, our incredible teachers. They sacrificed their precious time to practice with us. The contest would not have been possible without them, and we would not have done so well. This experience was very enjoyable for me, and I believe others would think the same.

Sam Song

Student