The 4th All Japan High School English Speech Contest
On Saturday the 5th and Sunday the 6th, I was in Tokyo with one of my first grade students for the finals of the 4th All Japan High School English Speech Contest. There were 18 finalists from all over Japan. It was an AMAZING contest. Every speech was a "winning" speech that had won two preliminary rounds, a prefectural contest and an area contest, before coming to Tokyo. I was SO amazed by the quality of the speeches and the skills of the speakers. At this level of contest, it seems to me that winning is no longer about one speech being necessarily better than another, but rather about which specific qualities the judges felt outweighed the others. Every speech, naturally, had some room for improvement, but every speech was so fantastic, and every speaker performed so well, that it was a great experience.
By far the thing that I felt was best about this contest was that the contestants had the opportunity to socialize with these great students from around Japan, and it was heartwarming to see the students making friends, eating together, laughing, and at the end, exchanging e-mail addresses and phone numbers, hugging and promising to call or write.
I met some really great and interesting teachers, and I hope very much to see them again. My student's mother took this photo!
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Date: 2011⁄02⁄08 18:11｜Permalink｜Author：nelp