我孫子市国際交流協会

Date: Sunday, Sep. 28, 2008 13:00-17:10
Venue: Abiko Civic Hall
Listener: About 70
Judges: Mr. Takeshi Watanabe, Deputy Mayor; Mr. Toshio Imazeki, Superintendent, Abiko City Board of Education; Mr. Ichiro Shiina, President of Chuo Gakuin University; Mr. Noboru Noguchi, Director-General, National Federation of UNESCO Associations in JAPAN; Mr. Takashi Hiraoka, Director of Public Relations, Yamashina Institute for Ornithology; Ms. Mary Elizabeth Adachi, AIRA English teacher; Ms Lisa Ward, AIRA English teacher, and Ms. Fumiko Kitajima, President of AIRA; 8 judges in total.

The Tenth AIRA Memorial International Speech Contest was attended by the unprecedented number of participants, fifteen English speakers and twelve Japanese speakers. They were, from 13-year-old second year junior high student to 67 years old man; six males including two non-Japanese, and eighteen females including nine foreign born citizens.
Ms. Kitajima opened the event with the word, " We are now living in a world where none of us can live without broad and global sight. I am pleased to listen to the every speech with a great expectation today".
In about two and half hours all speakers, both of the English group and the Japanese group, completed their impressive speakings.
While the judges were in the process of examining the speeches at a separate room, a NHK's DVD was shown on the screen titled "The transplant project of albatross". An explanatory speech by Mr. Hiraoka of the Yamashina Institute for Ornithology, who had also participated in the project, helped audience's understanding of the lasting and expansive project.
Using an extra time after the show, the emcees interviewed several speakers on their motives for participation and their post-speech sentiments.

After strict and fair judgement by the eight judges, the following speakers were nominated as the winner of respective prizes.
1. AIRA Presidnt prize: Miss Naoko Nakamura
2. Mayor prize: Mr. Cahit Kahraman
3. Superintendent of Board of Education prize: Mr. Keijiro Maeda
4. Chuo Gakuin University President prize: Miss Xu Li
5. Kawamura Gakuen Woman's University President prize: Miss Asumi Iizuka
6. UNESCO Director General prize: Miss Jiang Yi Qian
7. Yamashina Institute for Ornithology Director prize: Ms. Lu Jing
8. Audience appraisal prize: Miss Shin Han Hua/for Japanese, and Miss Haruka Ueda/for English
All other eighteen speakers received participation prize respectively.

The first prize winner, Miss N. Nakamura, a university sophomore, made an impressive speech in English titled "What is communication ?" as follows.
"In general Japanese seem not very communicative with foreign people. For one reason, I think that our ancestors had no necessity for talking with foreigners by virtue of 300 years of national seclusion.
Furthermore, we still have a saying "Silence is gold", however, this would not run current in today's world.
What I am confident about a good communication with foreign people is, to think in the foreign words as much as possible, to try to understand the history and culture of each word, and to understand and respect the history and culture of the said country.
In addition, I would stress that to be really internationalized means that one should have a strict identity as a Japanese and have a pride in it."

Mr. Cahit Kahulaman, the Mayor's prize winner, is a Turkish student of doctoral course at the graduate school of Tsukuba University.
He talked in his well-commanded Japanese about what he had experienced in his tour at the title "My wandering tour in Japan" .
Here are some episodes he met in the tour.
"One day I slept at the main building of a temple for the first time. In front of me, the principal and several other images of Buddha were silhouetted. I was so scared that I recited repeatedly "Nanmaida" and "Nemuinda"(I'm sleepy), then, I fell in asleep without notice."
"Sleeping in a "Ji-in"(temple) made me "Ji-n"(touched me deeply).
By the way, "Jiin or Ji-n" means ghost in Turkish."
His humorous and amusing talk which might be appealing even in a Japanese vaudeville theatre, caught on with the audience.
He concluded that foreigners living in Japan would travel around the country and make many wonderful memories.

Mr. T. Imazeki, representing all the judges, summarized that today's contest really deserved the name of the tenth event with many participants from various corners of the city and that the English management level of junior high students had been highly improved.
He added, "In the past, many junior high students tended to read papers without looking up, but now the most students orated boldly facing the audience. I am struck with the times."

After the awarding ceremony, all participants and judges stepped on the stage for memorial snapshots.
As usual, a humble tea party was held at the hall, where gathered and enjoyed the speakers, judges, emcees, guests, staff, and the audience chatting over cup of tea and some snacks and fruits.

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