2002 School Magazine

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In the Central Queensland University - Me toi University and Asahi University Japanese Speech Competition in 2001, Julie Sze was placed second In the Senior Division. She was awarded a fully funded one-week trip to Japan in November to participate in an international component of the contest along with other Meikai-Asahi speech final ists from Korea, Taiwan and mainland China. Below is Julie's story

Japanese speeches was so exhausting because it required so much dictionary flicking, and the beeping of the electronic Japanese dictionary must have really annoyed any passenger who wasn't sleeping or watching their video After eight hours, we finally arr'ved at Tokyo's international airport and the first challenge had unexpectedly come swiftly. The President of one of the universities was actually waiting for us I was a little worried if my Japanese was good enough to communicate with him. Luckily the preparation on the plane proved useful, we managed to survive thirty minutes of conversing in Japanese We arrived at the hotel where we had the welcoming dinner and met with the other contestants from China, Korea and Taiwan. We were astonished to find out that most of these people have studied Japanese for more than seven Years and they actually come from language-centred schools. In which the language is a major part of their curriculum. We were to compete with these people the next day; it was not a comforting thought The next day came too quickly. In the early hours of that morning, we were still busy running through out speeches for the last time. Before we realized, we were led to the large competition professors and the general public What scared us most was that there were tenjudges. The competition began with the Australian team, so I was the second person to speak. It was quite nerve racking, speaking a foreign language in front of so many people The speech seemed longer than ever as the hall was in complete silence, other than the echoing of my own voice and the flashing of cameras everywhere At last my speech had finished, and for the first time in the past few days I felt much relief. However, I was still not "off the hook", as there were other Interviews to follow. The winner was a screen hall in which there were more than 700 people. including photographers, journalists, cameramen, university

contestant from China. Unexpectedly I got a prize from the Mayor of Urayasu city, the city in which Tokyo Disney Land is situated Straight after the contest there were a series of interviews with the journalists This was actually more nerve-racking than the actual speech competition it was televised to an audience of 700 people and I had to respond on the spot. Luckily, I survived this ordeal,

even extended to the designing of toilets! There are a series of buttons which when pressed gives the user a gold class experience! This trip was definitely a valuable experience for me. It was a challenge but I certainly enjoyed it very much Not only have I made great friendships with people from other countries, but also this trip has benefited my Japanese studies. Being immersed h Japanese

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Last Year, from 23 - 30 November I went to Japan with two other prizewinners of the Meikai University. Asahi University Japanese Speech Contest. We made up the Australian Team, which was to compete at the International Japanese Speech Contest held in Tokyo After a 430am wake up call that morning, I was ready to head for the airport. Not knowing what to expect from this trip, I was excited Yet extremely nervous. Apart from my own speech for the contest, I was told that we would need to make speeches and conversation in Japanese of course, with the Presidents of the two sponsoring universities. Not only that, after the speech contest, we would be interviewed by the journalists, again in Japanese and small formal speeches may be needed throughout the seven days. When I was told of this, I was quite "freaked out': I knew surely th's would be a challenge because I have not really had lengthy conversations in Japanese before. The best advice that I was given was to have some "handy responses" ready, which I could produce on the spot when I needed them. So that was exactly what I, and the two girls did on the eight hour plane flight - busy writing and memorizing

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thanks to the preparation on the plane, but on one occasion they had to repeat a question in five different ways before I actually knew what they meant The competition was over and for the next five days we had enormous fun Apart from visiting the two universities and making some small speeches here and there. we visited three other major cities: Kyoto, Osaka and Nagoya. Visits to Disneyland. the famous temples in Kyoto, the Universal Studio in Osaka and a one day home-stay h which we experienced the life style of the Japanese people werejust a few of the many things that we did There is one thing that I must comment on about Japan. Everyone wou d say that Japan is at the forefront of technology, but for those that haven't been to Japan, You can't imagine how far technology has advanced. It has

co ture is a much easier way to learn the language. I felt so much more confident w'th speaking Japanese by the end of the trip The trip was free, the food absolutely fantastic and the accommodation excellent. We stayed in 5-star hotels! I do strongly recommend this competition to girls studying Japanese Do give it a try, I'm sure You will enjoy it as much as I did I would like to thank Mrs Takizawa for her guidance and support throughout this event. All the lunchtime practices and the June holiday practices last Year with her were invaluable. Without her, I would not have advanced so far So thank you very much Mrs Tak'zawa