The 5th Japanese Speech Contest for Sophia International Students hosted by the Center for Language Education and Research was held on December 18, 2022. International students studying Japanese at Sophia University showcased their language achievements in two different divisions:
Elementary and Intermediate Level
Upper-Intermediate and Advanced Level
On the day of the event, five finalists for each division who passed the preliminary screening took the stage.
The five judges, including Professor Tamotsu Fujita, Director of the Center for Language Education and Research, and Kensaku Yoshida, Professor Emeritus at Sophia University and Honorary President of the Eiken Foundation of Japan, evaluated each finalist’s speech based on the criteria of content, structure, clarity of language, and speaking style.
The winner of the Upper-Intermediate and Advanced division was Ms. Chen Jiawei (People’s Republic of China) from the Graduate School of Languages and Linguistics. Based on her experience during the pandemic, Ms. Chen Jiawei delivered a powerful speech, emphasizing that it is not possible to fight the virus alone, and that people should strengthen their bonds particularly during difficult times.
In the Elementary and Intermediate division, Ms. Navarro Nell Dawala (France) of the Faculty of Liberal Arts talked about her experience of encountering the beautiful, everyday scenes in Japan that are often overlooked by the local people, and encouraged the audience to rediscover the wonders of everyday life.
The other award recipients are as follows. Upper-Intermediate and Advanced division runner-up: Ms. Liu Wenxi (Department of Journalism, Faculty of Humanities, People’s Republic of China); Elementary and Intermediate division runner-up: Mr. Lee Derren Cheng Fye (Faculty of Liberal Arts, Australia).
A special award from the judges was given to Mr. Huang Yu Heng (Department of Psychology, Faculty of Human Sciences, Taiwan) in the Upper-Intermediate and Advanced division, and Mr. De Bono Jordan (Graduate Program in Global Studies, Republic of Malta) in the Elementary and Intermediate division.
Ms. Karisutori Suiren (Department of English Studies, Faculty of Foreign Studies), who also serves as a Spanish language tutor at the LLC, served as the moderator for the contest. Students from Lingwave, an extra-curricular student group that helped the contestants practice for the final round of the speech contest, also joined in to support, and enjoyed the event.
