Public speaking met multicultural friendship during a speaking showcase.

About a dozen young people shared their language learning during the Dunedin-Otaru Sister City Society annual Japanese speech competition at Otago Girls’ High School last Thursday.

Society secretary Nathan Woodfield said the event was a valuable opportunity for local high school students to practise their Japanese language and presentation skills.

The annual contest also gave participants the chance to meet fellow learners from across the city, share their knowledge and build friendships through a common interest in Japanese culture.

Mr Woodfield said students entered different sections depending on their experience, with younger students sticking to familiar personal themes while older teenagers tackled more complex ideas.

“We have got an open category, but typically in the junior category they’ll do self-introductions, talk about their family,” Mr Woodfield said.

“In the senior category we do want them to get a little bit creative and have an interesting topic, but within their language capacity.”

Ambition could sometimes backfire if competitors selected subjects that were too difficult for their current level of fluency.

“Sometimes people go beyond their language capacity which actually ends up sinking it a bit because they don’t actually know the words themselves,” Mr Woodfield said.

“So after the speech there’s actually questions from the judges as well on topic, on what they’ve spoken about.

“So you want to actually know what you’re talking about because whatever you say you’re going to get a question about as well.”

Success required a balance of confident delivery and a thorough understanding of the chosen material.

“A bit of performance in the speech, but also knowledge in terms of how well do you know what you’re talking about,” Mr Woodfield said.

Competitors brought varying levels of classroom experience to the event, with some having studied the language for several years before taking the stage.

“Many start at, say, year 11, but some start as young as year 9,” Mr Woodfield said.

Competition highlights included a humorous exploration of the etymology of the word “baka” by James Hargest College year 13 student Cissie Lung, and Otago Girls’ High School year 13 student Edelweiss Fatima von Hofler sharing the story of starting the Girl Annotated podcast, Mr Woodfield said.

It was also the final contest year for the Lokman family as the youngest of the siblings, Otago Girls’ High School student Emily Lokman, reached year 13 after she and her brother and sister, Lisa and Johan, had consistently performed at the highest level of the alternative category, including each of them winning the division at least once, Mr Woodfield said.

James Hargest College year 11 student Seungwoo Pyo won the junior category, Otago Girls’ High School year 13 student Emily Lokman won the alternative category and Queen's High School year 12 student Charlee Saunders won the senior category which includes winning the competition cup.

The judges, University of Otago Japanese programme senior teaching fellow, Haruko Stuart, Language Circle national Japanese language adviser Chisato Yoshioka and professional Japanese translator, interpreter and teacher Yoshi Isoyama said they were impressed with the high calibre of the speakers, making it a very close competition.

 

sam.henderson@thestar.co.nz