Your Guide to Meiji

Event Reports

Event Reports

The 16th Meiji University President's Cup Japanese Speech Contest for International Students was held on 19th November at Liberty Tower on the Surugadai Campus by the International Student Exchange Center and the Parents' Association.

The theme of this year's contest was "Messages we want to send across borders" and a total twenty students from South Korea, China, United States, Myanmar, Vietnam and Romania gave speeches. Each speech was limited to four and a half minutes and President's Cup was won by Jane Elisabeth Hommerding, exchange student at the School of Global Japanese Studies from Iowa University, United States, whose speech title was "Minna no Kokoro (Everyone's Heart)".

In the lead up to the speech contest a 60 student planning committee assisted the international students with writing and practicing their speeches. The committee also assisted with public relations, setting up the venue and making sure the contest was a success.

Ms. Hommerding, who won the President's Cup, came to study in Japan in order to understand Japanese culture and language. She explained sincerely and in fluent Japanese, how she came to realize during her student life in Japan and through interaction with Japanese friends and students from other countries, that to understand the heart of each person = everyone's heart—regardless of nationality or background—is to deepen understanding of each country's culture and language.

Another international student from the same Iowa University in the United States, Ms. Olivia Sommerlot, gave a speech entitled "For My Own Satisfaction." She talked about how the most important thing in life was to find a goal for one's own self and said, "Since the time I was a child, my teachers and my family kept telling me that I did not have what it took to become first rate at whatever I did. In fact, no matter how hard I studied Japanese or practiced the piano, there were always many people around me who could do better. Eventually, I stopped thinking about what I wanted to do and kept thinking about what I could do. However, coming to Japan I realized something important. That is, to find something for my own satisfaction. Standing in front of a crowd of people and giving a speech in Japanese at a contest—that is something that I did 'for my own satisfaction.'"

There may have been students who could not express themselves the way they wanted to because of nervousness. However, in each of the speeches by the international students participating in the contest, there was a sincere attitude of always facing head-on the challenges of each day within the limitations of student life, such as "have I accomplished what I came here to do?", "have I deepened my understanding about Japan?", and "am I truly interacting with Japanese people?". This attitude of the international students will surely provide great inspiration to the Japanese students, as well as to their teachers.

 

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