TUFS Student Won Prize in 33rd Japan National Chinese Speech Contest
March 10, 2016
On the 10th of January 2016 (Sun), at the 33rd Japan National Chinese Speech Contest (sponsored by: Japan-China Friendship Association, supported by: Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology and the NHK) Miho Takase of TUFS (School of Language and Culture Studies, Chinese language, 2nd year) won second place in the university student category and second year PhD student at TUFS Haruka Akaike (Graduate School of Global Studies, Language and Culture Studies, 2nd year) won third place. Ms. Takase gave a speech entitled “heart to heart” and Ms. Akaike gave a speech entitled “Let`s all look together, blue skies and white clouds”.
This contest aims to improve the spread and quality of Chinese language acquisition in Japan with the intention to deepen the mutual understanding and friendship between residents of both Japan and China.
For further information please see the link below.
http://www.j-cfa.com/project/speech.html
Ms. Takase`s Thoughts on Winning
Last summer I participated in the exchange program which was sponsored by the student group for Japanese and Chinese students. I spent two weeks together with Chinese university students and used this experience as a base for the theme of my speech which was friendship. From the time I entered university, participating in the speech contest was one of my goals for my Chinese language learning and so I am incredibly happy to achieve such a result. At the same time, through the speech contest my motivation towards Chinese language study and studying abroad in China has increased. After exchanging with the judges and other participants of the contest I realized that connections between people through Chinese language learning are very valuable. Starting from the preparations last summer, the contest in October held in Kanagawa prefecture and up to the national competition in January, I want to say thank you to my teachers and seniors for all their help and guidance. From here on I will further dedicate myself to the acquisition of the Chinese language and hope that I may be able to contribute to the friendship between Japan and China.
Ms. Akaike`s Thoughts on Winning
8 years have passed since I began learning Chinese, I am very happy to receive such an award at the speech contest I decided would be my last. I am incredibly grateful to the teachers who offered their guidance and to my friends who supported me. Generally, after becoming a graduate student there are not many people who participate in this kind of event however, I am glad that I did (I participated with the resolve to be scolded by people who think the duty of graduate students is research). After learning a foreign language for a long period of time, the precision of pronunciation from when you first started has a tendency to collapse, but through preparing my speech for the contest I was once again able to re-examine my Chinese pronunciation and method of expression. Also last year I studied abroad in Beijing and was able to present what I felt (that the sky in Beijing is not all pollution) during that time. I am sure that participation in the speech contest holds significance for both undergraduate students and graduate students alike. In the future I would like the up and coming juniors to take part in this speech contest.
 Ms. Takase during her speech |  Ms. Akaike during her speech |