TUFS Students Won 1st, 2nd and 3rd places at "19th Polish Speech Contest"

March 28, 2016

On the 30th of January 2016 (Sat), the “19th Polish Speech Contest” (Sponsored by: The Polish Information and Cultural Center) was held at the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Tokyo where Ms. Sonomi Ishigami (School of Language and Culture Studies, Polish Language major, 3rd year) took 1st place, Ms. Ikumi Takahashi (School of Language and Culture Studies, Polish Language major, 3rd year) took 2nd place and Mr. Yosuke Konya (School of Language and Culture Studies, Polish Language major, 3rd year) took 3rd place. The award given to the top 3 places is the chance to participate free of charge in the short term Polish Language Summer Course at a university in Poland which has been generously offered by the Polish Ministry of Higher Education. At this contest, despite contestants from other universities and from the general public also taking part, the top 3 places were all won by students from TUFS.

Mr. Konya`s Thoughts on Winning

I took part in the 19th Polish Speech Contest and won 3rd place.
I entered the contest with the intent to display all that I had learnt so far from my studies. Until the contest, I never really had the opportunity to speak Polish in front of this many people so I was incredibly nervous. During the speech I was franticly trying to get words out and my head went blank so I am not completely sure whether I was able to convey everything I planned to before the speech. However I am satisfied that I was able to perform a speech in Polish in front of so many people and I am grateful to have had the opportunity.
From the moment I decided to participate in the speech contest, I practiced many times for the main event. During my practice, I realized that my Polish language skills still had a lot of room for improvement. Fortunately, I was awarded 3rd place however, I intend to use this experience as an incentive to learn how to speak more fluently.