Double victory for UNSW in the 42nd Australian Japanese Speech Contest

  • Japanese Speech Contest-2011
  • Posted: 24th October 2011

Team UNSW scores double victory in Japanese Speech Contest, 42nd Australian National Final

On October 15, Japanese language students representing all states and the territories of Australia and New Zealand gathered at the JapanFoundation Hall in Sydney for the 42nd Australian National Final JapaneseSpeech Contest. Two of the four contestants representing the State of New South Wales were our UNSW students, Vincent Uecker and Hana Thomson. They were the two winners of the NSW State competition in two of the three tertiary student divisions. 

Vincent, who is a student in the Intermediate Japanese B course, started studying Japanese last year. He competed in the Open Beginner Division with his speech entitled, "Does a Japanese girlfriend improve your Japanese?". He delivered his speech confidently, and the audience throughly enjoyed his sense of humour.The answer to his question was "no": A Japanese girlfriend does not improve your Japanese. 

Hana, who is studying in the Professional Japanese B course, competed in the Background Speaker Division. Her speech title was "I am Hana-jin." She discussed her multicultural upbringings of American and Japanese heritage, born in Singapore, growing up in Australia and concluded she is not one of, but all of "Amerika-jin", "Oosutoraria-jin", and "Nihon-jin" and named her heritage "Hana-jin".

Vincent and Hana were awarded their certificates by the Ambassador of Japan, Mr Shigekazu Sato, and each received a return ticket to Japan from the Japan Airlines and Bullet Train ticket from the Japan Rail Tokai.

Vincent is due for a semester of exchange in Rikkyo University in Tokyo, and he plans to go to have an advanced look at Japan using the ticket. Hana plans to go to visit her grandmother in Tokyo during the summer holiday.

We cannot forget UNSW participants at the NSW state competition who also did extremely well. Including Vincent and Hana, eight UNSW students participated in three eligible divisions of Open Beginner, Open, and Background Speaker, and six students won prizes.

Open Beginner Division

1st Prize Winner: Vincent Uecker "Does a Japanese girlfriend improve your Japanese?"

2nd Prize Winner: Hayden Blain "Culture Shock: My Taiwanese food experience." 

Open Division

2nd Prize Winner: Kyle Koo "Army and Freedom."

3rd Prize Winner: Billy Jaya "Haggling in Osaka."

Background speaker Division

1st Prize Winner: Hana Thomson " I am Hana-jin."

3rd Prize Winner: Yuna Kubota "Until we get there."

Congratulations to all!

Back to News & Events

What’s On
RSS
  1. C. P. Cavafy: A Public DebateWhen: 20th June
  2. Modern Soundscapes - Conference of the Australasian Association of LiteratureWhen: 10th July
  3. So, what? lecture - Professor Steven ConnorWhen: 10th July
  4. Australia’s Asian Context in the Asian Century, a one-day research workshopWhen: 12th July

Back to top