English Speech Contest:

Yesterday (Saturday) I spent the day at a regional English speech contest. I was chosen as the head judge for this contest here in Nagoya. It was a regional championship with the winner going on to Tokyo for the national champion.

It is always interesting going to these speech contests. I remember going as a coach of students many years back. Not much changes. I saw coaches there this time as well. The theme of the speech contest was "family". It was interesting and even very touching to hear high school students give a speech on what family means to them. I heard of a lot of personal stories and the content of all the speeches was absolutely incredible. I was very impressed. Of coarse there was a big difference between students who had coaches and student who didn`t. It was very easy to understand. Some students were over coached. Meaning their gestures and tone of their voice was just too much and was not natural at all. Some of the speeches were more like a theater performance than a speech. Other speeches were maybe very natural but lacked some proper pronunciation or grammar.

Still it is always refreshing to see and here these students. But I am always proud of all the students who challenge a speech contest. No matter the outcome everyone is a winner because everyone studied and learned while getting ready. I really enjoy being involved in these type of activities whether helping a student prepare or judging the students. Its a great atmosphere and even though I am a native speaker, I usually walk away from it learning something.