The Speech Contest

AKA: Leslie suddenly turns into "one of those" mothers.

Ever since I arrived at Ikushina Jr. High, I have been working with four girls in preparation for a city-wide English speech contest. I have been there from the writing of the speeches (correcting them was one of the first things I did when I arrived) to the practicing of gestures. These girls truly have been wonderful, and I loved the time I spent with them on these speeches.

The speech contest itself was last Friday, and I was allowed to miss half a day of school to go see it. There were two categories - the regular, main category, and the "I lived in an English-speaking country for a while" category, called the "returnee category." Three of my girls were in the former and one was in the latter - the maximum allowed for each. The regular category had two rounds - a preliminary round, with 42 contestants separated into three rooms, and a final round, for which only 9 of the 42 students (the top 3 of each room) were selected. The returnee category had only one round, as there were only five students in it.

It was amazing to see my kids in action. They all did wonderfully - none of them had to be prompted with the lines of their speech, and all of them spoke loudly, clearly, and slowly, using wonderful gestures. I took a million pictures of them while they were talking, becoming "one of those" parents (though I wasn't a parent at all). I couldn't have been more proud of them.

Or so I thought! Two of my students made it into the final round of the regular category, one of whom ultimately won second place, while my returnee student ended up winning first place in her category. The two that placed will be going on to compete in the prefectural contest, and the winner from that contest gets a free trip to America for a year. Talk about the icing on the cake! I was grinning from ear to ear LONG after the contest was over. I couldn't calm down, even when I was riding back from the contest with my principal. I spent all weekend bragging about them to various people (I'm sorry if you had to suffer this!), and now, I'm ready to work hard with the two prize-winners toward their next contest. As the Japanese say, "Ganbatte!" (which translates to everything from "good luck" to "work hard" to "fight!!")