On Tuesday the 5th of April, JLTASA held its annual Year Eight Speech Recital Competition. Students who enter in to this event are required to recite a specific passage in Japanese, and are graded on the pronunciation, fluency, intonation, memorisation and presentation. This kind of event is chosen so that it is accessible for all students, whether they are new to Japanese that year, or have been studying it throughout primary school. English recital competitions are also a popular activity in Japanese schools.
This year we had 35 students attend the event from eight different schools, including for the first time, video entries from a country school, Mount Gambier High School. It was a fantastic turn out, which included high schools from all three sectors, and all areas of Adelaide.
The quality of the recitals was excellent. One of the lines the students had to recite was 日本語が大好きです！ and it was so wonderful to hear so many students recite it with such enthusiasm.
Another wonderful aspect of this event was the parent support on the night. Many students were accompanied by parents, siblings and even grandparents, all of whom spoke very highly about how hard their child had worked at practicing the piece at home, to the point where some parents felt that they could have recited the piece themselves!
It was a very close competition, but in the end Tong Qiu from Immanuel College won the event, with Josie Rowe from Golden Grove High School placing second, and Tahlia Pfitzner from Immanuel College coming third.
Congratulations to all who took part in the event. It is really tough to stand in front of a room full of strangers and recite a piece of text, especially when it is not in your native language, and all of the students performed admirably. よくできました！
