2017 Texas State Japanese Speech Contest [March 4th, 2017]

On Saturday, March 4th, 2017, the Consulate-General of Japan in Houston and the Japan-America Society of Houston (JASH) co-hosted the 28th Annual Texas State Japanese Language Speech Contest at Rice University. Winners of the regional contests held in Houston, Dallas, Austin, and San Antonio gathered to compete in seven divisions ranging from beginner poetry to advanced level free speech.

This year participants were kindly provided with tote bags emblazoned with the State Speech Contest logo, and stuffed with door prizes courtesy of the sponsors. Rice University’s Center for Language and Intercultural Communication also kindly provided students with pens, note pads, and t-shirts.

Throughout the contest students, parents and teachers cheered each other on and listened intently to speeches and poem recitations. During the intermission, while judges deliberated, audience members participated in a Japan Trivia Quiz facilitated by Rice University Japanese language learners. Students and parents used their phones to quickly answer trivia questions and to win candy prizes.

During the Award Ceremony, Consul-General Tetsuro Amano gave brief remarks, saying that he was impressed with the level of fluency the Japanese students had displayed. Consul-General Amano then presented the award with Poetry Recitation.

The first place student in the Free Speech AURORA Preliminary division won a $1,000 scholarship from the Japanese Association of Greater Houston. Additionally, the first and the second place winner will have the chance to compete in the national competition in the Aurora Foundation All-ASU High School Japanese Speech Contest in Los Angeles. The first place winner for the College / University Division received the $1,500 Shintech-Kanagawa scholarship presented by JASH. The Open Division winner received a round-trip ticket to Japan courtesy of All Nippon Airways.

The contest was cohosted by JASH and the Consulate-General of Japan in Houston. On top of this, the contest has enjoyed wide ranges of community support. This year the supporters include the Japanese Association of Greater Houston, the Japan Business Association of Houston, the Japanese Teachers Association of Texas, TEXOMA JET Alumni Association, and Ms. Miwa Sakashita. Special thanks go to, All Nippon Airways, Ito En, Japan Foundation, Morinaga HI-CHEW, and Rice University‘s Center for Languages and Intercultural Communication.

Following are the results of this year’s Texas State Japanese Speech Contest.

各部門の上位入選者は、下記の通りです。


Poetry Recitation
1st: Teagan Walters | Winston Churchill High School, San Antonio
2nd: Brennan Mohrer | Claudia Taylor “Ladybird” Johnson High School, San Antonio
3rd: Pirzada Hasnain | Morton Ranch High School, Houston

Haiku
1st: Elena Mills | Claudia Taylor “Ladybird” Johnson High School, San Antonio
2nd: Santiago Hoffman Breudstedt | Winston Churchill High School, San Antonio
3rd: Carlos Vazquez | Richardson High School, Dallas


Skit
1st: The New Year’s Race for the Kagami Mochi | Bellaire High School, Houston
Courtney Collier, Leslie Diaz, Tin-Yi Lii, Rebecca Parsons
2nd: A Principal’s Perplexity | Bellaire High School, Houston
Rith Beaubrun, Seven Bunch, Julia Gay, Arlenn Maldonado
3rd: Where’s the Money | L.V. Berkner High School, Dallas
Kevin Co, Grayson Delucas, Syed Fardeen, Basmah Sawalhi

Free Speech with Text
1st: Olivia Esh | L.V. Berkner High School, Dallas
2nd: Jiaqi Zhi | Bellaire High School, Houston
3rd: James Sagun | William P. Clements High School, Houston

Free Speech AURORA
1st: Heewon Huh | Newman Smith High School, Dallas
2nd: Hannah Al-Natoor | Clements High School, Houston
3rd: Justin Nguyen | Richardson High School, Dallas

College/University
1st: Andy Xu | University of Texas at Austin, Austin
2nd: Ziqing Rika Yu | Baylor University, Dallas
3rd: Cyrus Ghaznavi | Rice University, Houston

Open
1st: Chun Jun
2nd: Rochelle Breen
3rd: Angolaoluwa Olutimehin