Japanese Speech Contest

On Saturday 9 September Darwin High School students attended the Northern Territory Japanese Speech Contest at MacKillop Catholic College. The NT Japanese Speech Contest is the regional contest used to select a Northern Territory representative for the National level Competition. 

While only Year 11 and Year 12 students are eligible for the National level competition, the Northern Territory competition is open to both primary to senior school students and was founded and supported by LTANT, AJANT and the NT Department of Education. 

This year fourteen Darwin High School students participated in the NT regional event, ten Year 10 students and four from Year 11. Students were asked to present a three minute speech on any topic related to Japan, but students were encouraged to talk about youth issues. The popular topics were Manga, Harajuku Fashion, Bullying in Japan, Karou-shi and Hikikomori.

Over the last couple of months the Darwin High students had conducted research using various resources in Japanese and then created their speech in Japanese. The students practised their presentation in class as well as during recess and lunch and while memorising their speech was not a requirement for the competition, most students did to allow them to better engage with the audience.

Darwin High School teacher, Mariko Ruzsicska said

Congratulations to all the Darwin High School students who participated. It was a challenging experience and everyone performed very well.

Special mention to the below students below who achieved outstanding results:

1st Place Nafi Mazid (Year 11) - Nafi has been selected to represent the Northern Territory at the National Speech Contest in Sydney next month.

2nd Place Jade Lay (Year 11)

Special Award Daniel Youn (year 11)

Special Award Eric Kitazato-Mu (Year 10)

Japan Australia Association Award Elizabeth Lee (Year 11)