The 10th Japanese Speech Contest for University Students

Team Kagaku Otaku receiving their prize

This year was another a very successful year for the Imperial students who participated in the annual national Japanese Speech Contest.

The Final Day of the 10th Japanese Speech Contest for University Students was held at a Regent's University London on the 28th February 2015, and showcased six individual speeches, five individual presentations and four group presentations by UK university students, viewed by around 200 spectators. In the Individual Presentation category, two out of the five finalists were from Imperial College: Daren Sin (2nd year Mathematics and Computer Science) and Polena Lilyanova (1st year Computing) who were both students of Imperial Horizons Japanese Level 4 Course. They competed against the other contestants for the two top prizes. The judges said that the presentations were all of a very high standard and it was very difficult to decide the winner. 

Polena giving her speech

Daren showing his 2nd prize certificate

We are very happy to announce that Daren won the second prize with his fascinating speech entitled "Singlish: A language of Singapore" and Polena was a runner-up with her outstanding speech about "a hero". Commenting on the reasons of choosing this subject, Daren said, "I ultimately chose to discuss about Singlish, because I thought it makes us unique from other cultures, like how I can easily identify Singaporeans in the UK from the way they speak!"

In the Group Presentation category, one of the best four finalist groups, chosen from initial 25 applications, was Imperial's team "Kagaku Otaku" ("The science geeks" in Japanese). The group consisted of the following students from the Imperial Horizons Japanese Level 2 course: - Nikita Kamraj (4th year Physics), Jamielyn Lau (4th year Physics), Muhammad Iqmal Rahim (3rd year Aeronautical Engineering) and Jer Wei Yeoh (4th year Aeronautical Engineering). They gave a presentation entitled "An Introduction to Malaysian Culture and Traditions" and entertained the audience with their friendly and interesting performance.

Nikita said, "I found the whole experience incredibly enjoyable - from the initial preparation right up until the end of Final Day. I formed a strong friendship with all the members in my group, and while preparing for the contest was tiring at times, working together made it an overall fun (and less daunting!) experience. Final's Day itself was an exhilarating experience, and it was great to see the support from both my past and present Japanese teachers."

The finalists with their Japanese teachers

Congratulations to them all for their amazing performances and achievements.