TUFS Student Won 2nd place at 51st National All Student Spanish Language Speech Competition

February 17, 2016

On the 9th of November 2015 (Mon), Hirose Yuma (School of Language and Culture Studies, Department of Language and Cultures, Spanish Language major, first year) from TUFS won second place in the 51st All Student National Spanish Language Speech Competition (Sponsored by: Kyoto University of Foreign Studies) which was held at Kyoto University of Foreign Studies.
Mr. Hirose entered the first group (for participants who have spent less than 6 months in a country where the main spoken language is Spanish) and presented a speech titled “The True Nature of Happiness I Found in South East Asia” (“¿QUÉ SIGNIFICA SER FELIZ?”).

The manuscripts for the speech competition can be found here ( Japanese / Spanish )

Mr. Hirose`s thoughts on Winning

I am currently a first year student and only found out about the “Spanish Language Speech Competition” soon after entering University. At first, due to the fact that I had only been studying the language for several months, I thought there would be no point in participating in the competition and so was not very proactive. However, a decisive event happened over the summer that compelled me to take part. It was during summer vacation while I was visiting Cambodia on my travels and I met an orphan. I want many people to know what and how I felt during my encounter. I really felt like I must tell people, and so without any hesitation decided to take part in the competition.
After I started practicing for my speech, the Spanish language professor kindly and politely gave me guidance and friends from the same course also helped which led me to take 2nd place. However I will assert now that my Spanish language ability is not superb. Then what was good about my speech? I believe that I conveyed my honest feelings to the members of the audience and achieving this in a language that you are unfamiliar with might have had an even greater impact.
”When you have something to want to talk about from the bottom of your heart, then you should try talking about it in a language you are unfamiliar with.”
To all the people that will have the same opportunity as I did, I would like them to proactively take part and to try to passionately talk about something. I am sure it will become a great experience.

The 51st National All Student Spanish Language Speech Competition Results Announcement
http://www.kufs.ac.jp/news/detail.html?id=wmFbVlrK
Competition Guidelines and Information (pdf format)
http://www.kufs.ac.jp/cms_image/up_img/shintyaku/2015/2015spainbenronyoukou.pdf

During the Speech

Mr. Hirose at the Awards Ceremony