Approximately 70 people attended the contest, and the six contestants gave their respective speeches following greetings by Japanese Ambassador to Jamaica Mr. Yasuhiro Atsumi, and Dr. Villoria, UWI Department Head of Modern Languages and Literatures.

The contest was broken into two levels: Level 1 (beginner) and Level 2 (lower intermediate), with three contests per level. The topic given to level 1 participants was “my favorite things”, and the topic for level 2 was “environment/tourism/energy”. The speeches were done all in Japanese, and following each speech was a short Q&A time. The student who won the level 2 contest excitedly remarked that she was particularly happy she won since it was her third time participating in this contest.

The UWI Japan Club and local Japanese sang and gave a dance performance in order to help introduce Japanese culture to Jamaica. Past contestants and UWI alumni also gave presentations on their Japanese language-learning experiences and their future goals.

As a consideration for the audience members who do not understand Japanese, a brief summary of each speech was displayed on screen, letting everyone enjoy the contest no matter how little or much Japanese they knew.

This year APIC also presented the winners with Japanese-language books and traditional fans, calligraphy tools, as well as anime-related goods and small Japanese paraphernalia as a way to help students become better acquainted with Japanese culture.

Japanese Embassy in Jamaica speech contest article here