The English Recitation Contest

Well, this was the Junior High English Recitation Contest in Tsuru, November 1, 2004. There weren't a lot of official picture-taking opportunities, so these pictures are pretty random. Still, you can see a lot of the JETs from the area, along with some of their best English students. Rudy's Kawaguchiko-nan ("Konan") Chuugakko dominated for the second year in a row, with defending champion Akiko Watanabe winning again, clearly giving the best speech among the 3rd-graders (you'd call them 9th-graders).

I've got a nice shot of Me and Mitsuhiro. There's also several shots of Paul. When I got the camera home and Keiko saw the pictures, the first thing she said was "You must really like Paul!"

Also, I couldn't figure out what that weird glare is in the first 3 pictures. I later realized that most kids wear reflective armbands, because they often walk home from school in the dark. So, those alien-looking spots of light are actually just the flash bouncing off the armbands.

I should also say that the students really did a fantastic job. They MEMORIZED these speeches IN ENGLISH, and then recited them in front of the whole gathering. I can't imagine memorizing a speech this long in Japanese, much less reciting it in front of a bunch of Japanese teachers.

The results, and text of the speeches are here:

The Results:
2nd-Grade Text: Fuefuki-Gonzaburo
3rd-Grade Text: Shishi-Ishi