October 10th was a big day for me and two of my students.
We have been preparing since the first week of school, back at the beginning of September.
I was asked by one of the English teachers to help judge some students give speeches. I had been told this would probably happen while I was here. I was also warned to expect no notice--I got three hours!
There were three, two boys and a girl. One girl was better than the other and both girls were better than the boy. The two English teachers who were there with me (not the one who told me I would be helping) then asked (told) me I would be working with the two girls to prepare them for a speech contest in October. I marked my calendar and told the girls to make sure they memorized their speeches over the weekend.
The girl who was best, Hidemi, read `I Have a Dream.` The speech talked about Martin Luthor King, Jr., and quoted him a couple of times. The other girl, Yuki, read a funny story called `Rabbit and Fox.` This story is about how Fox tricked Rabbit one day and Rabbit lost his long tail and got long ears instead.
We practiced a little in the afternoon but mostly in the mornings before school. I never was sure when the girls would have something going on in the afternoon (one day was helping clean up the town and quite a few days were choir practice) so we started meeting an hour before school started. We met at 7:30 in the faculty room. We sat on the comfy chairs by the kitchen and practiced.
I should have realized Yuki was improving faster than Hidemi when she understood that the end of the `Rabbit and Fox` story was a punchline. When I told her and explained how she should say it, she immediately got it. If you think about it, you can tell a punchline by changing your pitch, and she did it perfectly. Shortly there after she started to blend words together like we do in English and sounded more like me than she did at the beginning. Instead of accentuating and separating every word, she started to find the rhythm. `I sat on the edge of the pond and put my tail in the water,` sounded like `I sa ton the yed gof the pon dand put my tai lin the water.` (If you don`t believe me, listen to yourself reading the first line, out loud, naturally.) Yuki really got into. Besides finding the natural rythms, she also smiled a lot.
Hidemi had a little more trouble. To be fair, her speech was harder, but she still did not have the natural spark that Yuki did. The title, `I Have a Dream,` was repeated twice in the speech. That means she had to say it three times and as it was difficult for her, I made her work on it one weekend. There are no V`s in Japanese. Worse, D`s are not aspirated (that is, the D is said without a big push of air--try it!). While normally this would not be a problem, in the word `Dream` the D is followed by an R; if you don`t aspirate the D it disappears with the R. And don`t get me started on R`s in Japanese! As it was the title, and one of the most important speeches of the 20th Century, I demanded she get it right. Of course, she not only had to pronounce it correctly, but she had to blend it right (I ha va dream), with the right accents. It took some practice, but she got it.
I also showed them how they can use their hands. I tried to get them to find their own gestures that would work, so they would seem more natural. Yuki was great, but Hidemi`s seemed unnatural at times (especially when she tried to imitate me) and theatrical at other times.
The first week of October, the week before the contest, we started visiting classrooms at lunch (the students eat lunch in their classrooms) to give the speeches. It was great practice for the girls to stand up in front of people and give their speech. On Friday, we went to the Community Center, where I worked in August as you might remember. This was good because it was an unfamiliar audience. They were friendly though, so that was good. The girls did well there and everyone was impressed.
However, Hidemi still was not as natural as Yuki and almost always forgot a line somewhere when she recited her speech. In addition, it was hard to get her to stop fidgeting. I showed both her and Yuki how to stand with their feet wide apart to stop them from moving too much, but Hidemi can somehow bend her her leg out on the outside edge of her foot--something I cannot do!
(Hidemi is on the left, Yuki is right holding the program.) On October 10th, which was a Wednesday, I did not make the girls come in early for practice. One of the English teachers drove us to an official building in Kurume. My girls were nervous but I was confident they would be fine. There were 23 contestants from other junior high schools in Kurume. Some schools, like mine, sent two; some only sent one. Hidemi`s mom came. Some of my compatriots were there (ALTs--Assistant Language Teachers)--other gaijin! It was good for us to talk at a school function.
Yuki was fourth and Hidemi was 14th in line. Four is an unlucky number here (my understanding is that the kanji looks very similar to the kanji for death) but I did not care.
There were four speeches to be given; besides the two speeches that my students had chosen, there were two others. `Rabbit and Fox` was the most popular; almost half of the contestants chose this one. `I have a Dream` was the next most popular, and only one girl did it better than Hidemi (in my opinion anyway). There was also a shortened version of `Gift of the Magi` by O`Henry and `The Boy and the Red Sky.` Only one person chose this last one. None of us liked it as a story. (The boy who competed at the beginning of September in my school read it, but, as was not very well prepared, we did not choose him.)
Yuki gave her speech wonderfully. At the break halfway through,
one of my friends told me he thought she did a great job. After the break, Hidemi was the second person to go. She did very well: she did not fidget and she did not forget a single line. I was very proud of her. I tried to tell her that at the end, but because she was not chosen as an Outstanding Speaker, she did not listen.
Yuki was chosen as
Outstanding Speaker (the picture at the top is her receiving her award). There five students chosen. They did not give places, but if they did, I am sure Yuki would have been in the top three. Maybe not number one, but definitely number 2 or 3. There were three judges, two ALTs from some local high schools, and a Japanese Teacher of English (JTE), also from a high school. The JTE said she enjoyed Yuki`s presentation. Yuki was the only speaker the JTE said that too. When she was giving her speech, she was really enthusiastic, but not over the top, and smiled most of the time. She did seem to be enjoying herself.
I have to comment on what one of the ALT judges said. He said that he thought that the `I Have a Dream` speakers should have more closely imitated Dr. King as he gave his speech. I wanted to throttle him. I had played the speech for Hidemi but I knew there was no way that she could imitate Dr. King. Nor did I think she should try. I sound funny when I try to imitate him. I taught both Yuki and Hidemi to change their speech at appropriate times, like when quoting dialogue or speech. They did a really good job at it too. But this judge did not know what he was talking about. Suggesting that the Japanese kids try to imitate Dr. King was just ignorant.
I have pictures of Hidemi at the contest, but I cannot put them up until I have permission from the her parents. I will let you know when that happens (if it happens). The two pictures are of Yuki.
We have been preparing since the first week of school, back at the beginning of September.
I was asked by one of the English teachers to help judge some students give speeches. I had been told this would probably happen while I was here. I was also warned to expect no notice--I got three hours!
There were three, two boys and a girl. One girl was better than the other and both girls were better than the boy. The two English teachers who were there with me (not the one who told me I would be helping) then asked (told) me I would be working with the two girls to prepare them for a speech contest in October. I marked my calendar and told the girls to make sure they memorized their speeches over the weekend.
The girl who was best, Hidemi, read `I Have a Dream.` The speech talked about Martin Luthor King, Jr., and quoted him a couple of times. The other girl, Yuki, read a funny story called `Rabbit and Fox.` This story is about how Fox tricked Rabbit one day and Rabbit lost his long tail and got long ears instead.
We practiced a little in the afternoon but mostly in the mornings before school. I never was sure when the girls would have something going on in the afternoon (one day was helping clean up the town and quite a few days were choir practice) so we started meeting an hour before school started. We met at 7:30 in the faculty room. We sat on the comfy chairs by the kitchen and practiced.
I should have realized Yuki was improving faster than Hidemi when she understood that the end of the `Rabbit and Fox` story was a punchline. When I told her and explained how she should say it, she immediately got it. If you think about it, you can tell a punchline by changing your pitch, and she did it perfectly. Shortly there after she started to blend words together like we do in English and sounded more like me than she did at the beginning. Instead of accentuating and separating every word, she started to find the rhythm. `I sat on the edge of the pond and put my tail in the water,` sounded like `I sa ton the yed gof the pon dand put my tai lin the water.` (If you don`t believe me, listen to yourself reading the first line, out loud, naturally.) Yuki really got into. Besides finding the natural rythms, she also smiled a lot.
Hidemi had a little more trouble. To be fair, her speech was harder, but she still did not have the natural spark that Yuki did. The title, `I Have a Dream,` was repeated twice in the speech. That means she had to say it three times and as it was difficult for her, I made her work on it one weekend. There are no V`s in Japanese. Worse, D`s are not aspirated (that is, the D is said without a big push of air--try it!). While normally this would not be a problem, in the word `Dream` the D is followed by an R; if you don`t aspirate the D it disappears with the R. And don`t get me started on R`s in Japanese! As it was the title, and one of the most important speeches of the 20th Century, I demanded she get it right. Of course, she not only had to pronounce it correctly, but she had to blend it right (I ha va dream), with the right accents. It took some practice, but she got it.
I also showed them how they can use their hands. I tried to get them to find their own gestures that would work, so they would seem more natural. Yuki was great, but Hidemi`s seemed unnatural at times (especially when she tried to imitate me) and theatrical at other times.
The first week of October, the week before the contest, we started visiting classrooms at lunch (the students eat lunch in their classrooms) to give the speeches. It was great practice for the girls to stand up in front of people and give their speech. On Friday, we went to the Community Center, where I worked in August as you might remember. This was good because it was an unfamiliar audience. They were friendly though, so that was good. The girls did well there and everyone was impressed.
However, Hidemi still was not as natural as Yuki and almost always forgot a line somewhere when she recited her speech. In addition, it was hard to get her to stop fidgeting. I showed both her and Yuki how to stand with their feet wide apart to stop them from moving too much, but Hidemi can somehow bend her her leg out on the outside edge of her foot--something I cannot do!
(Hidemi is on the left, Yuki is right holding the program.) On October 10th, which was a Wednesday, I did not make the girls come in early for practice. One of the English teachers drove us to an official building in Kurume. My girls were nervous but I was confident they would be fine. There were 23 contestants from other junior high schools in Kurume. Some schools, like mine, sent two; some only sent one. Hidemi`s mom came. Some of my compatriots were there (ALTs--Assistant Language Teachers)--other gaijin! It was good for us to talk at a school function.
Yuki was fourth and Hidemi was 14th in line. Four is an unlucky number here (my understanding is that the kanji looks very similar to the kanji for death) but I did not care.There were four speeches to be given; besides the two speeches that my students had chosen, there were two others. `Rabbit and Fox` was the most popular; almost half of the contestants chose this one. `I have a Dream` was the next most popular, and only one girl did it better than Hidemi (in my opinion anyway). There was also a shortened version of `Gift of the Magi` by O`Henry and `The Boy and the Red Sky.` Only one person chose this last one. None of us liked it as a story. (The boy who competed at the beginning of September in my school read it, but, as was not very well prepared, we did not choose him.)
Yuki gave her speech wonderfully. At the break halfway through,
one of my friends told me he thought she did a great job. After the break, Hidemi was the second person to go. She did very well: she did not fidget and she did not forget a single line. I was very proud of her. I tried to tell her that at the end, but because she was not chosen as an Outstanding Speaker, she did not listen.Yuki was chosen as
Outstanding Speaker (the picture at the top is her receiving her award). There five students chosen. They did not give places, but if they did, I am sure Yuki would have been in the top three. Maybe not number one, but definitely number 2 or 3. There were three judges, two ALTs from some local high schools, and a Japanese Teacher of English (JTE), also from a high school. The JTE said she enjoyed Yuki`s presentation. Yuki was the only speaker the JTE said that too. When she was giving her speech, she was really enthusiastic, but not over the top, and smiled most of the time. She did seem to be enjoying herself.I have to comment on what one of the ALT judges said. He said that he thought that the `I Have a Dream` speakers should have more closely imitated Dr. King as he gave his speech. I wanted to throttle him. I had played the speech for Hidemi but I knew there was no way that she could imitate Dr. King. Nor did I think she should try. I sound funny when I try to imitate him. I taught both Yuki and Hidemi to change their speech at appropriate times, like when quoting dialogue or speech. They did a really good job at it too. But this judge did not know what he was talking about. Suggesting that the Japanese kids try to imitate Dr. King was just ignorant.
I have pictures of Hidemi at the contest, but I cannot put them up until I have permission from the her parents. I will let you know when that happens (if it happens). The two pictures are of Yuki.
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