TUFS Student Places First in Russian Speech Competition

February 21, 2019

On Saturday the 8th of December 2018, TUFS students Masami Ozaki (School of Language and Culture Studies, Russian language studies, second year) came in first place in the Elementary Division of the “28th Soka University Founder’s Cup Russian Speech Competition”.
In this competition, participants are split into Elementary Division (those who have studied Russian for less than two years) and Standard Division (those who have studied Russian for more than two years). Participants are judged on their recitations, speeches, and conduct during question and answer sessions.

Comment – Masami Ozaki

The topic of this year’s Russian Speech competition was “Youth”. It was a very difficult topic, but I mostly spoke about the lifestyle I’ve been living since entering university. While delivering my speech, I also felt that that very moment was an important part of my youth. This is because I have been able to meet many different people, and experienced many different ways of thinking, through studying Russian. I was so happy to come in first place. This result is all thanks to my native Russian teacher who helped me prepare almost every day during the month leading up to the competition. I can’t thank them enough. It is very hard to learn the correct intonation, pronunciation and accent of Russian, but through participating in this competition, my awareness concerning these things changed a lot. I definitely want to study Russian even more than before, and concentrate on winning the Standard Division next.