TUFS Students Win Prizes in Malay Speech and Poetry Recitation Contest

January 5, 2023

On Sunday, December 25, 2022, the Malay Speech and Poem Recitation Contest 2022 (hosted by the Japan Malaysia Association and supported by the Embassy of Malaysia in Japan and Tourism Malaysia) was held at the ASEAN-Japan Centre. TUFS students Mr. Morita Oga (3rd year, School of Language and Culture Studies, Malay/Southeast Asia Area) won the 1st prize, Ms. Koseki Ayumi (3rd year, School of Language and Culture Studies, Malay/Southeast Asia Area) won the 2nd prize, and Mr. Hayashi Kanata (1st year, School of Language and Culture Studies, Malay/Southeast Asia Area) won the 3rd prize.

Comments from the Prizewinners

Mr. Morita Oga
This year’s theme was “Political Participation of Young People.” I gave a speech from the perspective of society, politics, and education on how to create an environment that will increase the number of young people who are involved in politics. I received advice from native speakers, students from Malaysia, and senior undergraduate students on my gestures, intonation, and pauses, which I had difficulty with since last year, and I practiced until right before the actual event. As a result, I am very happy to have won the first prize. Still, compared to the speeches of past winners, I keenly felt that there were many points in my speech that were inferior in terms of content and expression. I hope my experience in this competition will help me in my daily efforts to further improve my Malay language skills. I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude to Ms. Farida for taking time out of her busy schedule to support my practice, to my language classmates, seniors, and international students for their support, and to the organizers and everyone involved in making it possible to hold this event in the midst of the ongoing Covid pandemic.

Ms. Koseki Ayumi
I spoke on the theme of the “Importance of Elders and Youth.” I decided to participate in this competition because I have come to love the Malay language more than ever after being sent to study in Malaysia for 5 months. I am happy to have won second place, as this has greatly helped me to feel more confident in myself. This was my first challenge and it was a tough one, but I was able to gain another valuable experience in the remaining days of my university life. I would like to express my gratitude to Mr. Farida for her enthusiastic help as I practiced, to the teachers who took care of me, to my friends who kindly gave me advice, and to the organizers who were careful to take measures against spreading infection.

Mr. Hayashi Kanata
In this contest, I presented a speech on the beauty of the Malay language. As a first-year student, I did not know what was right and left in preparing for this event, but I would like to take this opportunity to thank Ms. Farida, my Malay teachers, my parents, and friends who supported me in many ways, such as correcting my manuscript and pronunciation.