TUFS Student Wins 11th National Italian Student Speech Competition

February 28, 2018

On Saturday the 9th of December 2017, TUFS student Ayu Niijima (School of Language and Culture Studies, Italian Language Studies, fourth year) won the Italian Embassy of Japan Award, the highest award of the competition, at the 11th National Italian Student Speech Competition (hosted by the Kyoto University of Foreign Studies). Ms. Niijima’s speech was titled ‘L'importanza del dialetto’ (‘The Importance of Italian Dialects’)

Ms. Niijima’s Thoughts on Winning

I am fascinated by Italian dialects, especially the Neapolitan dialect, and am still researching them now. I strongly hope for these beautiful dialects to continue existing, which is why I made the importance of dialects the theme of my speech. I am so grateful to my Italian friends who helped me fix the structure of my speech and practice my pronunciation leading up to the competition. Thank you so much.
This competition was also a very valuable chance to meet and talk with other competitors, students and teachers, and share opinions on overseas exchange experiences and learning Italian. This experience made me even more motivated to study Italian and the Neapolitan dialect.

More information on this event can be seen on the Kyoto University of Foreign Studies Website (link in Japanese):
https://www.kufs.ac.jp/news/detail.html?id=DJCcj6pJ