JLTAV Junior Speech Competition
This past week, we had the amazing opportunity to participate in the JLTAV Junior Speech Competition, which was a challenging but very rewarding experience! Our journey began many weeks back when we decided that we wanted to enter the competition, and we soon realised that it required a lot of time and effort. From writing our speech to perfecting our performance, every step involved lots of dedication and patience. We spent many lunchtimes practising our speech, and with the support from our peers and Mori Sensei, we were able to refine our speech to our fullest potential.
On the day of the speech competition, August 11th, we took the stage at the Hawthorn Arts Centre alongside many other contestants. Witnessing the diverse range of performances was an exhilarating experience; it was inspiring to observe how each participant uniquely interpreted the prompt and brought their own innovative ideas to life. Standing in front of everyone and performing for our audience was immensely nerve-wracking.
In addition to the judges and teachers evaluating our presentations, our parents were also in the crowd, eagerly anticipating our performances. Many of the contestants at parts, stumbled upon their words due to their nerves. But fortunately, all of our Mac.Rob participants delivered our speeches with confidence and fluency.
In the end, we were able to bring back one gold medal for the individual performance in the Open Division, and one silver for the duo performance in the Pair Division.
This experience has taught us the importance of perseverance and reinforced the belief that we should embrace every opportunity with enthusiasm. We strongly encourage anyone considering applying for 2025 to go for it. It’ll be a really fun experience!
“こんにちは！The JLTAV 2024 competition was once again, an event to remember. It was amazing to hear everybody’s stories and speeches, learning about what matters to them, all in Japanese! The people there were very supportive, and even though it was nerve wracking standing in front of the students, parents and panel of judges to deliver the speech we spent the last couple of weeks on. I think I and everybody else was able to represent Mac.Rob to the best of our abilities! I wish good luck to anyone who may want to take part in it next year, and I encourage you to do so, as it is an amazing experience that you’ll never forget! とても楽しかったです。” - Reina C | 1st Place Open Division
“Taking part in the JLTAV Japanese speech competition was a very memorable experience for me!! Though practising during many lunches was challenging, it paid off in the end. I'm thankful for all the help I received, especially from Mori-Sensei and Alice with improving my pronunciation. While performing was nerve-wracking, it was also fun, and I feel that my Japanese skills have improved. I’m excited to participate in more Japanese events in the future. It was lots of fun, and I encourage everyone to give it a try!” - Jennifer H | 2nd Place Pair Division
“Presenting in front of so many people was such a scary experience, but I think the practice we had paid off because listening back to our recordings, our performance was supernatural! I encourage everyone to give it a try cause you won’t regret it.” - Alice X | 2nd Place Pair Division