Miss Yu Shiao-chiu, a senior majoring in Japanese, has won the 2001 Nation-wide Japanese Speech Contest sponsored by the Interchange Association (Japan) in Taipei. She won the first prize which, translated into practical terms, means that her trophies will include a citation, a silver plate and a round trip airline ticket to and from Japan for a 10-day visit to Japan with free board and meal. A handsome offer!

Miss Yu recalled her pleasant experience and said, smilingly, “Strange. I was not a bit nervous. But I found it rather interesting to hear students from other schools talk and what’s on their mind.” But she said she owed it to her mentor, Dr. Hiroyuki Kawamura. Because of his tireless effort in guiding her toward correct pronunciation as well as in shaping up her thoughts, she made it this time.

Dr. Hiroyuki Kawamura recalled how he trained Miss Yu. As this was a 15-minute impromptu speech contest, no one knew beforehand what topic he/she would be given to “chew the fat on”, he had to “unearth” a treasury of more than 130 old topics from the past record for her to review and to use as a reference. He believed that given the importance of a speaker’s poise and pronunciation, the content of the speech should not be overlooked.

The topic given to our victor to talk was: “What if my parent were a celebrity in the society I live in?” Miss Yu gave an example from the Japanese Prime Minister. Because Mr. Koizumi is a famous political figure, his son had chosen to become an entertainer instead of following faithfully his father’s footsteps to become a Prime Minister. A rather defiant but accurate gesture! Be your own self, not anybody else, not even your own father.