I remember posting about this several years ago, but today I saw a post by the local consulate in Chicago. Deadlines are in February to apply for a speech contest, with the contest itself being at the end of March. Can read more here. Not sure if I should give it a shot. Certainly constructing an interesting speech in Japanese is difficult enough, must less including a written copy of your speech. I have not practiced writing Japanese since I began learning it. In the digital age I chose to prioritize other aspects of the language, I wonder if that was a bad choice?

Either way I can obviously slog through it with a dictionary at hand. More important is how difficult a task this is in general. Has anyone attempted a speech contest? If I spoke about any topic it'd probably involve Osakaben to some extent (Osaka is the sister city of Chicago, plus my favorite dialect). As to what topic in particular I'm unsure.

Even if I attempt it and fail the fact that I'm working towards a goal in a language will likely improve my motivation quite a bit.

Do it. And I say this as someone with significant social anxiety. I haven't forgotten any of the grammar patterns used in the speeches I memorized for two contests. Plus, I met cool people who were similarly dedicated to Japanese.

Use Lang-8 or an educated Japanese friend to help with revisions. Practice with a Japanese friend, preferably a poet, musician, or someone with a sensitive ear for the spoken language. Practice a lot.

I spent a day or two writing my speeches, and an hour or two revising them with the help of a teacher from my language school. I rehearsed them from memory at least 30 times each. Thanks to my preparation, I got 3rd place for my first speech (which was for the entire Tohoku area) and 2nd place for my second speech (which was just for my language school of 100 or so students).

Anyway, as with any speech, you don't have to use super advanced language. What's important is that the content and delivery are interesting. Case in point, I won against graduate students at Tohoku University (a top Japanese university) in my first speech contest even though I had just passed the N2 a month earlier.

I enjoyed the experience immensely, made good memories, and met cool people. I cannot recommend trying it enough. Feel free to PM me if you'd like advice or copies of my speeches for reference.

If you want to participate, then do it!

When "building" the speech, try to put yourself in the shoes of your audience. Are they going to listen to something interesting from you? Are they going to learn something new, or see something from a new point of view? Will they feel engaged by what they hear? Will they get some food for thought?

The goal of a speech contest is not just to produce a text in Japanese, but to accomplish something with your speech, whether it's sharing an important and interesting moment of your life, making people think about some important topic, or making some kind of "call to action".

A little but useful trick that I use to organize my thoughts, is a written brainstorm. You can cut little pieces of paper, then write freely, one by one, different topics, ideas or anything that comes to your mind regarding what you have to do. Finally, you take all those pieces of paper and create a mindmap with them.

Another little trick is, when memorizing your speech, to focus on the most important point of each paragraph rather than memorizing every single word verbatim. That helps you focus on the structure and flow of your speech, and if you remember the key points, even if it happens that you forget the exact words, you can just improvise and go to the next key point.

Good luck!

I'll see if I can get a friend to help me out a bit. If that happens I'll maybe give it a shot. Was thinking maybe my topic could be, "Shit they do in dramas." Because I dunno, at this point I find it ridiculous someone can be walking in Tokyo and randomly find their friend on a bench.

The contest has a 4 handwritten page limit using this template: http://www.chicago.us.emb-japan.go.jp/JI...Cdraft.pdf

Can anyone give me an idea of how long and how meaty a speech would suffice with 4 handwritten pages? I honestly don't write that much and have no clue. They do show past winners' speeches at the bottom of this link: http://www.chicago.us.emb-japan.go.jp/JIC/spchcont.html

So that gives me a slight idea but if possible would like more input if anybody knows.

TheVinster Wrote:Can anyone give me an idea of how long and how meaty a speech would suffice with 4 handwritten pages?

With the template you linked, you have 880 characters, which is about 3-5 minutes depending on how quickly you speak. I recommend using an anecdote to elaborate on a single topic. For example, my first speech was about how I was inspired by the stoicism and resolution of the people of Tohoku after 3.11. With a lighter mood, my second speech was about how the differences in American and Japanese bathroom designs teach a valuable life lesson.

Definitely search for the texts and videos of people who won other Japanese speech contests. It should give you a good idea of what a winning speech is like and how you'd like to do your own speech.

I haven't done any speech contests in Japanese, but I've done some speech contests in Mandarin years ago, and it helped a lot with motivation and confidence. It sort of forces you to actually practice, watch videos of other speeches, read other texts, and all that makes you improve in general.