Ueda Nishi High School Speaking Competition!

Was given the opportunity to judge an amazing selection of topics from students of Ueda Nishi High School! 

Now, this was my first time ever in Ueda and I can say the drive there was immaculate! It was breathtaking! The mountains were screaming with their golden amber leaves! I truly enjoyed that 2-hour drive back and forth! 

Back to the competition! We were given a list of topics from the presenters! The topics varied from traveling to storytelling! I thought I had an idea when I arrived but was I wrong, these students blew me off my seat! They were amazing! 

The first speaker told us about his favourite places in Nagano (and me being new here! took notes!) He had great and clean slideshows with pictures that definitely drew me in more! 

The 2nd topic was presented by a pair of students! This was interesting and the topic was unique! They reimagined the 12 Chinese zodiacs and retold the story if it began in America! Creative and definitely a good laugh! The students changed the animals to animals found in North America (kudos for doing your research well!) 

I would say the topics varied in this competition, it was split between Japan and its' culture to storytelling and fables with a modern twist! It was hard for us as judges to choose who was the best but with help from all of us, we decided on a student who talked about Flowers unique to Japan! Was a beautiful speech with a creative slideshow! Congratulations! 

To all the other students! Good job! Truly an amazing competition! Great job to the teachers for helping to prepare the students!