Twelve students from UBC were selected as the finalists to participate in the 30th Annual BC Japanese Speech Contest held at Simon Fraser University on March 3rd.
Our contestants were: Xinyan Hou, Kristine Hui, Iris Liao, Xiuyi Liu, Jana Salameh, Chi Lok Cheung, Crystal Fan, Jiahao Niu, Kyoungmin (Kelub) Roh, Rock Gao, Alisa Guo, and Jack Hwang. Eight of them won prizes in various categories. 6 UBC students, Cynthia Carty, Jack Hwang, Jeremy Sit, Joelle Lee, Sewit Yemane and Alice Zhou , who participated in the Kakehashi project, a youth program promoted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, divided into the Language Stream and Pop-Culture Stream, were invited to make presentations on their experiences in Japan.
Professor Sharalyn Orbaugh served as a judge for the University Division as well as presented prizes to the winners of the High School Division at the Award Ceremony.
Xiuyi Liu and Jack Hwang won the first place in the Intermediate and Advance categories respectively, and will present their speeches at the Canada National Japanese Speech Contest to be held at University of Alberta on Saturday, March 24.
