Pictured from left to right: Kanako Yao (instructor), Hiroaki Kawamura (instructor), Erin Taylor (finalist), William Kentris (finalist), Yizheng Zhang (finalist), Nathan Lazor (finalist) and supporters Cora Worden and Brian Fox.

On Saturday, March 1, four students represented the UF Japanese program as finalists in the 2008 Japanese Language Speech Contest Program held at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio.

The students were among only 12 selected finalists from universities in Ohio. This is a statewide competition, and students from different universities submitted a manuscript and a recorded tape for the first round of screening.

Only high school and college students studying Japanese, who have not lived in Japan for more than six months and do not come from homes where Japanese is spoken, were eligible for the competition.

Nathan Lazor received the Pronunciation and Intonation Award. Lazor, a freshman with a double major in computer science and Japanese, is in the third-year Japanese language course and presented “What I Learned Searching for a Job.” Graduate student Yizheng Zhang, in his second-year Japanese language course, earned third place with “Kendo and I.” Kendo, which means “way of the sword,” is the Japanese martial art of fencing.

William Kentris, a post-secondary student from Arcadia High School and a student in the second-year Japanese language course, also participated. His speech was “The Benefits of Learning Japanese in a Classroom.”

Erin Taylor, a sophomore majoring in Japanese and a student in the third-year Japanese language course, gave a speech titled “My Future Goals.” Taylor was selected to be a finalist last year, as well.

During the March 1 competition, finalists were required to deliver their memorized speeches in Japanese on a stage in front of an audience. That was followed by a question–and–answer session, spoken only in Japanese, with the judges.