Recitation, Speech, Debate

Back in early October, a regional recitation and speech contest for junior-high school students was held in Hinokage, a town that is not far from Takachiho. The winner of the speech contest and the first- and second-place finishers in the recitation contest advanced to the next round, which was the state-wide competition. The state-wide competition was the end of the road for the competitors in the recitation contest, but the top three finishers in that speech contest advanced to yet another round. As far as I know, these competitions are held once a semester, one for junior-high school students and one for high-school students..

My school sent five kids to the regional contest in October. Three participated in the recitation competition and two in the speech competition. And I'm proud to say that one of the five, the only guy, advanced to the all-state recitation contest (he was not one of the six "winners" there), and one of the girls took third place in the speech contest.

Contestants in both categories are judged on such things as pronunciation, intonation, and delivery. But in the end, no matter what the subject of the speech or recitation, the bottom line is, the winner is the one whose English is best. Period. That's why I'm not much of a fan of these contests.

Another reason: I didn't notice much of a difference, if any, between the recitations and the speeches. For the recitation contest, each student had to memorize an excerpt from a story of their choice and recite it from memory as well as possible. And for the speech contest, each student supposedly wrote his or her own speech about a topic of their choice and also had to memorize it and deliver it as well as possible. But the speeches were definitely not always the students' own work. Trust me on that one.

So what is the difference between memorizing a piece a literature and memorizing what someone writes for you to say? Not much, really.

Japanese high-school students also have the opportunity to participate in debate contests. I got to attend one in Miyazaki city at the end of October. My school sent two teams of three to the debate contest. The debate topic was whether or not students should have to attend school on Saturdays, as they once did in Japan. Each team took on two other teams, once arguing for and once arguing against.

The debate contest is a much better event than the speech and recitation contests. Even if your English is great, to win you also have to be able to argue your point, organize your thoughts, and think quickly, for example. And unlike at the recitation and speech contests, the topic for everyone at the debate contest is the same, which levels the playing field.