NEWS

On Saturday, October 31, we visited Tokyo International University’s International Festival to check it out and cheer on the “International Student Speech Contest.”
The “3rd International Student Speech Contest” is one of the special events at the International Festival, co-hosted by Tokyo International University and Japanese Language School Affiliated with Tokyo International University. Four international students enrolled at Tokyo International University and four students from Japanese language schools gave speeches on the theme “New Dreams Discovered While Studying in Japan.”Everyone was brimming with enthusiasm, and our students’ Japanese proficiency was on par with that of the university students; the speeches were so outstanding that any of them could have won an award. Amidst this, the Judges’ Special Award went to Ms. SUI KHIN TLING from Myanmar—known as “Kin”—who received the honor in the presence of her senior university peers, while the Excellence Award was presented to Mr. YEH CORREA SHING CHEH from Chile—known as “Shin.”Shin passionately recounted the twists and turns of her journey—from her dream of starting a business that led her to study at a university in the U.S. (though that endeavor ultimately failed) to her current dream of establishing a school to teach Chilean culture and history.
After the speech contest concluded, participants were free to have lunch and go their separate ways. The Myanmar cuisine food booth—run by first- and second-year students in the School of Business who are graduates of our university—drew a crowd of Myanmar nationals planning to take the Tokyo International University entrance exam this year. The tense expressions on the faces of the students who had participated in or cheered on the speech contest had given way to smiles.
Perhaps the Japanese proverb “Dango over flowers” holds true all over the world.