Bunkasai and speech contest

My junior high school had the annual English speech contest and annual culture festival in these past couple of weeks! 2-4 students from each grade in every junior high school in Japan, practice an English passage from their textbook and present it in front of local judges. If they place in the local competition, they go to the prefectural level and then the national. Some schools take this very seriously, practicing months in advance. My school, well, not so much. We started a couple weeks before, played some basketball, worked on some English pronounciation, and just went for the ‘let’s have fun with English’ approach. And it was fun! We made up some over the top gestures when ordering fast food and asking ‘large or small?’ ‘for here or to go?’ The kids all had a great time, and since I knew they probably wouldn’t place, I made them American-style certificates - which I’m not gonna lie, the other students were jealous of ;)















The students also got to present their English speeches at the culture festival. The culture festival is an annual fall event done by every school in Japan. Students display artwork, class projects, perform dances, plays, and finish with each class competing in a singing compition. It was lots of fun to watch and really refreshing to see my students displaying their talents outside of the English classroom! The culture festival ended with me and the principle having an entire conversation in Japanese! I was so excited and he told me I must be studying, to which I replied – every day! Ah slowly but surely I’m able to communicate!