{"id":13078,"date":"2020-02-20T09:24:41","date_gmt":"2020-02-20T13:24:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/?p=13078"},"modified":"2025-02-05T16:09:59","modified_gmt":"2025-02-05T21:09:59","slug":"japanese-speech-contest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/japanese-speech-contest\/","title":{"rendered":"Two K Students Among Top Three Finishers in Japanese Speech Contest"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_13080\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-13080\" style=\"width: 584px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-13080\" src=\"\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2020\/02\/Japanese-Speech-Contest-600x533.jpg\" alt=\"Japanese Speech Contest\" width=\"584\" height=\"519\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2020\/02\/Japanese-Speech-Contest-600x533.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2020\/02\/Japanese-Speech-Contest-150x133.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2020\/02\/Japanese-Speech-Contest-300x267.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/files\/2020\/02\/Japanese-Speech-Contest-338x300.jpg 338w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-13080\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Xiu Cai \u201920 (middle) and Shane Spink \u201920 (right) finished second and third respectively out of dozens who represented colleges and universities across Michigan in a Japanese Speech Contest organized by Detroit\u2019s Consulate General of Japan. Cai and Spink are third-year Japanese students of Visiting Instructor Masanori Shiomi.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>For the second year in a row, two Kalamazoo College students placed among the top three finishers in a prestigious Japanese Speech Contest organized by Detroit\u2019s Consulate General of Japan.<\/p>\n<p>Xiu Cai \u201920 and Shane Spink \u201920 finished second and third respectively out of dozens who represented the University of Michigan, Western Michigan University, Eastern Michigan University and Lansing Community College at the 24th Michigan Japanese Language Speech Contest. Cai and Spink are third-year <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/programs\/japanese\/\">Japanese<\/a> students of Visiting Instructor Masanori Shiomi.<\/p>\n<p>Contest participants drafted their own speeches in Japanese to present in front of three judges and an audience Feb. 9 at Michigan State University. Cai\u2019s speech, \u201cMy Life with Accidents and Coincidences,\u201d shared her unlikely foray into studying Japanese and how she came to love it. Spink\u2019s speech, \u201cHow to Use Soft Power,\u201d detailed Japan\u2019s use of pop culture in diplomatic relations, contrasting it with the use of hard power in the United States.<\/p>\n<p>Cai&#8217;s second-place finish tied Amanda Esler \u201919 for the highest-ever finish for a K student in the contest.<\/p>\n<p>The event \u201coffered me a chance to meet new people and make friends with more Japanese students,\u201d Cai said. \u201cThese intellectuals helped me learn more about the diverse perspectives of the world. However, I want to say thank you to my amazing Japanese teacher for being one of the most helpful and thoughtful teachers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Spink\u2019s third-place finish was the best in the contest\u2019s history for a K student who didn\u2019t <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/k-plan\/study-abroad\/\">study abroad<\/a> in Japan. Spink, a Kalamazoo native, said he believes he could have done better, but added \u201cmany of the other contestants have had far more experience with learning and practicing Japanese.\u201d He plans to work in Japan after he graduates.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThough it was nerve-wracking to perform a memorized speech in front of a large audience with far greater knowledge of the Japanese language than myself, it was a rewarding experience,\u201d Spink said. \u201cEvents like these are important milestones and I will never forget this speech contest.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For the second year in a row, two Kalamazoo College students placed among the top three finishers in a prestigious Japanese Speech Contest organized by Detroit\u2019s Consulate General of Japan. Xiu Cai \u201920 and Shane Spink \u201920 finished second and third respectively out of dozens who represented the University of Michigan, Western Michigan University, Eastern [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":147,"featured_media":13083,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[231],"tags":[180,39,65],"post_formats":[],"class_list":["post-13078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-students","tag-east-asian-studies","tag-faculty","tag-japanese"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\r\n<title>Japanese Speech Contest: Two K Students Among Top Three Finishers<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Two K students placed among the top three finishers in a prestigious Japanese Speech Contest organized by Detroit\u2019s Consulate 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Cai and Spink are third-year Japanese students of Visiting Instructor Masanori Shiomi.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>For the second year in a row, two Kalamazoo College students placed among the top three finishers in a prestigious Japanese Speech Contest organized by Detroit\u2019s Consulate General of Japan.<\/p>\n<p>Xiu Cai \u201920 and Shane Spink \u201920 finished second and third respectively out of dozens who represented the University of Michigan, Western Michigan University, Eastern Michigan University and Lansing Community College at the 24th Michigan Japanese Language Speech Contest. Cai and Spink are third-year <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/programs\/japanese\/\">Japanese<\/a> students of Visiting Instructor Masanori Shiomi.<\/p>\n<p>Contest participants drafted their own speeches in Japanese to present in front of three judges and an audience Feb. 9 at Michigan State University. Cai\u2019s speech, \u201cMy Life with Accidents and Coincidences,\u201d shared her unlikely foray into studying Japanese and how she came to love it. Spink\u2019s speech, \u201cHow to Use Soft Power,\u201d detailed Japan\u2019s use of pop culture in diplomatic relations, contrasting it with the use of hard power in the United States.<\/p>\n<p>Cai&#8217;s second-place finish tied Amanda Esler \u201919 for the highest-ever finish for a K student in the contest.<\/p>\n<p>The event \u201coffered me a chance to meet new people and make friends with more Japanese students,\u201d Cai said. \u201cThese intellectuals helped me learn more about the diverse perspectives of the world. However, I want to say thank you to my amazing Japanese teacher for being one of the most helpful and thoughtful teachers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Spink\u2019s third-place finish was the best in the contest\u2019s history for a K student who didn\u2019t <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/k-plan\/study-abroad\/\">study abroad<\/a> in Japan. Spink, a Kalamazoo native, said he believes he could have done better, but added \u201cmany of the other contestants have had far more experience with learning and practicing Japanese.\u201d He plans to work in Japan after he graduates.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThough it was nerve-wracking to perform a memorized speech in front of a large audience with far greater knowledge of the Japanese language than myself, it was a rewarding experience,\u201d Spink said. \u201cEvents like these are important milestones and I will never forget this speech contest.\u201d<\/p>\n","comment_info":"No Comments","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/147"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13078"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13078\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24063,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13078\/revisions\/24063"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13078"},{"taxonomy":"post_format","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kzoo.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_formats?post=13078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}