2008 Japanese speech contest winners announced
March 11, 2008
The Asian Studies Center (UCIS), in collaboration with the Japan-America Society of Pennsylvania and the Japanese Speaking
Society at the University of Pittsburgh, held the annual High School Japanese Speech Contest at the William Pitt Union on
Friday, March 7, 2008. Seventy-three students from ten area high schools participated in the contest. Sponsors of the event
included Westinghouse, Sumitomo Corporation of America, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation and the Consulate-General of Japan in New
York.
Special guests were Ms. Yuko Suzuki, Consul from the Consulate General of Japan in New York, and Dr. Siddharth Chandra,
Director of the Asian Studies Center. Dale Huffman, Coordinator, Division of Humanities Chair of the Art Department at Carlow
University, presented a lecture and demonstration on Japanese ceramics in the afternoon as part of the program, accompanied by
visiting Japanese artists Hiromu and Mieko Okuda. Judges included faculty from the Department of East Asian Languages and
Literatures, University of Pittsburgh.
The competition was divided into four levels: a poster session for first-year students of Japanese (Level 1), followed by three levels corresponding to the number of years of language study, with Level 4 being the most difficult. The five first-place
winners, including a tie at Level 2, were selected as:
Level 4: Megan Hirsh, Shaler High School. Teacher: Ritsu Shimizu. Megan also received the Consulate Award, an electronic
Japanese-English dictionary.
Level 3: Michael Nite, Shaler High School. Teacher: Ritsu Shimizu.
Level 2: Joshua Burd, private student of Butler High School teacher Masami Schaper.
Level 2: Brenda Metro, private student of Yuka Tieren.
Level 1: Tyler Pullekines, Norwin School District. Teacher: Hiroko Maekawa.
The first, second and third place winners in each category all received certificates. First place winners will also receive
trophies, and their schools will also receive trophies with the winning students names.
