GUIDE TO CAIRNS LANGUAGES SPEAKING COMPETITION
THERE will be plenty of words uttered in conversation at the Cairns School of Distance Education on Thursday and Friday but you won’t likely hear a hello or goodbye.
You will be more likely to hear ni hao, buongiorno, bonjour or konichiwa will be the weapons of choice as students greet each other for the annual Cairns Languages Speaking Competition.
Over 600 students from throughout the Far North will compete in the linguistic lovein, giving short speeches in their adoptive languages of Japanese, Chinese, Italian and French. Convener Miki Saiki Greene said learning a second language enabled students to become better global citizens in the future.
“As a Japanese person who studied English and who lives and works in Australia, having a second language is an advantage,” she said.
“It’s more than just understanding each other and being culturally aware, it makes you a more interesting person and more conscious of what’s going on in the world.”
Numerous studies have revealed that those who have mastered a second language enjoy other benefits than just being able to communicate in a different dialect.
An improved memory, visual spatial skills, enhanced creativity, concentration and problem solving skills and even the ability to multitask and better listening skills have been mooted as being value adds from possessing bilingual capabilities.
And as the world gets increasingly smaller, the ability to communicate can only enhance job prospects.
“As Japan opens up there are more opportunities for non-Japanese people to tap into the Japanese market,” Ms Greene said.
In Queensland, language programs are provided to all years 5, 6, 7 and 8 state school students and schools are encouraged to teach a language from Prep to Year 12 where possible.
It’s a far cry from Japan where Ms Greene said children were learning English from grade one.
“In my day it was grade seven, then it dropped down do grade five and now it is grade one,” she said.
In 2014, the then-Newman state government released a community consultation paper that proposed all state primary schools offer languages from Prep by 2025.
This year’s competition will be divided into Japanese on Day 1 (Thursday) and Chinese, French and Italian on Day 2 (Friday). Further distinctions are made between those students who have parents that can communicate in that language (background speakers) and those that don’t (non-background speakers).
Ms Greene said the younger participants would give a guided speech with key phrases such as “Hello, my name is, it’s nice to meet you etc’ while their senior counterparts step up to the lectern to deliver an open speech.
“We give them topics and they have to have a selfintroduction and then pick two topics out of five … things like family pets, school life, favourite things to do and then create that speech from scratch,” she said.
In a nod to the vastness of Far North Queensland, organisers have added an online component to this year’s competition, allowing students living remotely to participate. To commemorate the International Year of Indigenous Languages, the competition will host Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from White Rock State School to take the stage and express themselves in their native tongue.
Watching over all contestants will be a 10-person judging panel including principals, retired teachers and even the Consular General of Japan (from Brisbane). MADELINE GWYNNE (9) WHITE ROCK SS Japanese I want to conquer my fear of public speaking.
Language: Why? What do you want to do when you’re older? Languages: Italian:
Artist. AUGUSTUS TAN (12) CAIRNS SCHOOL OF DISTANCE EDUCATION
Chinese (Mandarin) and Italian
What do you enjoy about each language? Chinese:
The friendships you make through the struggle of learning the difficult characters.
The beauty of the language. I fell in love with the language when I started learning Latin.
What do you hope to be when you are older?
A pilot in the Australian Defence Force and posted overseas. I will need different language skills to communicate with airbase commanders etc.