Non-Homogeneous Yamaguchi?

I spent yesterday at the Yamaguchi high school prefectural English speech contest. (I know you are all jealous, as there's no other way you'd rather spend your Saturday.) I was irritated that I had to leave at 7 a.m. for Seminar Park, and that there was something like 40 competitors I would have to sit through, but the competition turned out to be rather interesting and worthwhile.

To make an analogy, this year's speech competition was like a modern day professional sumo tournament--a great part of the champions and up-and-comers had origins other than Japan. Not to say that any of them were from Mongolia or Georgia, but the 2nd place winner's mother was from the Philippines, and one of the 3rd place winners (there were two) had a Canadian mother. In addition, there was a competitor from China, as well as contestants with Korean backgrounds. I haven't been in a room full of students so diverse since I was in the States.

I was also excited that 1st place went to a student who had attended kindergarten in the U.S. No, this was not because of some sort of overactive patriotism I have for my country. It was because it gives me hope that my kids will still be able to speak Japanese better than me when they are adults, though it also made me wish (for the millionth time) that my dad had taught me Japanese when I was growing up.

Closing remarks were made about the fantastic content of the speeches this year. I couldn't agree more. They addressed discrimination, the importance of new ideas and expressing opinions, amongst other topics. So much better than listening about the Titanic or E.T. like at junior high school competitions.