BU’s Lauren Makishima takes 1st place at Japanese Speech Contest

We are delighted to announce that BU’s Lauren Makishima took 1st place yesterday at the Japanese Speech Contest run by the Consulate General of Japan in Boston. Selected from 24 applicants, twelve students representing Harvard, MIT and other schools in the area competed in the advanced division yesterday at the Brookline library.

Lauren’s talk focused on the Japanese homogeneous cultural identity and what it means to be Japanese from the outside. Her perspective came from growing up as a Japanese-American whose parents do not speak Japanese.  Her love for and deep insight into the Japanese came through and seemed to have moved the audience. She worked very hard on perfecting the draft, her pronunciation and phrasing, and her presentation skills. Kodansha America’s vice president said that her speech was not only presented well, but had challenging and solid content. One Harvard professor commented that she couldn’t believe that Lauren had never lived in Japan.