Speaking of Speeches...

I was asked to give a small speech at an Assembly/Award Ceremony last week on October 1st.

The Assembly was awesome! Kocho-sensee (Principal) opened with a Saxaphone solo! I found out later, he has only been playing for about three or four months and he sounded fantastic! We were all really impressed. It was a great start to the Ceremony!

A few awards were given for Sports and things... (I only say "and things" because I could only understand the Volleyball part... the rest was slightly lost on me. Ha!) I was also slightly distracted because one of my students, Haruna, from Homeroom 13 won the award for leading the girl's Volleyball team to a Number 1 victory! Congratulations Gotemba Minami Girl's Volleyball! And congratulations to all the students who received awards that day! Daichi was also recognized for his achievement at the Speech Contest! I wish I had pictures to show you, but I was too busy being nervous to give my speech in both English AND Japanese...

I was really nervous about the Japanese part. Looking at the translation from English to Japanese that Hara-sensee wrote for me made me have flashbacks to my interview for JET. When I interviewed for my position as an ALT through the JET Programme, I had to read (what seemed to me to be) a terribly long passage that was written in both Hiragana and Kanji. I started out just fine, but by the 5th line out of 25 my speech had suddenly slowed to a halt and I was guessing on Kanji. It felt dreadfully slow and painful and I remember wanting to just stop reading and give up in the middle of my interview. I just kept thinking about how I did NOT want that to happen when I gave my speech at school on this day.

I practiced a bit, and on the day of the speech I didn't slow down or give up speaking in Japanese. I got through it; I persevered! And now I understand my students a little bit more.

I thought I would put both the English and Japanese versions of my speech here for you to read in case my Japanese did not make it across very well. :)

The topic was basically, "whatever I wanted to tell the students". I wanted to keep it fairly summed up, but I wanted them to know the most important things to me. So... here's what I came up with:


English:

Good morning. I am honored to speak to you today, and I want to share a few of my own life lessons. In 2010 I got very sick, and had to go to the hospital several times.  In America, hospitals are a scary place because you only go to them if something is seriously wrong. My family and I were worried because the doctors didn’t know if I would ever be completely well again. During this scary time, I learned many things. I learned to believe that God would heal me when the medicine stopped working. I learned that God loves me and has a better plan for my life than I can imagine; God would protect me and I would get through this difficult time and that He will always take a bad situation and use it for good. I also learned that you are never too old or too cool to need your mom and dad. Today, I am fully healed and want to tell you that God can heal you too, and He loves you and will protect you. Appreciate your mom and dad and tell them you love them every day because time goes by too fast. Appreciate the moment you are in and don’t worry about things in the future that you can’t control. Things will always work out. My dad always tells me, “do right, and trust God”, and I want to tell you the same. Thank you.

Japanese:

Ohayoo gozaimasu. Watashi wa kyou minasan ni mukete ohanashi ga deki, watashi jishin no jinsei no kyoukun wo ikutsu ka kyouyu dekiru koto wo kouei ni omoimasu. Nisen jyuu nen ni watashi wa totemo taichoo ga waruku nari, nankaika byouin ni ikanakereba narimasen deshita. Amerika dewa, byouinn wa totemo kowai basho desu. Nazenaraba, hidoku dokoka no guai ga warui baai ni dake hitobito wa byouinn ni iku kara desu. Watashi no kazoku to watashi wa shinnpai shimashita. Toiunomo, isha wa, watashi no taichoo ga hutatabi kanzenni yokunaru ka douka wakaranakatta kara desu. Kono osoroshii jiki ni watashi wa ookunokoto wo manabimashita. Watashi wa, kusuri ga kikanakunatta toki ni, kamisama ga watashi wo naaoshitekureru to sinjiru kotowo manabimashita. Watashi wa, kamisama ga watashi wo aishitekureteiru shi, watashi ga kangaerareru yorimo watashi no jinsei wo yoriyoku keikakusiteiru, tsumari, kamisama wa watashi wo mamottekurete ite, watashi wa kono konnan na tokii wo norikoeru koto ga dekiru to manabimashita. Soshite, kamisama wa itsumo warui jyoukyou wo tukuri, sore wo iikoto ni tsukau to wakarimashita. watashi wa mata, hahaoya ya titioya wo hitsuyou to suru koto ni toshi wo totteisugitari, zuuzuushisugiru koto wa kesshite nai toiu koto wo manabimashita. Ima, watashi wa kanzenni byouki kara kaihuku shimashita sorede, watashi wa kamisama ga minasan mo iyashitekurerushi, kamisama ga minasan wo aishite ite minasan wo mamottekureru to tutaetai no desu. Minasann no okaasan ya otoosan ni aishiteiru to mainichi tutaete kudasai, nazenaraba, toki ga sugiru noha haya sugiru kara desu. Minasan ga ima koko ni iru koto no arigatasa ni kanshashite kudasai. Soshite, jibun de kontorooru dekinai shourai no koto ni tuite nayamanaide kudasai.Monogoto wa itsumo nantoka naru mono desu. Watashi no titi wa itsumo watashi ni iimasu.Tadashii koto wo shinasai. Soshite, kamisama wo sinjina sai. Watashi mo onajikoto wo minasan ni iitai to omoimasu. Goseichoo arigatoo gozaimashita.