Beyond Words: My Experience at the AEON International Japanese Speech Competition

Written by Muhammad Aimi Fazril bin Yusof Shakri

From 6th of February till 10th of February I have participated in Japanese international speech competition sponsored by AEON Japan. Before this competition I had also participated similar competition sponsored by AEON Malaysia and competed with several other graduate students from other universities as well as University Malaya. I was able to achieve 3rd place in that competition and thus qualified for the next stage of competition in Japan, along with two other Malaysian students from Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM), forming the Malaysian team for the competition.

On the first day of arriving in Japan, we were invited to visit a large temple near the Kaneda airport, experiencing their deep rooted cultural heritage and their rustic snack shops. My first snack I ate upon landing was a taiyaki, which is a cream filled pancake like batter baked in a fish shaped mold. The warm taiyaki eaten while bracing myself of the cold February air really sink in the fact that I have arrived in a foreign land.

After having lunch and having tour of the history of the development of the AEON group, we have regrouped at the Tokyo Bay hotel where we are meeting with the rest of competitors from other countries. That night we had a briefing on the next day’s competition, and were allowed to exchange pleasantries with other students. With my rudimentary Mandarin, I was able to make acquaintances with some Chinese students, albeit with some difficulties.

The next day comes, and me and the Malaysian team had a last minute rehearsal of our speeches after breakfast. On that day, we wore our traditional Baju Melayu and Baju Kurung, highlighting our cultural heritage, contrasting with our Japanese environment. This was encouraged by the AEON event management, in order to facilitate cultural exchange. The contest went on smoothly, highlighting various speech skills from several countries, from storytelling, anecdotal admittance, powerful deliveries, adapted from various languages, told in Japanese, gives me huge inspiration in terms of developing my own speech skills even further in the future.

Unfortunately, I was not able to secure any winning places amongst the fifty participants there. However, the experience I had gained during the contest was second to none. I had admired the event management team, flawlessly executing the event without a hitch. The jurors had given insightful reviews as well as given cutting questions, separating the unprepared and highlighting the more skilled speaker amongst the rest. I had the opportunity to be interviewed by the AEON media team after the contest and I had nothing but praise for the participants, the managements and the judges for the best competition I had the honour to participate.

For the next few days, we were given tours and experiences in Japan. Among the rarest of opportunities that we experienced was a live sushi making class given by a sushi chef with 50 years of experience. We were taught of the importance of body temperature of holding the sushi, the way to eat it without crumbling it and a few more tricks. We also visited the parliament diet of Japan. Where the most important decisions were made. Upon seeing the embassy seat for foreign government body, I can’t help but wish I could visit again one day not as tourist, but as a Malaysian emissary.