The Meikei-Ashahi-Central Queensland University Japanese speaking festival was hosted at CQU Mackay on August 26.

Among the 4 winners was local year 10 Pioneer High school student, Nikki Roestenburg (pictured).

Other winners included:.

Year 8, Grace Mallet, Crescent Lagoon State School, Rockhampton.

Year 11, Tracey Colvin, Clayfield College, Brisbane.

Year 12, Marita Cheng St Mary’s Catholic College, Cairns.

Entrants came from as far north as Cairns and south as Brisbane with a total of 20 students entering the competition.

The aim of the speaking festival organised by Central Queensland University, is to give students who are studying Japanese in regional areas the same opportunities to compete and win competitions as students in capital cities.

Visitors and special guests from 3 universities attended the competition and judged the speeches delivered by the high school students.

Festival organiser and lecturer at CQU Rockhampton Takahiro Yokoyama was happy with the attendance at the competition.

“The judges, all from Japan, were very impressed with the standard of all contestants,” said Takahiro.

“The competition was attended by students from all over Queensland and we were happy to see a local student announced as one of the 4 winners for the competition”.

Mackay was chosen to host the competition this year as there is a large high school student population studying Japanese and they are supported only by the LOTE (Languages other than English) teachers network.

The winners will depart for a fully-funded trip to Japan for 1 month in late November. They will give their presentations as part of the Japanese Language Education Forum at Meikai University, along with winners from China, Korea and Taiwan.

The group will visit both Meikai and Asahi universities during the trip as well as taking in some tourist activities such as Tokyo Disneyland and the Golden Temple.