A Speech Contest in the Japanese Language was held at Russian-Tajik Slavonic University (RTSU) where students from the Tajik State Institute of Languages, Russian Tajik Slavonic University, Tajik Russian Gymnasium “Hotam and P.V.”, as well as former Japanese language students participated, according to JICA Tajikistan Office.

The event that was organized by Japan’s Embassy in Dushanbe, JICA Tajikistan Office and RTSU by three Senior Volunteers of JICA was reportedly conducted by three JICA senior volunteers. 

The purpose of the Contest was to select the best speaker for the International Students Japanese Speech Contest to be held in Moscow on October 29, 2016. 

Six students participated in the Contest and spoke on various topics, such as “The future”, “To live a life”, “My dream”, “When is it better to get married”, “Navrouz”, “What is learning”, etc.

Islom Ergashev, a fourth-year student of the Japanese Language Department of the Institute of Languages, reportedly won the Contest and was qualified to attend the Moscow International Students Japanese Speech Contest.

The event was attended by Japan’s Ambassador Tajikistan Mr. Hajime Kitaoka, the Resident Representative of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in Tajikistan Mr. Kiyoshi Ishii, Program Coordinator of AAR Japan in Tajikistan Ms. Shinobu Sasaki, staff of the Embassy of Japan in Dushanbe, JICA Tajikistan Office, teachers, students and others.

During his opening speech, Ambassador Kitaoka highly appreciated the endeavor of the students who practiced a lot for the event.  “Learning Japanese will increase your opportunities to make new friends, to learn Japanese culture and sport such as Judo, Karate Kendo and improve the relationships between Tajikistan and Japan,” Mr. Kitaoka said in his address to the participants of the Contest.  

On the sidelines of the event, some teachers and advanced Japanese language learners demonstrated a debate in Japanese. The topic of the debate was “The development of science and technology makes us happy”.  Two sides gave very good arguments on merits and demerits of the technology in today’s life.

It is worth mentioning that JICA has contributed a lot to the development of the Japanese language and culture in Tajikistan through its Senior Volunteer scheme.  Currently, three Japanese language teachers are working with Russian Tajik Slavonic University and helping Tajik students, as well as teachers to enhance their language abilities.