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Wｉｎｎｅｒ 5. Reading books is fun! Kanako Yoshida Nowadays I read more books than ever. It takes two hours to come to this university by train. So I have plenty op time. But once I begin reading, I find it isn’t enough. I really get into books. Reading books is very interesting. Especially, I like novels. In a story, I can be anybody and anything. And I can do anything! For example, if you read a story about a firefighter, you are a firefighter. If you read a fantastic story, you can experience a fantastic world. You can see a witch, a vampire and a lion which is able to talk. You can even fly. Of course, this is nothing but imagination. But so is it fun. According to a report from the YOMIURI Shimbun in 2004, 50% of people don’t read a book in a month. More and more people no longer read as much as they used to. And there is a negative image about books. “I have no time” is the primary reason they don’t read a book. But I don’t think there is a need to take particular time for reading. Reading is fun in itself. You can therefore read anywhere and anytime. Secondly, an opinion which I’m most interested in is “I can get information or knowledge without books.” They say, “Books are unnecessary.” Many people don’t know a delight of reading books. This is a sad fact. The popular amusements these days may be watching TV programs and movies. Publicity articles are more about movies than about books. People who often read books tend to choose the ones introduced in those articles. Like this, Articles in communication media play an important part. Watching is very different from reading in respect of whether or not there is a specific picture, but I think in terms of “story”, these two can be considered exactly the same. But, at least to me, reading books is more fun than watching because there is no real and fixed character or things in books, and you are the director. You can use your own imagination. Isn’t this another way to enjoy a story? As the number of readers decreases, some people express their anxiety about the lack of knowledge, correct usage of words and imaginative power. I don’t really know true effect of reading. But from my actual experiences, I can say reading is enjoyment. You don’t have to take things too seriously. Just like watching TV programs or movies, I want you to feel free to read books. There is a limit to the number of things we can experience in our lifetime. Through reading, we can get in touch with other views in the world. Recently, you may have heard a Japanese word “MOTTAINAI”. It can be translated as “what a waste!” Why don’t we apply this word to explain this situation: It is surely MOTTAINAI not to realize the pleasure of reading. Let’s enjoy reading. I thank you
Second prize4. Pride & Prejudice? Megumi Ariji
Well, first of all, I have to tell you this speech is not about a certain movie of England. It is related to, but not really about that movie. This spring, I went to England all by myself, officially in order to study English for a month, not to enjoy sightseeing. Experiences there were so amazing and exciting. There were students from many countries such as Korea, China, Turkey, Venezuela, Colombia, Thailand, Russia, Ukraine, France, and Germany. Surrounded by people of different nationalities, I learned a lot of things about them. No. In fact, I only FELT that I learned a lot of things about them. What I want to insist here is “what I thought in England and what I think back in Japan” are different. Before visiting England, I had some fixed ideas about people by nationality. For example, many British are beautiful and they hate American accents. Latinos are cheerful, open to everyone and are not punctual. Koreans don’t like to be friendly with Japanese. Chinese speak too much, which is noisy. At the end of my stay, I found some were true and some were false, and even found some other new facts. The British did hate American accents, but not so many of them are beautiful, I dare say. The appearance ratio of beauty must be similar in every country. Koreans were very amiable to me, and one of my best friends in England was Korean. And every British was very kind enough to show me the way or carry my heavy baggage. My images have changed both for the better and for the worse. After I came back to Japan, I watched a movie, titled “Spanish Apartment” which describes the life in an apartment in Spain shared by students of seven nationalities. The movie wasn’t so serious but there was an impressive conversation to me. A Spanish girl said angrily to an English boy, “So how can you define Spanish people?” She intended to tell him that it is wrong to stereotype the Spanish knowing only a few of them. Yes, actually he knew only a few of them. And I wondered if I myself did exactly the same thing. To live in another country for more than a month might be a very special experience. Especially, an occasion like a language school should be rare in that we can be with many people from different nationals. But that might make me too confident to be blind. Indeed I judged. Even if my prejudice is not in a bad way, it is still a prejudice. Even if I didn’t mean it, it could be offensive to some people. My stay was long enough to judge my friends’ personality but how about their national characters? How can I pretend that I know them? Maybe I was proud and conceited. Even I, Japanese don’t know about Japanese so well. But it is often the case with us. We judge people. We can’t help judging: otherwise things can’t proceed. So, what should we do? Well, I make some suggestions how to deal with, and fight against our own prejudice. First, we should know that when we judge something, there is a bias to some extent. Next, why not minimizing it by trying to be skeptical about the resource on which we make a judgment? Nonetheless, prejudices shall still exist. In the final analysis, try not to stick to it. Be prepared to change it. We have many chances to alter our mind with our eyes open. Thank you for your attention.
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