New England Japanese speech contest sponsored by Japanese
consulate of Boston was discontinued after Japanese recession
during late 1990’s. There was no Japanese speech contest in the
New England area for a while. Boston Area Japanese Speech Event
was restarted in 2001 at Wellesley College after Prof. Morley
suggested. Yoshimi Maeno acts as a facilitator of the event. We
started out
with five universities and colleges including Wellesley College,
Brandeis University, Harvard University, MIT, Boston University.
The most recent event included 8 colleges and universities with
additional three universities and colleges including Boston College,
Williams College, and Tufts University. Every year participating
colleges and universities take turns hosting the event. It is
not a contest. This event gives all the participants a chance to
present
their effort on their continuing Japanese study. All the participants
receive gift certificates to a Japanese bookstore. Each university or college prepares its own gift certificates for their participants.
