2022 FSFA Japanese Speech Contest

The Frankston Susono Friendship Association held its annual Japanese Speech Contest at Monash Peninsula Campus on Friday 2^nd September, the first in 3 years due to restrictions imposed by the covid pandemic. The Association is a group of volunteer citizens who administer Frankston’s sister city relationship with Susono, Shizuoka in Japan on behalf of the Frankston City Council. FSFA have worked to promote Japanese culture, the study of Japanese language plus student and cultural exchanges since the sister city relationship was established in February 1982.

The Association invited students from local primary and secondary schools to this year’s contest and 41 entries were received. Contestants were required to recite a short self-introduction followed by a set piece based on the folktale story of Momotarō (Peach Boy) and were judged by a panel of Japanese speakers. Contestants competed in Lower Primary, Upper Primary, Japanese Environment (Primary), Junior Secondary, Intermediate Secondary, Japanese Environment (Secondary) and Senior Secondary divisions.

Trophies to be awarded across the 7 divisions

FSFA Chairperson Julie D’Arcy welcomed all contestants, their parents and teachers before explaining the work undertaken by the Association and the importance of the annual contest in promoting the teaching of Japanese language in our local schools.

The evening’s program started with the primary divisions kicking off proceedings and 28 nervous and excited contestants presenting before the judging panel. Individual trophies were awarded to the top three students in each division, with the top contestant in each division also awarded a perpetual trophy which is displayed with pride at their school for the next 12 months.

Results:

Lower Primary (Prep to Year 3):

1^st           Charlotte S (Derinya Primary School)

2^nd          Oscar N (Dromana Primary School)

3^rd           Max W (Derinya Primary School)

Commendation Award: Acacia C (Dromana Primary School)

Lower Primary trophy winners pictured with Julie, Therese and Sam

 Upper Primary (Years 4 to 6):

1^st           Chloe K (Derinya Primary School)

2^nd          Seb S (Overport Primary School)

3^rd           Luciana D (Dromana Primary School)

Upper Primary trophy winners pictured with Therese, Julie and Sam

Japanese Environment (Primary):

1^st           Cody T (Bayside Christian College)

2^nd          Lydia T (Bayside Christian College)

Japanese Environment trophy winners pictured with Therese, Julie and Sam

The secondary schools followed with students presenting a more detailed self-introduction and set piece or Japanese themed topic in each of the 4 divisions. At the conclusion of these speeches Executive Committee member, former exchange student to Susono and judge Sam Warrington commented on the impressive standard of all contestants and recognized the enormous challenge of memorizing and presenting a speech in the Japanese language, especially given that the senior division students are required to write, memorize and present a 3-to-5-minute speech on a topic of their choice.

Results:

Junior (Years 7 & 8):

1^st           Mele’ana L (Frankston High School)

2^nd          Avinash S (Hillcrest Christian College)

3^rd           Aurelia L (Haileybury - Newlands)

Commendation Award: Madhava R (Hillcrest Christian College)

Junior Secondary trophy winners with FSFA Chairperson Julie D'Arcy

 Intermediate (Years 9 & 10):

1^st           Kato L (Frankston High School)

2^nd          Lavanya J (Nossal High School)

3^rd           Alyssa L (Frankston High School)

Intermediate Secondary trophy winners pictured with Julie D'Arcy

 Japanese Environment (Secondary):

1^st           Hidemi I (Frankston High School)

2^nd          Kai G (Nossal High School)

Japanese Environment trophy winners with Julie D'Arcy

 Senior (Years 11 & 12):

1^st           Minuki S (Nossal High School)

2^nd          Kayra K (Frankston High School)

3^rd           Cecilia L (Nossal High School)

Commendation Award: Subi P (Frankston High School)

Senior Secondary trophy winners pictured with Julie D'Arcy

 

A special thank you to our panel of judges for assisting at this year’s contest; the teachers for their hours of hard work preparing their students; and the parents and families for their attendance, encouragement and support. Finally, our appreciation to Monash Peninsula Campus for making such a wonderful venue available to our Association and the hard-working members of the FSFA Committee for organising and running another successful Japanese Speech Contest.

Thank you to our wonderful judges!

March Working Bee

This morning (Sunday 20th March) we held our March working bee in the Japanese Garden at Frankston High School, which coincided with the school's Term 1 working bee. The plan was to complete weeding, removal of dead flowers, trimming and pruning the many shrubs, plus removal of leaves, general tidying and watering.

Frankston Mayor Cr Nathan Conroy was invited and joined us along with committee members Sam Warrington, Therese Sakamoto, Anita Cross and Adrian Thomas with daughter Amy. Other committee members were apologies due to travel commitments and Chairperson Julie D'Arcy felt unwell this morning and made the wise decision not to attend!

Morning tea scones were kindly delivered by Frankston High principal Andrew Batchelor and Senior Campus principal and FSFA committee member Helen Wilson, and Therese volunteered to do the coffee run. After our delicious morning tea, which included Japanese sweets offered by Amy, we had a group photo before Mayor Conroy left to attend another function.

Another couple of hours work had the garden in tip-top condition with the final clean up, emptying bins and watering to finish the morning's work. We were then invited to join the other morning's workers for a bbq and drink provided by the school.

The assistance provided during the morning is greatly appreciated and the garden is in great nick at the moment - thanks to everyone for your great work this morning!

Japanese Garden Update - December 2021

 Gaining access to the Japanese Garden at this time of the year is always a challenge due to the Year 12 and 11 examinations during November. The recent weather has promoted lots of growth - particularly the bamboo which can shoot up anywhere throughout the garden!

The bamboo can pop up anywhere throughout the garden!

Saturday afternoon was a chance to cut and poison the unwanted bamboo, remove the dead rhododendron flowers and clean and tidy the fallen leaves.

During one of my breaks I ventured outside the garden to inspect one of the nearby gums that had lost a substantial section during the recent storms and spotted a family of tawny frogmouths - a parent and two chicks!

On Sunday I was joined by David and Anita Cross, Julie and Fiona D'Arcy and Adrian Thomas who assisted with deadheading the MANY flowers on the azalea shrubs. Adrian and I finished the task by fertilizing the garden with dynamic lifter and spreading the 10 bags of organic compost before the final watering was completed.

A huge thank you to Anita, David, Julie, Fiona and Adrian for their help and apologies for the short notice and to those who had already made Sunday morning plans.

Julie, Adrian, Fiona, Anita, David and Simon

The garden is now well prepared for the coming warmer months and as I write this article the follow up rain I ordered has arrived to further soak our lovely garden!

Adrian will be pleased to provide a garden update report at our December committee meeting tomorrow night (Tuesday 7th December).

The sun even came out just as I was about to take some "after" pictures of our morning's efforts.