Remarks in March 2008
Remarks of Mr. Shigenobu KATO, the Japanese ambassador to Jordan, at the 11th Japanese Speech Contest at the University of Jordan on 1 March 2008
H.E. Professor Khalid Al-Karaki, President of the University of Jordan,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
On behalf of the Government of Japan, it is a great honor for me to welcome you all here today at the Eleventh Japanese Speech Contest.
I would also like to begin by expressing my sincere appreciation to H.E. Professor Khalid Al-Karaki for his patronage of this event, which has invited students who are learning Japanese at the University of Jordan as well as outside its campus.
I would also like to appreciate the hard work and courage of the participants in this event. I am sure they can say Japanese is not difficult, but I know making speech in front of people needs a lot of preparations lingually and mentally.
Having accomplished ten contests since the establishment of the Japanese language education at this university in 1993, I am honored to announce that we entered a new era with this eleventh round of the historical academic endeavor.
It would not have been possible to hold any of the contests without the commitment of the University of Jordan. I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to Professor Ahmad Majdoubeh and his colleagues who have fostered the Japanese language education in Jordan for years. I am also very grateful for Japanese language teachers dispatched by JICA who have played an indispensable role in the development of Japanese language education, as well as in understanding of Japanese culture. In addition to those concerned parties in Jordan, I am delighted to welcome Mr. Fukuda, Director of the Japan Foundation Cairo Office, and Ms. Watanabe and her colleagues, Japanese language teachers dispatched by the Japan Foundation to Damascus University, who came all the way from Egypt and Syria to join us today. The Japan Foundation is a key stakeholder of the Japanese language education in Jordan as well.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I was impressed at that among the 13 contestants in the speech session today, there are 4 Jordanians who were already invited to visit Japan under some programs. Accordingly, they wouldn’t be eligible to be awarded the special prize of the contest, namely invitation to Japan, if any of them win the first or second place. Furthermore, I am encouraged that their motivation is purely that each one of them wishes to prove the fruit of the study to oneself. It is no doubt that other contestants share the same spirit. Thinking highly of their dedication to Japanese language study, I am very much looking forward to listening to their speeches.
I am also looking forward to the presentation session. Presentation about Japan from viewpoints of Jordanians would definitely provide us with a new direction, and would empower the Embassy’s activity of bridging the distance between Japan and Jordan.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
No matter what the results of the contest are, your participation is most valuable and is a considerable achievement in itself. I wish you every success in the study of the Japanese language and every success in your future. And I also wish all the best to you at the contest!
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