By Fumitaka Sato

On May 10, the Hokkaido Preliminary Chinese Speech Contest was held at Sapporo University co-sponsored by the Consulate General of the People's Republic of China in Sapporo and the Confucius Institute at Sapporo University. The Chinese government holds this contest for students studying Chinese throughout the world every year and this year was the seventh. This year was the second time to hold the Hokkaido Preliminary here at Sapporo University where a total of 12 students from six universities, (national, public and private) participated. Kazuhei Narita, a Sapporo University Cultural Study major, won the first prize and he is going to take part in the finals held in China. The following is an interview I conducted with him.

Kazuhei had never studied Chinese at all until he entered university. Then he decided to challenge Chinese when he found out he had to get eight credits in a foreign language. His elementary Chinese class started with simple greetings by a Chinese teacher. All the students in the class were beginners, so it was very challenging for them to learn a completely new language. In addition to the class work, he went to a chat room, where he could practice Chinese with exchange students from China, and in two years he reached a level where he could handle fundamental daily conversation in Chinese. During the interview Kazuhei mentioned that the exchange students from China told him many things about China and he came to have a desire to go to China as an exchange student to study Chinese culture and to learn a different values. He also said he wanted to enhance his Chinese ability. As a result, he became an exchange student studying at Tianjin Foreign Studies University which is a sister college with Sapporo University.

Tianjin, where he lived, has a population of about 10 million and is very modern. It has many tall buildings and is much larger than Sapporo. In China, local people could understand what he said, but he couldn't get used to their pronunciation at first and had a hard time becoming familiar with them. But, he got used to listening to what people said day by day. He was surprised that he could reply to their questions smoothly in only three months.

Regarding the university, Kazuhei said, "Campus life in China was totally different from that in Japan. The first difference was the prices. Meals are much cheaper than in Japan and I was full and satisfied with a meal of about 100 yen each time. Usually, a meal in the cafeteria is around 400 yen at a Japanese university. It's so much cheaper in China. And at food stands, you can often get a discount, although basically their prices are cheap already. If you are a repeat customer they sometimes give you close to 30 percent off." Kazuhei also said that outdoor eating stands are a kind of meeting place as well, where you can talk with strangers without worrying about your nationality. Kazuhei spoke with many Chinese people about both China and Japan and through these discussions he improved his Chinese.

Another point of interest was the difference in diligence between Japanese students and Chinese students. Kazuhei said "Japanese students have to learn many things from local students' daily lives." In the Tianjin Foreign Studies University he noticed many Chinese students majoring in Japanese and other foreign languages. "Their first period starts at eight o'clock in the morning and each class is 100 minutes long. Most students begin to read a textbook or do voice exercises in English, French or Japanese about seven o'clock. That practice never finishes until just before the first period." He also said, "When I looked outside of my room in the morning, there were already many Chinese students studying." In addition to this, Kazuhei discovered that all the study booths in the library are occupied from six p.m. and students study hard until ten p.m., closing time. Seeing their work ethic, Kazuhei said, "Their hard work made me very eager to learn Chinese."

Kazuhei did not only enhance his speaking ability while studying abroad, he also experienced Chinese culture and living style. This was as important as improving his Chinese accent and vocabulary, which clearly helped him well in his speech contest. The final speech contest will be held in Hunan, China in July. I'm sure he will do his best in that contest and use the experience in Hunan to further himself.