Three students studying Japanese in the School of Modern Languages won awards in the advanced category at the annual Japanese Speech Contest. Choux Kim, a first-year computational media major, won first place. Clarissa Kim, a first-year industrial design major, and Chan-Min Lee, a first-year computer science major, each received a Special Award. The Georgia Association of Teachers of Japanese hosted the virtual contest on March 5, 2022. High school and college students were divided into categories based on language proficiency and  recorded memorized presentations entirely in Japanese. Eight students from the Georgia Tech Japanese program participated at three proficiency levels: Elementary-intermediate level: 

• Arya Vajpayee, a second-year computational media major with a minor in Japanese
• Zelda Wu, a second-year biochemistry major 
• Joseph Fajloun, a fourth-year mechanical engineering student with a minor in Japanese 

Intermediate-advanced level:

• Echo Zhu, a fourth-year environmental engineering major 
• Jessica Paley, a fifth-year music technology major with a minor in computing and people and minor in Japanese 

Advanced level:

• Chan-Min Lee
• Choux Kim
• Clarissa Kim

In total, 30 students from six regional universities and two metro-Atlanta high schools participated in the contest. A video of Choux Kim’s winning presentation is available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4LSInV6oao. Learn more about the Japanese program at Georgia Tech. Connect with Modern Languages on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter and never miss an update on our student activities, school news, and upcoming events.