The 27th Hitomi Cup English Speech Contest

Saturday, November 11, 2023

Participant Qualifications:

The contest is open to all applicants, regardless of gender, who meet the following qualifications.

To enter, a participant must:

・be a non-native speaker of English,

・be a full-time student in post-secondary education (e.g. university, junior college, vocational school, graduate school)

・not have spent more than 2 years in English-speaking countries in the last 10 years. This includes countries in which English is predominantly spoken as a first language, and / or in which English is designated an official language.

Awards: 

Hitomi Cup (1st Prize): One winner receives an air ticket to Boston, USA, with guest accommodation for five nights at the Showa Boston Institute of Language and Culture. (Please note that the winner of the Boston trip must obtain travel insurance coverage to be used in the event of any sickness and/or injuries sustained during the travel.)

President's Cup (2nd Prize): One winner receives an Apple iPad.

3rd Prize: One winner receives an Amazon gift card worth 25,000 yen.

Finalists each receive a 5,000 yen book coupon.

Necessary Documents and How to Apply: 

1. Application Form download(docx) download(pdf)

2. Script of an unpublished speech (Microsoft Word, A4-size)

3. Recording of the same speech (up to 5 minutes, 5MB in MP3 or MP4 format). Audio only is sufficient; video is not required. 

Send all documents and files to:

Email Address: swuspeechcontest@swu.ac.jp 

Subject: Hitomi Cup 2023

Any inquiries about the speech contest should also be sent to the above email address. We request that all correspondence be in English.

Speech Topics 

Speech topic choices are at the discretion of applicants. There is no designated topic or theme for the contest.

Application Deadline: 

Friday, October 13th, 2023.  Monday, October 23rd, 2023 (Deadline extended) 

Preliminary Rounds: 

Contestants chosen to proceed to the final contest will be notified by October 31st.

Rules and Evaluation on the Final Contest Day: 

1. Evaluation criteria: 15 points for delivery and 15 points for speech content.

2. The speech shall be no longer than 5 minutes. The contestant will lose 1 point for each extra 15 seconds.

3. No props, audio, or visual aids are permitted.

4. The contestant must memorize his or her speech. Points will be deducted for looking at the script.

5. There is no Question and Answer (Q&A) session after the delivery.

Please Note: 

1. The application form and other files will not be returned to the contestants.

2. If you do not receive a reply within 1 week after sending your application, please contact us again. 

3. A panel of SWU professors will serve as the judges in the preliminary rounds and choose about 12 contestants to proceed to the final contest. The judges in the final contest are invited from other colleges. For fair evaluation, in both the preliminary rounds and the final contest, the judges will not know the names or the school affiliations of the contestants.

4. The contestants are required to make a deposit of 5,000 yen after passing the preliminary rounds.

The deposit will be returned on the day of the final contest.