Organising Team 2023

Patrick Johnston is a lecturer at Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University (APU)'s Center for Language Education.  APU is the most international campus in Japan, with 50% of the student body coming to Japan from abroad.  He is actively organizing international exchange events for students, as well as speaking events for lecturers as an officer of the Japan Association for Language teaching's Oita Chapter.

Since 2008, he has been involved in both coaching and judging high school students participating in speech and debate contests, and is greatly looking forward to hearing everyone's passionate speeches at the upcoming World Speech Day events!

Mark has been Director of the Centre for Foreign Language Study at Durham University since October 2013. Committed to extending language ability across all sectors of society, he is currently (2019-) Chair the Association of University Language Communities in the UK & Ireland (AULC), having previously been Vice-Chair (2015-17) and Secretary & Treasurer (2017-19). Mark is also a member of the Coordinating Committee of Cercles, the confederation of language centres in higher education in Europe.

In 2016-17 Mark led the Language Learning Frameworks project, supported by the British Academy and in collaboration with 15 University partners. This project developed the first set of recommendations for language course design, aligned to the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR), in terms of input study hours for language courses of different durations and intensity in the 10 most commonly taught languages in the UK. He continues to work collaboratively with a range of colleagues across the language sector in the UK, Europe and elsewhere.  He is active in promoting world languages across UK language centres.

Kuniko Soga taught courses of Speech and Debate in English at Kobe Kaisei Women’s College in Japan. She also led a seminar course of cross-cultural studies, focusing on literary works by female members of the second generation of immigrant families in the US.  The main theme was about their struggles and joy in living and growing up in two different cultures.

After retirement, she joined a Toastmasters Club in western Japan, and took an initiative in introducing and adopting debate for their club activity.  With assistance and support by her fellow TMC members, interest in debate has increased and expanded greatly among neighboring Toastmasters Clubs.

On World Speech Day Japan 2023, I’m eager to listen to speakers’ stories, because today social media is a major means of daily communications.

Chief Japanese Language Advisor at The Japan Foundation, London since September 2021.

Before joining the U.K. Japan Foundation Office, Dr Ofune has been engaged in Japanese language education in Japan, China, Vietnam and the Philippines, and has been involved in the development of various textbooks and teacher education projects throughout her career.

She holds a PhD in Global Japanese Studies from Meiji University (Japan), obtained in 2021. Her research interests include curriculum development, teacher education, and intercultural education. She is also currently serving as a member of the Public Relations Committee of the Society for Teaching Japanese as a Foreign Language and the Executive Director of the Intercultural Education Society of Japan.

Kayo Kondo is an assistant lecturer in Japanese Studies at the School of Modern Languages and Cultures at Durham University. She teaches language modules for all levels within the Japanese Studies degree programme. Her primary research interests are person-centred care and clinical empathy. She has collaborated with health and social care professionals in the UK and Japan in research, seminars, and workshops. Her work was published as a book titled “Patient-centred Communication: Discourse of In-home Medical Consultations for Older Adults” (Multilingual Matters) with Language at Work series (2022). She has also co-edited the volume “Pandemic and Crisis Discourse: Communicating COVID-19 and Public Health Strategy” (Bloomsbury, 2022). 

First Secretary of the Japanese Embassy in the UK. She is responsible for education and sport. Before assigned to the current position, she has been working for the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology in Japan (MEXT) for nearly 20 years. 

She has worked for many years as a lecturer and teacher of English in the UK. At the same time she has coordinated university Pre-Masters programmes, helping international students to improve their English language and academic skills. She has a degree in modern languages and a Masters in English language teaching. She is very interested in helping students to increase their communication skills and confidence.

Started teaching Japanese at a secondary school in Croydon in 1999.  Since then, has been engaged in Japanese education in the UK, having taught at SOAS and KCL for about 10 years.  Also conducted sessions at the Japan foundation, including on  ‘contemporary Japan’ and refresher courses for new teachers of Japanese.

Recently spent nearly 3 years in her home prefecture Oita, during which time she taught at Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University in Beppu, and came back to London in May 2021.

Kenshi was graduated from The University of Tokyo, having majored in Electric Engineering. 

He Joined Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd., and had been engaged in underground and submarine projects all over the world as power cable engineer. 

After 36 years, he established a venture featured in wind power business and constructed 

windfarms at two locations in Japan. 

Since 2014, he has been working as a wind power consulting engineer and served as a technical 

advisor for two wind power developing companies. 

Since 2010, he joined Toastmasters clubs and served as Finance Manager for District 76 (Japan)

in 2020-2021. 

In 2019, he became the Finalist of International Speech Contest.

Stephen was educated at U.C.L., where his Ph.D. was on Goethe's poetry; at Birkbeck College, London, where he completed an M.A. in French; and at the University of Southampton, for teacher training. He taught modern languages at large, independent secondary schools in London for twenty years.

Recently returned to London from three happy years teaching English in Oita, he is studying once more, this time towards qualification as a psychologist. When not spending time with his young family, he enjoys music and literature of all kinds, long urban walks and incompetent home maintenance.

Hello! I am a third-year student at Sophia University. I am honoured to join this event as a mentor, continuing from last year. I am looking forward to hearing various ideas and preparing for a speech with participants throughout the workshops.

PhD Student at The University of Melbourne / 

メルボルン大学の博士号学生

I graduated from Durham University last year with a BA in Anthropology. I participated in WSD Japan 2021 and was chosen as the winner in the Japanese speech category. I loved participating and I'm excited to return as a mentor this year. I'm happy to speak to the new participants, and I hope I can help everyone create a speech that resonates both personally and to a wider audience! よろしくお願いします！！ 

Durham University

Yr1 Computer Science