Organising Team 2024

Beth leads the Future Leaders project in the Schools of Politics, Philosophy, Language and communication at the University of East Anglia. She is a passionate advocate to give young people a voice and give them the insight, skills and confidence to lead on instigating positive social change.  

She brought World Speech Day to the UEA and to the Netherlands 

Also, she is the main organizer for the first ever National Political Speech Competition for UK students.

Mark E. Critchley

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.

Simon Gibson

The founder of World Speech Day

The Japan Foundation, London 

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 Peer Review Corporative Member of the Society for Teaching Japanese as a Foreign Language and one of the Executive Directors of the Intercultural Education Society of Japan.

I am a lecturer (in Teaching) at Durham University in the School of Modern Languages and Cultures, currently teaching Japanese to first and the second-year students. I have previously worked at the Centre for Foreign Language Study at Durham University and other organisations, teaching Japanese from secondary school students to adult learners. I am looking forward to supporting students who are taking part in this event. 

Rika Tokui

Rika is in the fourth year at Sophia University. She gave a speech in 2020 and has joined the organising team since 2021. She looks forward to having unforgettable experiences with everyone.

Daniel Williams

PhD Student at The University of Melbourne / 

メルボルン大学の博士号学生

Edmund Ho

Edmund first got involved with the WSD in Japan back in 2020 and has been a dedicated mentor since 2021. He holds an N2 Japanese qualification and, after graduating from Durham University, he's been applying his skills in London's legal industry. 

Away from work, Edmund's passions include listening to music and bouldering, with a special spot in his heart for the J-pop band Official髭男dism.

Ann is a graduate student from Durham University. Her speech in March WSDJ 2023 won the First Prize of the year and she has now joined the organizing team as a mentor. From the experiences she gained from the event, she's looking forward to more exciting ideas from the speeches this year.

Kazuki is a second-year business student at Durham University. He is the president of the Anglo-Japanese Society in Durham. Kazuki is bilingual in Japanese and English, having originally grown up in Singapore and Japan.