This article is written by Kana Matsuda (ID26), who participated and got a first prize in the 19th Annual Student Interpretation Contest at Nagoya University of Foreign Studies.
On November 29, 2025, I had the opportunity to participate in the 19th Annual Student Interpretation Contest, held by Nagoya University of Foreign Studies (NUFS). Students from seven other universities and I competed in Japanese-English and English-Japanese consecutive interpreting on the main topic of “Can we have world peace? Overcoming conflict, violence and disparity.”
We were provided with vocabulary lists from each of the speeches that would be presented during the actual competition a few months in advance. To prepare, I went through the lists, learning a bit about the background of some of the terms and listening to Japanese podcasts on each topic so that I would know how they were used. I then came up with a few different translations for each term depending on the context in which it might be used, coming up with symbols for some of the terms that I could use when note-taking. I also tried practicing deverbalization and keeping the big picture in perspective while listening to various podcasts.
I also practiced consecutive interpreting using speeches from the final of the “Beginner’s Interpreting Practice” course and some additional speeches made by ChatGPT. My mother was gracious enough to help me by recording herself reading these speeches, so that I could practice listening for the first time while taking notes and then rendering a translation.
On the day of the competition, I was surprised to see that for many of the contestants, Japanese was not their first language. In fact, there was one Chinese student whose first language was neither Japanese nor English! Each contestant’s interpreting had different strengths, with some being extremely natural in their Japanese renditions and others being so precise that they seemed to not miss a single point! It was such an encouraging experience to see other students with a passion for interpreting!
Although I found myself extremely stressed at times while preparing for the contest, it was an incredibly valuable opportunity to learn about important current topics and grow in my interpreting skills. I know the vocabulary and concepts that I learned in the process will be helpful to me in the future as well, and it was such a blessing to prepare with and cheer on the other competitors as well.
By God’s grace, I received first prize at the competition as well, and I am so grateful for this opportunity that was given to me! I pray this post might encourage someone else who loves interpreting and wants to grow too!