Dear Cafetalk Community,

I'm so happy to announce that one of my long-time students recently won a Baika Cup English Speech Contest. I'm so happy and proud that Nagisa Homma won first prize! The trophy is almost as big as she is! Nagisa has a natural talent for performing in front of others and she went to an International Kindergarten so her English pronunciation is impeccable. She already had those abilities working for her.

Simultaneously, we worked on many things together. For example, we created a story for the poem so she has the plot firmly planted in her mind. We also worked on adding many levels to her speech. The poem had various levels inherent in it. We just had to find what words were most important to the story and which words to emphasize. We worked on her facial expressions and gestures.

Like acting, the trickiest part is to make it look as "natural" and "effortless" as possible -- Even though Nagisa practiced the speech countless times, it had to look as if she's telling the story for the very first time. I'm so happy that I almost feel like my own daughter had won the contest!

I wanted to share this happy news with you! I'm so excited that I would like to help your child improve their presentation skills as well -- Whether it's for a speaking examination or a speech contest, I believe I could add many elements, intonation, tone, colors, and levels. Please take a look at my profile if you're interested! Thank you for taking the time to read my column.

Have a wonderful day!

Warmest regards,

Lady Ayame
(Patricia Ayame Thomson)