松山東雲中学高等学校でマドンナレシテーションコンテストが開催されました。日本語では中学生英語暗誦大会です。今年度はコロナ禍で多くのコンテストが中止になる中、感染防止策を取りながら開催されました。ソーシャルディスタンスを保てるよう配慮され、今年は初めてチャペルで行われました。本校からは３年生の木村汐莉さんが出場しました。Mohammed Qahtaniさんの”The Power of Words”というスピーチを暗誦し、堂々と発表することができました。言葉には力があり、人を勇気づけることもあれば、人を落ち込ませることもあるので、慎重に使って欲しいという内容です。とても美しく綺麗な発音で、力強さとまとまりのある木村さんのパフォーマンスに感動しました。下に暗誦文を掲載しますので、是非とも訳してみてください。答え合わせは、明日のＨＰでね(#^_^#)

暗誦文です。

There was a girl who was four, and she once had a bad habit of drawing on the walls with crayons. One evening, her father walked into her room, and found that she was drawing on the walls again. So, her father shouted, "Hey! Don’t be silly! Never do that again!"

Nobody likes to be scolded. The girl continued to do it just to make her father angry. A week later, he went to her room, and she was doing it yet again. But this time, he calmed down, and said, "Come here. Don't do that, you're a big girl now." And do you know what happened? She never did it again because she wanted to be "a big girl." Words can change someone's mind.

If you are a role model, anything you say can have a strong impact. For example, there was a boy named Nick, who loved his father. Nick would do anything to make his father happy. Year after year, Nick tried, but his father was not easy to please. His father never gave any words of praise. In his first year in college, Nick got all A's, and he said to himself, "This is it!" He called his father, "Dad, I got all A's! Please tell me ‘I'm proud of you!^" But his father only said, "I'm busy now. I'll call you back." What do you think of his father’s words?

Words have power. "Ydu have the power to encourage a person, or destroy someones happiness simply through your words. So, please choose your words carefully.