English is Power! 

“English is like a bicycle. It has lots of technical terms and it is always evolving.
So, it needs maintenance just like caring for a bicycle.” 

Shota Watanabe
1st place winner, 5th IDAC English Speech Contest


The 5th IDAC English Speech Contest is one of many all-English programs that the Institute is proud of having for its members to join. This year, we had six contestants who spoke about a wide-range of unique topics, from “getting drunk” to “getting married”. In the end, 1st prize was awarded to Shota Watanabe, who won the hearts of all three judges and the audience by showing his love for Bicycles and English.

Second place went to Kelssy Hitomi who gave a touching speech about how English proverbs saved her life. Lastly, tied for third place was Shohei Yamazaki and Ted Kageyama. Shohei demonstrated the effects of envy and how to stop it, while Ted reminded us how important it is to spend time outdoors.

I love English & Bicycles. This year’s winner, Shota Watanabe, visually showed us how Bicycles and the English language are closely interconnected, and how his love for these two passions gave him the power to go further in life. He states that “the Speech Contest was a great learning experience for me, and just like riding a bicycle, I trained my English language to its peak!”

Shota then takes us into an amazing world where bicycles and English come to life and says “when I ride my bicycle, I feel like HE is my life partner, and I take care of HIS condition like a real person. On a bicycle, I can feel very delicate things such as the wind, temperature and smells, which enhances my senses; and with English, I can understand true feelings by having deep and real conversations with many people.”

Just like a superhero with special powers, Shota explains that English can be a source of tremendous “power” to help gain new knowledge, and “the new knowledge can be power for creating human personality.” He also believes that “English has the biggest potential to make the world a better place as it allows us to share our ideas with the rest of the world.”

To sum up, Shota’s ultimate goal in life is “to have many conversations with different people from different cultures around the world”, and English will give him the power to achieve this goal.

“ENGLISH is POWER!”

-Shota Watanabe, 2nd year Masters, Department of Medical Engineering