Japanese programme students presented with Ambassador’s Prize

The prize is awarded to the top students in the core 300-level Japanese language courses at Massey University, as well as Victoria University of Wellington.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, this prize giving ceremony was held for the winners from the last three years. They were:

• 2020 Ambassador’s prize winner - Hannah Rose Lee
• 2021 Ambassador’s prize winner - Joel Coutts
• 2022 Ambassador’s prize winner - Carol Geraldine Torres Tamayo.

Head of School of Humanities, Media and Creative Communication Professor Kerry Taylor, Japanese Programme Co-ordinator Dr Penny Shino and Senior Japanese Tutor Mr Toshi Yamauchi attended the prizegiving ceremony.

Mr Yamauchi says Hannah and Carol each gave a wonderful speech in Japanese to show their gratitude for the Ambassador and Massey University.

Hannah successfully completed the Graduate Certificate in Arts in Japanese, studying five Japanese language courses with outstanding achievement from 2019 to 2021 as a distance student. While Hannah was studying her 300-level Japanese courses, she gained a position as a political analyst for the Embassy of Japan.

Joel completed a Bachelor of Information Sciences in information technology, with a minor in Japanese in 2021. After he graduated, he worked as a Doctoral Admissions Advisor within the Graduate Research School. Joel applied for The Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Programme, which has been run by the Japanese government over 35 years. He is now working in Japan, something he had been hoping to do for a long time, where he teaches English at two Japanese senior high schools in Fukuoka prefecture in Kyushu.

Carol gained her Bachelor of Arts with a Japanese major in 2022. During 2022, Carol was class representative in Japanese 3A and 3B, which were distance courses, and was committed to supporting her classmates. She currently works as a pre-school reliever and an online English teacher for a private language school. Carol speaks four languages.

Japanese is taught on the Palmerston North and Albany campuses, and by distance, in the School of Humanities, Media and Creative Communication, which is also home to Chinese, French, Portugese and Spanish language and culture programmes.