MTSU Japanese students have been honored by the Consul General of Japan in Nashville.

The MTSU contingent poses for a group photo at the sixth annual Tennessee Area Japanese Speech Contest, which was held April 6 at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. MTSU participants included, from left to right on the front row, Cameron Mitchell, Charlotte Fjetland, Julie Vandel, graduate teaching assistant Saori Endo and lecturer Chiaki Shima of the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures. On the back row are Trevor Sitler, Jonathan King, Baron Black and Dr. Priya Ananth, assistant professor of Japanese. (photo submitted)

Cameron Mitchell and Trevor Sitler won special honors presented in person by Consul General Motohiko Kato at the sixth annual Tennessee Area Japanese Speech Contest April 6 at Vanderbilt University.

Mitchell, a senior from Memphis, delivered a speech titled “Yume,” or “Dreams,” in Level Two intermediate competition, and Sitler, a senior from Nashville, performed a speech on “Nihon De Hayatte Iru Eigo” — “English Prevalent in Japan” — in Level Three advanced competition.

Other students who competed in the contest include Jonathan King of Eagleville, Tenn.; Baron Black of Murfreesboro; Charlotte Fjetland of Nashville; and Julie Vandel of Fayetteville, Tenn.

Thirty-two students from seven schools in and around Tennessee took part in beginning, intermediate and advanced categories.

For more information about Japanese language studies at MTSU, contact Dr. Priya Ananth, assistant professor of Japanese, at 615-898-5357 or Priya.Ananth@mtsu.edu.

— Gina K. Logue (Gina.Logue@mtsu.edu)