On January 27 at Kannai Hall in Yokohama, 21 students from 11 countries and regions took part in the 37th Japanese speech contest for foreign students studying at Kanagawa's vocational schools, hosted by the Kanagawa Vocational Schools Association with support from Kanagawa Shimbun. The top prize, the Yokohama mayor's prize, went to a Sri Lankan student from Kanagawa Institute of Economics who spoke on 'A Poem in Pali' and said the future is wider and more possible than we imagine; the Kanagawa Shimbun President's Prize went to Kim Donghun from Korea, a student at Yokohama YMCA College; each contestant had five minutes to speak, with judging based on content, pronunciation and expression, as the event aims to deepen cross-cultural understanding and appreciation of one's own culture.