Assalamualaikum wr wb

First and foremost, let us pray and praise Allah SWT who has given us his blessing to
gather on this special occasion without any obstacles.
Second, praise and salutation be upon to our prophet Muhammad SAW who has
bought us from the darkness to the light.
Lastly, I want to honor the judges who are here today, Ustadzah Risma, Ustadzah
Intan, Ustadzah Fitri, and Ustadzah Lidya and to all my audience of Al Maahira Senior High
School.

Before I get to the core of my speech, allow me to introduce myself. My name is

Radyyan Nailah from XI MIA 5 and I'm proudly standing here today to deliver a speech
about Japanese culture. Or as they say in Japan はじめまして 私 は ナイラ日本のぶんか
を せつめいしたい

I'm sure we're all familiar with Japan. The country famous for natural sights like
sakura and Mount Fuji, cutting-edge technology like Japanese cars and bullet trains, wacky
inventions like karaoke and vending machines, cultural values like politeness and punctuality,
popular anime and manga, and mouth-watering food like ramen and sushi. On this occasion
though, I want to focus on the culture of Japan and how they’ve evolved to modern society.

Japan is a country that is rich with culture. From emperors to samurais , they have a
long list of history that is hard to miss as it is so embedded in their culture. Take kimono as
an example. Kimono is a traditional Japanese garment that was used as an everyday dress
back in the day. In the present day, the kimono is not commonly worn as an everyday dress,
and has steadily fallen out of fashion. Kimono are now most frequently seen at funerals,
weddings, graduations, and other formal events. However, recent trends show that Japanese
people are incorporating themselves more with Japanese culture. Like wearing a Yukata
which is a simplified version of Kimono. They are not embarrassed to embrace their culture
and instead modify it and fit it to modern standards. What people think was traditional and
old is now modern and unique. This is proof that even though Japan is keeping up with world
globalization, they still manage to maintain their true culture. This has become one of the
things that makes people so attracted to Japan. Many people go to Japan to witness their
culture and experience it firsthand, and Japan supports that cause by exhibiting their visitors
with their culture.
But if you ask people who visit Japan “What makes Japan so unique?” Undoubtedly,
they will say “Their politeness”. We all know the Japanese are “very polite.” But being polite
goes beyond just saying excuse me or thank you or holding the door open for someone.
Politeness can also be associated with respect. Politeness in Japan puts the whole world in
shame. For centuries, Japanese have been taught from a young age that they need to be
responsible members of their families and their country. As a result, the people became
obedient and relatively passive, used to having their lives regulated by rules. For example, the
way a Japanese uses everyday language clearly shows who they are and who they speak to.
There are formal rules for speaking differently to different people depending on their age and
relationship to you. Even a simple greeting like ‘good morning’ can be formal or informal, If
you want to greet someone your age or younger, you usually say “ おはよう” But if
you speak to someone older, you say “ おはようございます” It depends
on who you say it to and when.

Did you know? Japan has a different writing system than the normal English alphabet.
They are Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji. Hiragana is used to learn the basics of Japanese and
is commonly used for beginners. While katakana is used for words that come from another a
foreign language. For example, “cake” in Japan is “keki” and how you write that word is with
Katakana. Kanji on the other hand is a bit more complicated as one word can have different
meanings. But I’m not gonna bore you any further with Japanese writing systems, but while
we’re on the topic of the Japanese language, here’s a little fun fact.

If you go to Japan and you expect the people there to talk to you in English, then you
would be mistaken. Japanese people prefer to use Japanese to communicate with other
people, even tourists. It's because Japanese are caught between a belief in the importance of
the Japanese language and the need to exist in a globalized world in which English is the
dominating language. Now, don't take it the wrong way, not wanting to use English is not
improper , it's just that they prefer to use their own language to maintain the culture inside of
them.
 And that brings us to the end of this speech. This was just a scratch to the surface of
Japanese Culture. We can learn many things about Japan and incorporate it into our daily
lives. Like their politeness and how they operate in modern society. We can also look at how
they sustained their culture even with the world evolving around them, and apply that to our
own country. Maybe we can be prouder of our own culture instead of glamorizing other
countries.

I notice that our time is just about up, so to close I would

like to say thank you and I sincerely appreciate your attention
today. I apologize for any mistake I might have said. I hope what I
just delivered can be beneficial to all of you., Thank You すべてにあ
りがとうございます...今日 いえる こと わ それ だけです
Wassalamualaikum wr. wb