Salesio Gakuin students won the first prize for essay: Yokohama Japanese Language Award (Asahi Newspaper)

By Fr. Daniel Torigoe, SDB

Yokohama, Japan, 26 January 2017 -- Kei Garita, a first year student of Salesio Gakuin - Salesian High School in Yokohama, won the first prize for an essay contest sponsored by Asahi Newspaper company, that more than 270,000 junior and senior high school students all over Japan have applied this year. The title of his essay is "I am no 'Half' but 'Double'".

Kei's father is from Costa Rica and his mother is a Japanese. He enrolled to Salesio Gakuin last April 2016, rather diligent and cheerful student among the 1200 Bosconians of our school.

He wrote in his essay (shortened English summary):

“My father is a Costa Rican. and my mother is a Japanese. So I am a "Half". A "Half" usually means a child, each of whose parents has a different background. But my father doesn’t like this word, "Half". "You are not a half but a double!" By saying this, my father wants to make me confident. I am a Japanese PLUS Costa Rican. I want to be like that! So far, I can speak Spanish only a little. But I want to learn more about the language and the culture. And I want to say "I am a double with full confidence!"

It is amazing that he won the first prize out of 270,000 students! Next time, we want to see some students who will win the prize by writing something about Don Bosco!

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