Tauhara College student Steven Nuth won the Education Perfect Languages Championships for Australasia in the highly competitive Japanese category.
He's the best high school student in New Zealand and Australia at Japanese. Meet Tauhara College Year 12 student Steven Nuth.
Two weeks ago, the 16-year-old won the highly competitive Japanese category in the Education Perfect Languages Championships for Australasia. Out of all languages, he ranked ninth in the world out of 200,000 competitors.
For Japanese, Tauhara College as a school placed third in New Zealand, 11th in Australasia and 12th globally. Tauhara College also competed in Māori and altogether 122 students took part.
Steven's first languages are English and Cambodian, and this is his fourth year learning Japanese from Tauhara College language teacher Setsuko Sawada, of Tokyo, Japan, who also speaks French, Māori, Spanish, Chinese and Korean.
This is Steven's second year entering the competition, and he took a far more strategic approach this time around.
The competition runs for eight consecutive days and students are limited to competing for eight hours per day, with Steven aiming to compete for four or five hours from 6pm each night, as well as having to attend school during the week. Points are awarded for translating Japanese vocabulary back to English and for recognising written Japanese Kanji symbols.
He went hard on the first night and finished every evening with the top four competitors catching up.
"It was hard getting to sleep, I would be going to bed and because of the time difference, competitors two to five would be getting up in Australia and just starting," Steven says.
Tauhara College Year 12 student Steven Nuth (left) was first in Australasia for Japanese in the 2022 Education Perfect Languages Championships. He is pictured with college language teacher Setsuko Sawada.
Teacher Setsuko says while most competitors were getting 1000 to 2000 points per day, Steven was getting 4000.
Steven says to maintain his first-place position he had to bring a good mindset to the competition every evening.
"I am a very competitive person. I would tell myself, 'I am representing myself, my school, my town, my country, and even Cambodia'."
The highest-scoring students in the championship were those in the Japanese, French, Spanish and German categories, and Steven says this makes his win even sweeter.
"I picked the hardest competition."
Setsuko says they didn't realise he was in with a chance of winning until day four or five, and then the whole school got in behind him, with staff and students encouraging him each day.
"He's a quiet achiever. Steven never shows off. He takes every learning opportunity that comes his way."
Steven says his parents Virana and Mena encouraged him to compete and told him to "study hard, do your best, but don't burn out".
To celebrate Steven's achievement, members of his extended family from Rotorua and Hamilton have been invited to a family party in Taupō. Setsuko says the school would normally honour Steven in assembly but due to Covid-19 this year there will just be an Excellence Lunch occasion.
Steven says his aunt Terry is something of a linguist, and his sister Jessica has started learning Japanese at Taupō Intermediate School from one of Setsuko's ex-students turned teacher.
Setsuko says in previous years the high-scoring Japanese language students have gone on a school trip to Japan and Steven is currently working on the weekends at Warehouse Stationery Taupō to save up. In the past, he has travelled to Cambodia to meet his mother's family and knows the value of testing his linguistic skills overseas.
As for his achievement at the Education Perfect Championships, Steven says it takes years to prepare and he thanks his teacher, the rest of the school for their encouragement, and his parents.
