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下のスクリプトは事前提出されたものですので、ビデオの音声とは一部異なる場合があります。 |
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Programming Myself
YOSHIDA , Takuma (Nagano National College of Technology)
Have you ever heard of the Programming Contest? I’m afraid most of you have not. It is an annual all Kosen national event. Kosen students compete for excellence in software, a robot, or anything they programmed using a computer. Among them are, for example, cell-phone software that tells you a safe way to climb a mountain and a robot which will clean your room. The contestants are judged on creativity and usefulness as well as the technique shown in their work.I participated in last year’s contest with my friends as a team of five. The system we programmed was to make printed words float in the air, grab them and move them as if they were real materials. You may have seen such technique in the movie “Sen & Chihiro’s spirited away”. If you are interested, I’ll show you them after this speech contest.
I was the leader of our team. You know, Kosen students are varied in personality, and this makes the leader’s role very difficult. Our heated discussions usually lasted for hours, and sometimes we had angry quarrels which made me quite exhausted. Often I wondered if we could complete our project in time. Eventually we overcame all these obstacles. On the day of the contest, we were well prepared, and our presentation was perfect. While we were waiting for the announcement of the prize, I was sure that we would be one of them, and that our hard work would be soon rewarded.
However, the result was not what I had desired. I was depressed, and cursed the judges. Even after the closing ceremony, my bitter disappointment lingered. I sacrificed so much time and energy for this contest, but all were in vain. Was it worth our making efforts from the beginning? Is there anything left that I got from participating in the contest? Such questions came to me one after another.
Then I realized I had acquired a great amount of knowledge and technique, but I also gained something more important; communication skill. I had been a poor communicator, because I liked using a computer more than talking with my friends. So I was sometimes misunderstood. However, this contest gave me a chance to become a better communicator. As a team leader, I had to talk with and persuade my teammates to reach consensus. I learned to be patient and listen carefully to others. This made me grow up and feel confident.
At the programming contest, knowledge and technique are the keys, and there is no room for humanity. People tend to think in this way. It sounds right, but I don’t think that’s good. For example, Programming Contests can be compared to drawing one big picture as a team. Then what kind of ability is most needed? Technique? Or knowledge or talent for drawing? No, they are not so important. I think the most important ability is communication skill.
Computer programming sounds highly technical, but actually it’s very human and requires good communication skill. It is paradoxical truth, isn’t it? So, I should have programmed myself to be a good communicator.
