Speech for Prince Takamado Trophy All Japan Inter-Middle School English Oratorical Contest

Young People Smoking

     The problem I’d like to discuss today is that young people smoking. I sincerely believe that it is something to be considered about. It seemed that every place I look, I see more and more young people smoking. Shocking to say, even at my school some might try this dangerous activity.

     One evening on my way home from school after club activities, I saw two students chatting merrily as they walked by me.

“Ooops! What is that? ” I could not believe my eyes. “White smoke? It cannot be breath! It’s not as cold as it is in winter,” I was wondering, when a girl hanging on her mother’s arm passed by and cried,

“Look, mom! He’s holding a cigarette between his fingers!”

“Oh, no! Hell on earth!” I shouted in my mind.

     When I recently asked my grandfather why he smoked in his youth, he told me it was because, in his mind, it made him look and feel more mature.

“Ah, ha! That’s it. They must feel the same way.” I said to myself.

     I can’t comment on how they feel because that would be playing with assumptions, but I can state that, in my opinion, smoking makes anything but mature.

     Have you ever seen a lung affected by cancer? I sometimes see ads in the newspaper showing a lung festered and burned black by tobacco fumes. Smoking is a cause of lung cancer. It’s a very serious disease in which cells in parts of the body start to grow in a way that is not normal and that can eventually cause death. My great-grandfather, who died at the age of 68, was one of cancer’s victims. I was told that he was smoking a few packs of cigarettes every day. I guess that many of the old smokers, including my great-grandfather, should have known about the many dangers when they began smoking at early ages.

     Today, there is mounting evidence that daily smoking causes a variety of cancers, including cancer of the mouth, lips, tongue, and throat. Cigars contain many of the same toxins and cancer-causing agents as cigarettes which doctors say makes exposure to second-hand smoke a serious concern. Addiction is also a problem as cigars and cigarettes contain nicotine, shown to be one of the most addictive drugs known to man, which makes breaking the habit of smoking very difficult.

     However, in this days of widely publicized health reports warning of the dangers of tobacco, it is appalling that anyone with a young healthy body would purposely risk his or her health on such a known hazard. You must remember that passive smoking, the act of breathing in smoke from someone else’s cigarette can also damage your health. Now is the time we should sit and discussion the reason why the lung cancer is the most common cause of death in the world.

     A cigarette hanging from the lips of a young man or woman doesn’t make them look any more grownup than a mini-skirt makes a senior citizen look youg!

I will not smoke! How about you?

Thank you.