Peking University, Dec. 7, 2018: The 2018 PKU Mandarin Speech Contest for International Students was held at Florence Fang Building from Dec. 3 to 5. The contest was themed “120-year-old PKU embarks upon a new journey with you”. About 38 participants from the School of Chinese as a Second Language, the School of International Relations, the School of Foreign Languages and the School of Economics and Management took part in the event. They gave speeches on topics including development of contemporary Chinese society, life in China, experiences and thoughts of learning Chinese, “My Story with PKU” and many more. In general, 38 candidates were divided into three groups in terms of their Chinese proficiency.
At the competition
As one of the most important components of PKU 15th International Culture Festival, the competition was co-sponsored by the School of Chinese as a Second Language (SCSL) and the Office of International Relations (OIR).
Dean of SCSL Zhao Yang and the school’s Vice Dean Ji Chuanbo also attended the event, together with officers from the OIR International Students Division, Yenching Academy, U.S. Dickinson Program and CIEE Program.
Overseas students thought highly of the development of Chinese society. They couldn’t love it more that. For example, a variety of smart phone applications have brought great convenience to people’s lives (“Chinese APP”, “WeChat and I”, quoted are the titles of the candidates’ speeches); and they were also amazed by the rapid change of the Chinese society (“An astonishing China”, “We in China”, “China in my eyes”). Meanwhile, they also witnessed the success that China has made and were greatly enlightened by the causes of such development (“The diligent Chinese”, “Young people can change the world”).
Contestant giving a speech
International students expressed their love for Chinese culture and shared their personal stories through rousing speeches. They recorded tiny details of their life in China (“My encounters in China”, “Everything about studying abroad”, “World in my backpack”), and recalled some funny moments when they were firstly here (“Ni hao!”, “My first impression of Beijing”). What’s more, Chinese culture has greatly fascinated them (“Chinese ancient philosophers”, “Eat in China”, “The moon and my hometown”). In addition, some of them even talked about their close ties with China (“My home in China”, “Meeting Beijing for the first time”).
Furthermore, some students shared their opinions of learning Chinese. Mixed-blood students gave deep thoughts to their relations with Chinese (“My mother tongue and I”, “Love my father more, or my mother more”); some overseas students told amusing stories of speaking Chinese (“When a foreigner speaks Chinese to a Chinese”). And the rest of them shared their process and methods of learning Chinese (“My path of learning Chinese”, “Many a little makes a mickle”).
Speakers have shown their great enthusiasm towards Chinese learning by fluent speaking, novel words and sentences as well as abundant jokes and anecdotes. They have demonstrated their strong ability of oral expression and language ability.
The competition was hosted by four overseas students, and five teachers were invited as commentators. The commentators evaluated language, content, performance, time and effect of each speech and scored every participant. In total, three participants were awarded the first prizes, seven the second prizes, ten the third prizes, three the most popular prizes, and several honorable prizes.
As a long-standing teaching activity of Peking University, the competition provided overseas participants with a platform for learning and networking, and received warm welcome from the students.
Written by: Shi Jingjing
Edited by: Yan Shengnan
Source: School of Chinese as a Second Language (Chinese)
