Success at the British Council/HSBC Mandarin Speaking Competition 2018-2019 Finals
Yesterday, on 6th of February in London British Museum, Mrs Zhou along with two candidates, Alicja and Jagoda attended the British Council/HSBC Mandarin Speaking Competition 2018-2019 Finals.
Mrs Zhou said, “We were up against many well-performing and high-level schools, but we won 1st prize in Beginners Plus category and 3rd prize in Advanced category. After many weeks of hard work and practice, we finally attended the competition and represented our school well.
It was amazing how well we did, based on the fact that most of the contestants were even accepted into Oxford and Cambridge University! I am very delighted to have won this prize, and the pupils are even more ecstatic! Taking part in the competition increases students’ motivation for learning the language and inspires students to discover more about Chinese culture”.
Our first prize winner, Alicja , will spend a week in Beijing during Easter. She will visit historical sites, interact with Chinese students and experience Chinese culture with the British Council, who have over twenty years’ experience in running cultural exchanges with China.
Pupil Voice: Competition Feedback – Alicja
The British Council/ HSBC 2018-2019 National Final Mandarin Speaking Competition was an amazing experience I will never forget.
I have already attended the competition once; I got through to the finals and went to London to see what it is like. However, I didn’t reach such a success like I did this year.
For the 2019 competition, I was intensely focused on winning. With the help of my teacher, Mrs Zhou, I was motivated to work extremely hard and do my best. She reached out to many friends and colleagues in means of letting me get the best help I can and potentially win the competition. We were studying immensely hard for the performance. We even looked through our material in the train to London! We stayed the night in a hotel so we could be relaxed and ready to start the next day. When I finally did my performance, I was ready and grasped every single thing that I was asked. I went back to my seat feeling very satisfied, as I got no mistakes. At the prize-giving ceremony, I became very nervous in anticipation of the final result. To my astonishment, I earned first prize in my category! In the competition, I was up against many private and prestigious schools, but with hard work and help from my teacher I managed to win first prize!!! My parents were very pleased with my achievement and are very thankful for the hard work of Mrs. Zhou put into my studies in Mandarin, and that the school gave me this amazing opportunity to participate.
I would recommend everyone to study Mandarin in St Ninian’s HS. Not only for the satisfying feeling of speaking another language, but also for the wonderful culture that surrounds the language. Every day I find myself more in love with China and I can’t wait for my trip to China as part of the first prize!!!
Pupil Voice: Competition Feedback – Jagoda
I am extremely happy with yesterday’s competition. I believe that the organisation of the event was incredible and made me feel very welcome. I was pleasantly surprised with how well Alicja and I had fared, I was also able to learn a lot more about the way Chinese is taught in other schools through being able to chat to other pupils from all over the UK. Of course, I’m extremely thankful to Mrs Zhou and the Mandarin Department for giving me the time and support I needed in order to qualify for such an event and even place within the top 3.
For this reason I encourage other pupils in St Ninian’s to take up Mandarin, it has given me the most opportunities out of any subject and has vastly improved my confidence.
Truly a day to remember!
