The 10th Chinese Bridge Chinese Proficiency Competition
urbandweller
April 09, 2011, 04:25 PM posted in General DiscussionAttention CPod friends in Los Angeles! here is an event worth checking out TODAY!
Each year students from all over the United States compete for the opportunity to represent our country at the nationally-televised Chinese Bridge Chinese Proficiency Competition held in China. On April 9th, UCLA will host the southwest regional competition and welcomes all talented students of Mandarin to our campus to display their skills.
bodawei
Did he really? That is extremely impressive. But I wonder what his 'performance' was - stealing menus, or turning the air blue. :)
bababardwan
He represented Australia [so won it in Oz] and got the best speaker award...I'm pretty sure that was the one he won for Chinese tongue twisters. I've never seen the footage though but would love to.
bodawei
I guess the footage of these comps must be available somewhere - I have seen one but just can't remember where, may have been on Chinese TV. There is no doubt a web site for the Bridge Comp.
xiao_liang
If you're feeling industrious, search the News and Features archive for the one where they first introduced him. He did one of the tongue twisters in the little interview they gave him.
bodawei
Oh thanks xiaoliang, I don't feel that industrious. :) I have already admitted on these boards that I tend to be lazy. Memorization is highly praised in China (and it is useful for learning Chinese) but it's not my strong point.
bweedin
April 13, 2011, 04:35 AMI was there, I competed, but I didn't win :(
bweedin
April 13, 2011, 04:36 AMI can provide footage of my speech lol
bababardwan
please do. I await with bated breath
bweedin
I might just provide the clip of me singing. The speech was pretty horrible. The thing is that everyone had a formal speech prepared, and I just kind of went up there and freestyled it. In a culture where it's more important to memorize a speech than to understand one word of what you're saying, plus, the fact that I talked about how naughty my CHINESE students were, it didn't win them over. I guess it didn't give Chinese people face, even if I was only talking about five year olds.
bababardwan
"plus, the fact that I talked about how naughty my CHINESE students were, it didn't win them over"
...lol
bodawei
' how naughty my CHINESE students were,'
This should have won you points for cultural awareness. :)
Most Chinese teachers seem to go on and on about their naughty students, even at university!
PS. I thought there was a prepared speech, a performance, and then a free exchange with an interviewer (maybe that last bit only happens in the Beijing stage?)
bababardwan
"This should have won you points for cultural awareness. :)
Most Chinese teachers seem to go on and on about their naughty students, even at university! "
...do they take it differently though if it's coming from a laowai?
bodawei
'do they take it differently though if it's coming from a laowai?'
I see the way you're thinking .. in private these words coming from a laowai mouth don't cause any shame. At the Bridge Competition showcase it could be a different story I agree - at these events everything is sweetness and light. Platitudes welcome. I think if it was turned into a clever joke without anybody getting hurt you could get away with it. (But it is not so much to do with the laowai as such.)
hiewhongliang
'...do they take it differently though if it's coming from a laowai?'
The ingroup/outgroup thing in social psychology, apparently much more prevalent among qorld cultures than we think.
bweedin
actually, yes there were three parts. Part 1 was a monologue, in other words recited speech. I just went up and said whatever was on my mind, as I really didn't have time to write a speech. Too much 哪个哪个哪个. Part 2 was a trivia session where I answered questions about Chinese culture and Chinese grammar. They had a power point with 40 questions on it, which they e-mailed to me ahead of time. Three questions were picked at random, and they happened to be three questions which I either already knew, or had memorized. (yay)
and part three was the singing. That was my favorite part :) I sang 一路上有你
RJ
Bobby,
Please do post a link to your speech. Just holding your own in a contest like this is something to be proud of. I'm sure you did fine. Thanks for "representing".
bweedin
April 13, 2011, 03:16 PMThey did ask me a few questions too. They asked me about my Chinese name, and I couldn't just tell them that it was my Chinese grandfather's name plus an extra character, because if you had any Chinese background or were an ABC, you were disqualified from the competition.
They asked this one girl who went before me, "你的爷爷呢？是哪里人？“ I guess she didn't know the rules, because she said, "他是广东人”
So needless to say, I stammered a bit when they asked me.
bababardwan
April 11, 2011, 05:17 AMHey urbandweller,
Funny you should post this because I was just reading a little about these Chinese Bridge Proficiency Comps the other day. I had vaguely heard of them before but I don't recall them being discussed much before except that I think Matt Coleman won it once. I hope this sparks a lot of discussion about any poddies who may have entered or been to watch the comps, what went on, deng deng.