“汉语桥”世界大学生中文比赛Chinese Bridge——Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreign College Students
cassielin
July 09, 2008, 03:09 PM posted in General DiscussionHey guys, I watched the live opening ceremony of the 7th Chinese Bridge——Chinese proficiency Competition for Foreign College Students last night and I browsed many sites that content a lot of related information to this competition today. It is very impressive, not only the competition itself but also those excellent contesters from all over the world. Have you ever heard about this competition before? Have you ever took part in this competition before? Are you interested in this competition? The 7th Chinese Bridge competition will last from July to August. I am going to watch the whole finals since I start summer vacation now and I have time to do that.^_^
Feel free to share your opinion.
Btw, a good news from Cassie!! I was graduated on July 4th , happy graduation! And also happy Summer Vacation! ^_^
mayor_bombolini
July 15, 2008, 10:15 PMcassie,
This is pretty depressing for some of us pluggers who've been studying part-time for years (5 years for me) and are still at the intermediate level....with a long way to go to advanced.
That said, I'll study my 30 minutes to one hour a day, everday, and be happy with the results.
cassielin
July 10, 2008, 02:17 PMCan you understand this guy's chinese? I think he sings very well. 童话tong2hua4 is a very famous love song in 2005.
Here is the link
http://news.hunantv.com.cn/video/fence/200805/t20080507_31241.html
chela2401
July 11, 2008, 04:55 AMHi, I was wondering if you might be willing to help me. My son, Nick, is participating in the 7th Chinese Bridge——Chinese proficiency Competition. I am trying to find links to watch the opening ceremony and the competitions--if fact his turn is today--if you see him you can recognize him--they call him "Harry Potter" :) Unfortunately, I am not a polyglot like he is and it is limiting my ability to find links. Thank you in advance if anyone can help.
cassielin
July 11, 2008, 06:04 AMchela2401
Here is the link for the opening ceremony. there are five parts, A B C D E.
http://so.tudou.com/isearch.do?kw=%BA%BA%D3%EF%C7%C5%BF%AA%C4%BB%CA%BD
The finals will be broadcasted from next Tuesday to Friday on the TV. I am looking forward to it. Recently, the TV only broadcast some intersting behind the scene stories while they were chooseing the most excellent contesters from Five Continents in the past few months.
Here is the link for the all-round information about this competition. But all in Chinese!!
chela2401
July 13, 2008, 06:21 AMDear cassielin, thank you so much for the links and your rapid response--you have a generosity of spirit, I can tell. If you see any of my son's participation, I'd love the info. He really does look like Harry Potter from the book--his name is Nicholas Miller from Georgetown University, His Chinese name is "Something? Plum".
By the way, congratulations on your graduation.
Gratefully yours,
Chela
chela2401
July 13, 2008, 09:26 AMHello cassielin, thank you again for the links--I watched all of them and saw my son in each part {except for the very short ones} --you made me a happy mother. If you'd like to see him, the best shot of him is at about 2:35 into the 8:06 long video.
Again, thank you.
cassielin
July 13, 2008, 12:38 PMDear chela, thank you very much and I am very happy that those links made you happy!!^_^ I reviewed the whole opening ceremony and I did see your son in every part. You are right, the 2:35 into 8:06 one has the best shoot for your son. He is very cute and looks like “Harry Potter”^_^. Now, I remember your son and I will keep my eyes on his participation/ presentation in the finals. I wish him good luck!
cassielin
July 13, 2008, 12:49 PMso chela, is your son Nick learning chinese as a major in the university? Have you got any information from him, by call or email? Is it the first time for him to come to China? Are you learning chinese with him? Sorry to bother you so many questions, I just feel very happy that we chinesepod users have somehow connected! Again, I wish your son Nick, our "Harry Potter" good luck!^_^ I will keep you post!
Cassie
chela2401
July 13, 2008, 07:58 PMHi Cassie,
Nick has been learning many languages, mostly on his own. His favorite is Chinese, he has been studying since the summer of 2006 before he entered college. His major is Linguistics most likely with Chinese and Japanese minors. He first went to Beijing his senior year of high school with his Madrigal Group and last summer he spent 8 weeks at the Princeton-in-Beijing program at Beijing Normal University. He is very dedicated to learning as many languages as possible--Learning languages and performing music are his passions.
I did not hear from him until July 11 even though he arrived on June 29. It was difficult for me to remain patient while waiting to know he arrived in Beijing and then Changsha.:) He loves China and wants to work there after graduation.
I am happy to answer all questions, although I was concerned that I was asking too much. I do not want to be a pest. He texted me today and said he made the finals. So I hope to see him somewhere on line doing his thing.
So tell me--how long have you been studying English? You said you graduated--do you have future plans to study more or do you have something else in mind. Have you studied outside of China? You write very well, I wish I was more conversant in Chinese--I am just starting. I can say "Hello" and "Thank You". I hope we connect again.
Thank you again for your assistance.
bazza
July 09, 2008, 06:28 PMI've heard of similar competitions.
cassielin
July 14, 2008, 12:31 PMChela,
I have never studied outside of China. I had an English course in my middle school and hight school time. And I learn English as a major for four years in my college time. I still keep learning by myself although I had graduated on July 4th,2008. I will work for my college this August.
cassielin
July 14, 2008, 12:42 PM今天下午看了“汉语桥”世界大学生中文比赛复赛的第一场，印象非常深刻。来自世界55个不同国家的参赛者各个都争奇斗艳，表现非常的精彩。一些选手表现的很自信，一些选手表现的很紧张。我可以理解他们的感受，站在舞台上，面对着现场和电视机前所有的观众，要用一种外语来表达自己，展现自己是需要十足的勇气和自信的。他们都很棒！
chela2401
July 14, 2008, 10:35 PMHello Cassie,
Thanks for the update. I really appreciate that you are reaching out across the globe. Can you tell me the site where I can watch the finals? Nick will probably sing if his throat is healed in time and he gets his voice back [he became sick several days ago and had laryngitis] otherwise, I think he will recite a poem.I do not think he was prepared to play a piece on the piano although I know he wrote a song for the competition. I wish I understood what all the competitors were saying, I would love to hear everybody.
With Deep Appreciation,
Chela
cassielin
July 15, 2008, 04:41 AMHi Chela,
I can not find any online video untill just now.
Now let me give you the website very quick, and I should get back to TV as soon as possible. Oh, I found that Nick was on today's news broadcast but still not on today's competition show, may be he will show on tomorrow's show. I will keep you post.
Here are the weblink about yesterday's competition. There are six parts, ABCDEF on July 14th.（7月14日）
RJ
July 15, 2008, 09:14 AMI would say Nick is doing very well if he has only been studying Mandarin since 2006. That is a very short time to become so proficient. Two years is a short time in Mandarin years :-). Maybe in 10 years I could do this. Maybe more. Maybe never. Very impressive I think.
cassielin
July 15, 2008, 10:27 AMrjberki
In today's competition, there is a contester who has only learned Mandarin for about 8 months, 8 months, and he can speaks very well. Very impressive! So that's why I hope maybe you guys can watch the link that about yesterday's competition and get something from them. It is very informing.
Chela,
I saw Nick on this afternoon's news broadcast, they gave him a task that they wanted him to sale a very normal mirror. He is very smart, his advertising claims are very interesting and funny. And also, he mentioned he looks like "Harry Potter". I am sorry I can not find any web link so far because some of the TV show or news were just broadcasted on TV. By the way, I knew what is Nick's chinese name this afternoon. His chinese name is 梅文宇mei2wen2yu3. Oh, Chela, don't worry , Nick's voice doesn't sound very bad, I think he will be better soon. I wish he could show the song his wrote and play the piano.
I am happy that I can help and I will keep you post.
Cassie^_^
RJ
July 15, 2008, 05:07 PMHi Cassie,
8 months!? there must be something wrong with me. I would expect in 8 years maybe I can speak Chinese, but never 8 months. That is very impressive. I would have to spend 24 hours a day totally driven and immersed. Are these guys just memorizing or do they really understand?
chela2401
July 15, 2008, 07:52 PMHi rjberki,
I cannot speak for the guy who has only been studying for 8 months but I know my son, Nick, could--with any of his top 7 or 8 languages including Mandarin--be dropped into a location where only that language is spoken and written, and communicate pretty effectively but I also know that he has dedicated almost all of his time to learning languages, especially Asian languages.I think someday he will be teaching and writing about how to teach and acquire languages. So--you have been to China many times? Where have you been and what draws you there? I hope to visit China soon myself--perhaps to visit with my son if he decides to move there after he graduates from college.
cassielin
July 14, 2008, 08:46 AMHi chela,
I just finished watching the first round of the finals. I saw Nick in the auditorium many times, I guess maybe I can see him on tomorrow's competition show.
Only 35 contesters participated on today's show. Actually there was 7 groups of contesters, each group has 5 contesters. All the contesters from these 7 groups went to 杭州hang2zhou1 before this contest and they visited many places of interest ,such as, the West Lake, Lingyin Temple, Leifeng Pagoda. They prepared a short video to introduce themselves while they were visiting there. In the competition field, they give a public speech, most of them talk about their interesting stories about chinese. After speech, the judge give the grade and then announce the result, sevent of them can enter the next round directly. According to the combination of the result for chinese paper test that they had done earlier, there were 14 contesters got the second chance to fight for and only 9 contesters made it.
Well, I should say that this competition is very competitive and all the contesters are very good ,althought some of them were very nervous. But I should also say that they are very brave to show themselves in Chinese. So, I am looking forward to Nick's speech. I guess maybe he will sing a chinese song because you said music is his passion. Again, I am looking forward to it and I will keep you post.
cassielin
July 09, 2008, 03:23 PMoh, here is a contester from America, his name is 李慕白and he speaks very fluent chinese, as the representative, he made a speech on last night's live opening ceremony.
And I found a video that he made a short speech, the title is Go to China 到中国去.