打开APP
userphoto
未登录

开通VIP,畅享免费电子书等14项超值服

开通VIP
U.S. college students speak up in Mandarin
CHICAGO, May 5 (Xinhua) -- It was all Mandarin Chinese all of the time as dozens of American college students spoke of their hopes and dreams during the Chinese Bridges Speech Competition at Northwestern University.

Crowded into campus classrooms Saturday with their Chinese teachers standing by to take photos, each student gave a five-minute presentation in Mandarin on topics ranging from family life to their Chinese dream.

One student shared how he first became interested in Chinese culture, saying "it all began with the Kung Fu movies I watched as a child."

"Once I discovered I was unable to fly like the martial arts heroes of the films, I decided studying the Chinese language would be the second best option for me to explore Chinese culture," he said.

Another student discussed how different China was from her expectations and marveled at how Shanghai's Pudong district seemed much like Las Vegas while the Puxi buildings across town bore many similarities to European styles.

One of the most memorable performances in the Midwest Division competition came from Dalian Urbonya, who took the top prize in the final Fourth Year Speaking Competition.

The contest was divided into four levels according to how many years students had studied the language. In addition to an individual speech, each participant also shared a Chinese cultural talent such as a song or dance.

Speaking at breakneck speed and in almost perfect tonal pronunciation, Urbonya impressed the judges both with her speaking skills and traditional Chinese dance.

After the competition, Urbonya told Xinhua that she was just as interested in China's culture as she was in its language. She said that she hoped to study Chinese dance and music more in the future.

Urbonya said she was greatly inspired by media personality Mark Henry Rowswell, a Canadian better known in China by his Chinese name of Dashan, when she watched his performance for the first time.

She hopes to one day be like Rowswell and plans to participate in the speech competition in China in July.

Alicia Montague-Keels, another student who won a gold medal in the speech competition, told Xinhua that she was actually inspired to study Chinese so that she could teach others.

After a few years of studying French, Montague-Keels switched to Chinese. She found the change so "fresh" and interesting that she moved to Beijing to study last summer.

"It was just an amazing experience, and every opportunity I get to go back China, whether it be two weeks or three months, I take advantage of that," Montague-Keels said.

Montague-Keels, set to graduate with a major in Chinese education, said her experience in learning mandarin has helped her recognize a long-held ambition.

"My ultimate lifetime goal is to open an immersion school focusing on critical need languages. I always wanted to be a teacher," Montague-Keels said.

Fifty-three students from a number of Midwestern universities including Northwestern, the University of Chicago, DePaul, Purdue and the University of Wisconsin participated in the competition.
本站仅提供存储服务,所有内容均由用户发布,如发现有害或侵权内容,请点击举报
打开APP,阅读全文并永久保存 查看更多类似文章
猜你喜欢
类似文章
【热】打开小程序,算一算2024你的财运
看了外国人如何学中文,发现学英语简单多了!
你说的「中文」,在英语里不叫 Chinese
S’porean youths speaking Mandarin terribly is some...
历年英语专业八级翻译真题及参考译文
无论如何都要学会说普通话
Who's Your Chinese-Speaking Star? Vote! (Beginner-...
更多类似文章 >>
生活服务
热点新闻
分享 收藏 导长图 关注 下载文章
绑定账号成功
后续可登录账号畅享VIP特权!
如果VIP功能使用有故障,
可点击这里联系客服!

联系客服