James Kon
A Chinese language recitation contest for non-Chinese students took place at Chung Hwa Middle School Bandar Seri Begawan (BSB) yesterday.
The contest, organised by the Embassy of China in Brunei Darussalam, saw 24 students from Chinese schools take part.
In the lower category contest, Dayangku Nurul Ainaa Imanina binti Pengiran Haji Mohamad Salleh and Gabriella Jasmine Ayunda from Chung Hwa Middle School BSB won first place.
Kaysan bin Haji Muhd Asrul Saniy and Nandini Sajith took second place while Hadrian bin Hasnan and Aaradhya RR took third. The consolation prizes went to Nayla Husna binti Haji Muhammad Shah and Muhd Nursyazzuhar Shazir bin Muhd Lan Syukri.
For the upper category, Sai Swaroopah Lara and Lia Sarker emerged as winner while second place went to Muhammad Razique Al-Fathir bin Hamzani and Olivia Mathew Chettupuzhakaren.
Raja Mora Sinaga and Awangku Minato Izyan bin Pengiran Ade Halimin won third place while Ahmad Irfan Rizqi bin Razab and Muhammad Khairul Syakir bin Mohamad Idris collected consolation prizes.
Ambassador of China to Brunei Darussalam Yu Hong presented prizes to the winners.
The ambassador said, “The competition is the first Chinese language project of the embassy in Brunei, in collaboration with the Centre of Language Education and Cooperation Centre in China.”
She added, “China actively promotes the Chinese language and cultural exchanges overseas.”
The flagship project of the Chinese language competition is the ‘Chinese Bridge’ contest for primary and secondary school students. Since its launch in 2002, she said ‘Chinese Bridge’ contest has become an international competition that Chinese language practitioners from all over the world pay close attention to and actively participate in.
“It is known as the Chinese ‘Olympic’ competition.”
She hoped students in Brunei Darussalam can one day join the ‘Chinese Bridge’ competition.
Chairman of Chung Hwa Middle School BSB’s Board of Directors, Ong Tiong Oh stressed the importance of the Chinese language, stating that the rapid development of China’s economy will also provide more development space and opportunities for students learning Chinese.
Meanwhile, upper category winner Year 4 Sai Swaroopah said “I am happy and proud to be able to win. I wanted to learn Chinese because I think it’s a very interesting language.
“I found it a bit difficult to write Chinese characters however I can communicate in Chinese quite well. I also felt that it is important to learn Chinese to better communicate with people from China.”
Year 6 Lia Sarker said, “It is really good to know another language like Chinese. I was inspired by my godmother who is Chinese and has taken care of me since I was a baby. Chinese language is being used almost everywhere, so its very convenient to know to how to speak it.”
