“It was like any other day, getting to school and going to class,” sophomore Alysia Lee said, “except I was quite nervous.”

About 50-70 students from both the high school and middle school attended Southern Lehigh’s Chinese Language Competition on Monday, April 10. The competition took place from the start of second block until second lunch in the high school auditorium. Chinese teacher Ms. Wen Dong came up with the competition and organized the event.

“[The idea] happened kind of by chance. It was last November when I went to Reading to visit my friends there. We mentioned the Foreign Language Speaking Competition and ‘Chinese Bridge’ Speaking Competition when we were chatting,” Ms. Dong said. “In China, the ‘Chinese Bridge’ Speaking Competition is actually a rather famous international competition for competitors who learn Chinese. I thought why can’t we have one here in SLHS? After I came back, I talked to some teachers and I heard that some other Chinese guest teachers did do this before. So I set up my mind to do this.”

Sophomore Kullen Yurchak and senior Georgian Fan hosted the competition. Yurchak introduced all of the activities and the students in their Chinese class levels, while Fan translated everything in Chinese.

There was a plethora of activities for students before they presented their speeches. Students participated in a trivia section, where they answered questions about Chinese culture and history. Throughout breaks during the competition, students were able to perform Chinese songs of their choosing. They also enjoyed Chinese Charades and a game of musical chairs before stepping up to the podium.

“I think my favorite part was either just getting to see the Chinese speaking talents of everyone in the district or arranging the musical chairs game,” Fan said. “It was nice to see everyone having so much fun.”

All the students that competed in the final competition spent a lot of time preparing. Students were able to ask for help when writing their speeches and ask questions during a Spartan period created by Ms. Dong, which was specifically created for competition preparation.

“The speakers wrote an English and Chinese version of their speech,” Ms. Dong said. “Teachers helped the level one students with their scripts. I also had a lot of materials in Google Classroom for the students to learn by themselves, and if they had any questions, they could ask during Spartan period.”

Each student that participated in the final competition wrote and presented their own speech about why they began taking Chinese and how they felt about it now that they were learning it. The speaker read their speech in Chinese while the English version was projected behind them.

Four students competed in Chinese III, and one student in Chinese IV teamed up with four other students from AP Chinese. There was one Chinese II student and six Chinese I students from the middle school who competed as well. Ms. Dong and middle school Chinese teacher Ms. Che Laoshi, judged the speeches along with Ms. Kun Xiao and Ms. Yilin Zhang, who are both Chinese teachers from BCIU, a company for Foreign Language Teaching.

“I’m not nervous on stage in general. The lights were blinding, so I couldn’t really see the judges. But they were really supportive,” sophomore Sarah Jacobson said. “They seemed like they wanted to be there, which made me glad I did the competition. I would definitely do it again next year.”

In the middle school, three students won from Chinese I. In Chinese III, sophomore Alyssa Kovacs placed first, followed closely behind by sophomores Sarah Jacobson in second, and Alysia Lee in third. In Chinese IV and AP, senior Sarah Yanega placed first, with senior Allyson Yanega in second, and junior Kara DeWeese in third.

Every student walked away with a certificate for their participation, and if they placed in the overall competition, they received a certificate for that as well. Students that placed first in the competition received a picture dictionary. Second place winners earned a board game with questions about Chinese culture and history. Participants who got third place received a resource book about language, culture, and travel tips.

“I was a bit surprised that I won, but from talking to the others in my level, I apparently practiced the most,” Kovacs said. “It was between me and one other person for first place, and our scores for the speech were similar, but I did a bit better in the other sections.”

Within this competition, students were able to get a taste of the Chinese culture and gain a greater knowledge about the language. Every student who attended the competition left school with a new experience and a better understanding of what it means to learn Chinese.