On Monday 9th December, with a great deal of excitement and a very early start, they travelled up to London (accompanied by their Chinese teacher) to perform in front of students from 14 other schools (and the judges, of course).
We hope to hear whether they have reached the final very soon.
WOW! What a day, from the early start with
feelings of nervousness to the excitement of knowing we were competing for the
chance of a place in the finals, and if successful an amazing visit to China.
We all met bright and early at the Farnborough train station and made our way
to London to perform at the Bloomsbury theatre. On arrival we weighed up the
competition groups from all over the country. It was hard to tell as each group
presented with such high standard; finally the time came for our performance.
We surely gave it our all and felt confident that we had
excelled. Only time will tell whether we go through to the finals or not!...
fingers crossed!
Tom Lara 9G
Participating in the HSBC Mandarin Speaking competition has
improved my understanding of both the Chinese language and culture – from the
scripts we received, I have managed to pick up some new vocabulary that we
hadn’t covered yet in our lessons. Also, our script, like all the other
entries, had contained a plot surrounding a certain part of Chinese culture (In
our case it was about how boys are the favourites of grandparents) and it was
interesting to see the contrast between British and Chinese family life. For
days, I had practiced my lines, listening back to an audio tape to perfect my
tones and accent – when I learn new vocabulary now, I have more confidence in
trying to say things I’m not familiar with. Overall, the speaking competition
was a great experience for me to learn more about the language and the culture
behind it, and I’d recommend anyone to take up more opportunities like this in
the future.
By Max Naoe, 9H.
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