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俄亥俄州立大學美國國家漢語旗艦工程
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Flagship Students Coast Past the Competition in New York, Will
Set Sail for Beijing this Summer (By WZ) |
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俄亥俄州立大學國家漢語旗艦項目碩士生安迅獲得五屆“漢語橋”世界大學生中文比賽一等奬 |
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Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures students Joshua
Lotz and James Wilson both competed March 24 at the New York qualifier
for the 6th Annual China Bridge competition for non-native students of
Chinese. Both students of the Chinese Flagship Program (a highly
intensive Chinese language program here at OSU), Joshua, a third-year
Bio-Chemistry major, and James, a first-year Chinese language graduate
student, competed against five other students from around the
northeastern United States including Princeton, Colombia, University
of Pennsylvania and Hunter College. The competition consisted of three
different sections: a three-minute speech, an interview wherein one of
twenty questions on Chinese history, culture and/or language was
asked, as well as, a talent portion- all conducted in Chinese!
Joshua performed a moving piece on his experience with underprivileged
youth in Qinghai, China for his speech, and James spoke on how martial
arts has helped his study of the Chinese language. Both students did
exceedingly well in the interview/ question- and- answer portion. For
the talent portion, Joshua performed an entertaining except from the
famous story “Wu Song and the tiger.” His performance involved
multiple characters that he distinguished superbly with voice and
bodily variations and mannerisms. He was greatly inspired for this
competition by Eric Sheppard, a Ph.D. candidate of the Department of
East Asian Languages and Literatures who has for a number of years
studied and performed traditional Chinese story telling. James
demonstrated his ability with the Nine-Section Chain Whip, a flexible
four-foot chain that is a traditional Chinese martial arts weapon. His
exciting martial arts performance, which included numerous high
difficulty moves, led the judges to award him the “Outstanding Talent”
award.
After an afternoon of impressive performances, the panel of judges
narrowed the final competition down to three contestants, including
Joshua and James. Both Joshua and James received a second place finish
enabling them to continue on to the next round of the competition –
the final competition this summer in China. The Beijing competition is
the overall finals of a worldwide competition that hundreds compete
for entry into. One of the perks of winning in New York is that these
two students will have their plane tickets, room- and- board, as well
as domestic traveling paid for by the competition organizers on the
way to and while in Beijing for the 6th Annual Chinese Bridge final
this summer.
One of the biggest reasons that both Joshua and James finished in the
top three is due to the copious amounts of practice and instruction
both of them received. Joshua and James had help in the writing,
editing and practicing of their speeches, as well as, in proper
etiquette for the competition from their leading coach Huanzhen Zhao.
James received an great amount of help from his Chinese mentor, Sally
Yang. However, the leading coaching and majority of the help came from
Foreign Language Center’s Huanzhen Zhao, Chinese Pedagogical
Specialist and Program Coordinator of the Chinese Flagship Program.
Every year, not only does she take care of mentoring the student who
will compete, but she also has been charged with the task of arranging
the event as well as specializing help for competitors such as the
help for James from Sally Yang. It is really no surprise these
students did so well when we consider who Huanzhen Zhao has prepared
for this competition before. She has helped seven students finish in
the top of the New York competition since 2004 and has two World
Champions to her name in Pat McAloon (2004 World champion) and Abbey
Southerland (2006 World Champion) and one runner up in Joshua
Gilliland (2004 World runner up). Hopefully this summer she will add
another name to that list.
Joshua and James would like to thank both the Department of East Asian
Languages and Literatures and the Chinese Flagship Program for their
support and guidance. They would like to especially thank Mari Noda,
and Galal Walker all for the support these years. A special thanks
also goes to Li Minru for the help in the past. Without the
encouragement of the afore mentioned, these students would not have
been able to make it to New York, let alone finish as well as they |
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