Written by Alice Leys
On April 11th, 2010, I attended the 2nd Canadian Chinese Proficiency Competition in Toronto. There were 2 categories; Chinese and non-Chinese. As I am only half-Chinese, I thought it would be more appropriate to enter in the non-Chinese category. My other three friends entered in the Chinese category.
There were three parts to the competition. Firstly, was a Chinese speech competition. It was worth 50 marks. The second part was the knowledge questionnaire. That was worth 20 marks. The last section was a Talent contest, also worth 20 marks. The whole competition was out of 70 points, but there was a prize/trophy for each category, plus a prize for the winner of all three categories.
For the speech portion of the Competition, I didn’t do as well as I had hoped. I was quite nervous, and stumbled a bit near the end of my speech. I also thought the judges were quite intimidating when I was up on the stage. Giving speeches was never my finest skill, especially when in a language other than English, so I’m not surprised I was not the best in that section.
I did quite well on the second part, however, as they were quite simple and direct questions about China. The questions themselves were very diverse; it ranged from ancient musical instruments to grammar and politics. I felt very comfortable answering these questions, as I am very well-known in the subject of Chinese trivia.
The third section of the competition was definitely my favourite and strongest performance. 5 years ago, I traveled to China with my mother for vacation in the summertime. It was then that I learned how to play the GuZheng, a Chinese Harp-like instrument. For this competition, I played a 3 minute song on the instrument. I was quite confident I would do well in this part of the Competition. I was right.
After all the candidates had gone, there was a lunch break, and then a performance. There were lots of dancing, singing, and other musical displays, and I enjoyed them all very much. Several important representatives and sponsors also made quick speeches, and then finally it was time to hand out the awards and trophies.
I ended up winning the trophy for the Talent Contest, as everyone seemed to expect. I could see my parents smiling and taking pictures of me in the audience seats. After all the trophies were handed out, a television news reporter, a radio host, and a news reporter came up and interviewed me. It was quite fun, and I ended up getting on the radio, newspaper, and TV all in one day!
All in all, I thought the whole competition was a lot of fun, and I got to meet so many new people. I see winning a trophy and a fancy certificate as just a bonus, as I definitely took a lot of experience and good memories from the competition!
Hopefully next year, I will be able to enter the competition again, and maybe I will win for the second time. But even if I don’t, I would love to gain even more experience and new friends than this year, especially because now I know exactly what to expect. I hope all the other candidates who participated in the competition also feel the same way, and I can’t wait to see them all again next year!
