The 10th Chinese Bridge Chinese Proficiency Competition
urbandweller
April 09, 2011 at 04:25 PM posted in General DiscussionAttention CPod friends in Los Angeles! here is an event worth checking out TODAY!
Each year students from all over the United States compete for the opportunity to represent our country at the nationally-televised Chinese Bridge Chinese Proficiency Competition held in China. On April 9th, UCLA will host the southwest regional competition and welcomes all talented students of Mandarin to our campus to display their skills.
bweedin
April 19, 2011 at 05:56 PM
I'll split it up into 2 videos, because it's too large for sendspace's limit of 300 MB
bweedin
April 19, 2011 at 05:51 PM
I was afraid of this. I will post a link where you can download the video directly.
bodawei
April 19, 2011 at 02:24 PM
Hey bweedin
Unfortunately this site does seem to be blocked in the PRC - or at least I cannot access it. I'm sure that is not because of the Bridge competition; they are proud of that institution.
bweedin
April 19, 2011 at 01:00 AM
thanks RJ
I already got an e-mail with the list of the winners from the university level and I wasn't on the list, so oh well.
RJ
April 19, 2011 at 12:11 AM
you have guts my friend. Kind of hard to hear the first part but the singing was loud and clear. You had them laughing too, and everyone knows how hard stand up (comedy) is in Chinese. So when do they tell you how you did?
bweedin
April 13, 2011 at 03:16 PM
They did ask me a few questions too. They asked me about my Chinese name, and I couldn't just tell them that it was my Chinese grandfather's name plus an extra character, because if you had any Chinese background or were an ABC, you were disqualified from the competition.
They asked this one girl who went before me, "你的爷爷呢？是哪里人？“ I guess she didn't know the rules, because she said, "他是广东人”
So needless to say, I stammered a bit when they asked me.
lancashire_d
April 19, 2011 at 03:52 PM
Well, people from Canton normally speak Cantonese, don't they? So it shouldn't matter about this mandarin competition...
bababardwan
April 19, 2011 at 07:46 PM
Bravo, well done mate. Very natural, and I love that you included humour. Also love that you didn't hold back in the singing..gave it some oomph. Great stuff. Jiayou pengyuou and thanks for posting it. :)
RJ
April 14, 2011 at 10:16 AM
Bobby,
Please do post a link to your speech. Just holding your own in a contest like this is something to be proud of. I'm sure you did fine. Thanks for "representing".
bweedin
April 13, 2011 at 03:10 PM
actually, yes there were three parts. Part 1 was a monologue, in other words recited speech. I just went up and said whatever was on my mind, as I really didn't have time to write a speech. Too much 哪个哪个哪个. Part 2 was a trivia session where I answered questions about Chinese culture and Chinese grammar. They had a power point with 40 questions on it, which they e-mailed to me ahead of time. Three questions were picked at random, and they happened to be three questions which I either already knew, or had memorized. (yay)
and part three was the singing. That was my favorite part :) I sang 一路上有你
hiewhongliang
April 13, 2011 at 01:53 PM
'...do they take it differently though if it's coming from a laowai?'
The ingroup/outgroup thing in social psychology, apparently much more prevalent among qorld cultures than we think.
bodawei
April 13, 2011 at 11:25 AM
'do they take it differently though if it's coming from a laowai?'
I see the way you're thinking .. in private these words coming from a laowai mouth don't cause any shame. At the Bridge Competition showcase it could be a different story I agree - at these events everything is sweetness and light. Platitudes welcome. I think if it was turned into a clever joke without anybody getting hurt you could get away with it. (But it is not so much to do with the laowai as such.)
bababardwan
April 13, 2011 at 07:43 AM
"This should have won you points for cultural awareness. :)
Most Chinese teachers seem to go on and on about their naughty students, even at university! "
...do they take it differently though if it's coming from a laowai?
bodawei
April 13, 2011 at 06:42 AM
' how naughty my CHINESE students were,'
This should have won you points for cultural awareness. :)
Most Chinese teachers seem to go on and on about their naughty students, even at university!
PS. I thought there was a prepared speech, a performance, and then a free exchange with an interviewer (maybe that last bit only happens in the Beijing stage?)
bababardwan
April 13, 2011 at 06:10 AM
"plus, the fact that I talked about how naughty my CHINESE students were, it didn't win them over"
...lol
bweedin
April 13, 2011 at 05:56 AM
I might just provide the clip of me singing. The speech was pretty horrible. The thing is that everyone had a formal speech prepared, and I just kind of went up there and freestyled it. In a culture where it's more important to memorize a speech than to understand one word of what you're saying, plus, the fact that I talked about how naughty my CHINESE students were, it didn't win them over. I guess it didn't give Chinese people face, even if I was only talking about five year olds.
bababardwan
April 11, 2011 at 05:17 AM
Hey urbandweller,
Funny you should post this because I was just reading a little about these Chinese Bridge Proficiency Comps the other day. I had vaguely heard of them before but I don't recall them being discussed much before except that I think Matt Coleman won it once. I hope this sparks a lot of discussion about any poddies who may have entered or been to watch the comps, what went on, deng deng.
bodawei
April 13, 2011 at 11:29 AM
Oh thanks xiaoliang, I don't feel that industrious. :) I have already admitted on these boards that I tend to be lazy. Memorization is highly praised in China (and it is useful for learning Chinese) but it's not my strong point.
xiao_liang
April 13, 2011 at 09:15 AM
If you're feeling industrious, search the News and Features archive for the one where they first introduced him. He did one of the tongue twisters in the little interview they gave him.
bodawei
April 12, 2011 at 09:30 AM
I guess the footage of these comps must be available somewhere - I have seen one but just can't remember where, may have been on Chinese TV. There is no doubt a web site for the Bridge Comp.
bababardwan
April 11, 2011 at 02:20 PM
He represented Australia [so won it in Oz] and got the best speaker award...I'm pretty sure that was the one he won for Chinese tongue twisters. I've never seen the footage though but would love to.
bodawei
April 11, 2011 at 09:40 AM
Did he really? That is extremely impressive. But I wonder what his 'performance' was - stealing menus, or turning the air blue. :)
david_d
March 31, 2015 at 08:31 PMDidn't know you guys were posting 汉语桥 stuff here! This might be a bit outdated, but here I am winning the Ontario competition a number of years back. Just in case any of you guys are interested ^_^
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pSW0pArkdQ