Rhodes University students Namukuta Sonia Charity Sajjabi and Robert Kincaid participated and won prizes at this year’s Chinese Bridge Competition hosted by the Confucius Institute at the University of Cape Town. This annual event, called "Chinese Bridge", which is a Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreign College Students, aims to provide a stage for college students learning Chinese from all over the world to demonstrate their Chinese proficiency and create a platform for mutual learning and communication. It can boost their enthusiasm and interest in learning Chinese and enhance their understanding of the Chinese language and culture.
The First Prize winners take part in the final international competition held in China, where participants from all over the world are hosted. Congratulations to Sonia Sajjabi who took the Second Prize for the overall performance! Sonia is a 3rd year student in Chinese Studies, Journalism, and Instrumental Music Studies. Robert, who is reading towards his final year of Masters in Physics, took the Third Prize of the competition, while the First Prize positions were won by Katleho Kenneth Ntahale, from the University of Cape Town, and Simnikiwe Sangoni, from the University of Johannesburg.
The two Rhodes participants: Robert Kincaid (left) and Sonia Namukuta Charity Sajjabi (right)
The Chinese Bridge Competition was held online this year on 5th and 6th June 2021. The COVID-19 pandemic changed the nature of the event; usually, the Rhodes University team travel to wherever the competition is held, and there would have been a whole host of people gathered to witness the competition in its various events. Instead, the competition was conducted via Zoom and live-streamed on YouTube for all to see.
Online competition
The Rhodes University winners were excited about the news. Sonia indicated that she has always been keen to learn Japanese, which inspired her to study Chinese; and her participation in the competition was for her to immerse herself in the Chinese culture further.
“For my speech, I was thinking about the three different ways to say 'know' in Chinese, and how it would make my life easier to also have this in English; and I just included my favourite Chinese actor and after that everything just came naturally,” said Sonia.
Ms Zang Li, the Chinese lecturer, coached the two students to participate in the competition. Sonia said that the most important thing for her was not victory; from what Ms Zang taught her, it was about "the process because I think I now know more cultural information about China than I did before."
Sonia’s talent show “Chinese Song – If I Didn’t Have You”
When asked about why he decided to take up Chinese while he is doing his Master’s degree in Physics, Robert said, "the thought of studying Chinese intrigued me, since the language and culture is very different from mine, so I decided to try it out; over time, the more I studied, the more I was interested; in the future, I believe it will become useful for me to have because the influence China has over the world, in terms of economy, science, etc., is increasing every year; as a scientist, it will be a useful skill to have in the future."
Robert further stated that during the process of choosing a topic for the speech section, he wanted his speech to comprise something that was not too specific and something that would be entertaining for the judges. His speech was titled Chinese dream, which he felt was the best out of the list of topics.
"I learnt a lot (new words and new knowledge from the test and speech), gained a new skill (writing calligraphy) and gained experience in speaking Chinese in front of an audience. I also had a lot of fun in the preparation," said Robert.
Robert’s talent show “Chinese calligraphy-One Belt One Road”
It is quite a rigorous (but friendly) competition for students to compete and be exposed to the Chinese language and culture beyond what is taught in the classroom. In the past, Rhodes University had excelled at the Chinese Bridge Competition with Pamela Eapen being placed first in 2018, along with Nicholas Babaya in the second position. It is always good to learn from the experiences which one has, and Ms Zang Li, as the coach, encourages students to participate in the Chinese Bridge Competition to broaden their horizons; she commends the efforts and achievements made by both Sonia and Robert.
The staff and students from Confucius Institute at Rhodes University