Rwandan university students on Sunday joined a Chinese proficiency competition for foreign college students in the capital city of Kigali.
The competition, hosted by the Confucius Institute Headquarters in China, is the Rwanda regional final and is also a preliminary competition of the 16th “Chinese Bridge” to be held in China. Twelve students participating in the competition won out of more than 400 contestants, reports BSS.
The competition held at the University of Rwanda-College of Education was jointly undertaken by Chinese Embassy in Rwanda and Confucius Institute at the University of Rwanda-College of Education(CIUR-CE).
The students gave speeches in Chinese and were tested knowledge about China. They also demonstrated their talents — Chinese songs, Chinese cross talk, clapper talk and a two-man comic show.
After three rounds of competition, Maombi Olivier won the first prize and will represent his Rwanda fellows to China to compete with contestants from other countries.
Niyomukiza Jurdas, who won the second prize, will be sponsored by the Chinese side to China and witness the competition.
“I was deeply impressed by their enthusiasm and high standard of Chinese proficiency,” said Rao Hongwei, Chinese Ambassador to Rwanda. China promotes the study of Chinese in Rwanda not only because of the beauty of Chinese language, Chinese is a bridge that will connect the two countries and the two peoples more closely with each other, he said.
“I’m grateful to the Confucius Institute, University of Rwanda, the Chinese embassy, and all of the Chinese friends who are supporting the students during this great period of learning,” said Philip Cotton, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Rwanda.
Since the first competition in 2002, the “Chinese Bridge” competition has become a platform for young people around the world to learn Chinese, exchange ideas and build the friendship. Founded in 2009, CIUR-CE now has 13 teaching points with 15 teachers and volunteers from China.
