The 11th Chinese Bridge Competition for middle school students finished in Kunming
第十一届世界中学生汉语桥比赛10月21日在云南昆明落下帷幕。代表拉脱维亚参加此次比赛的选手是两个高中生，安娜和丽莎。10月5日，由拉脱维亚大学孔子学院汉语教师董芳老师带队，她们一行三人从里加出发到达北京，开始了为期两周的汉语桥比赛之旅。
10月7日到10月9日在北京期间，主要是做赛前准备工作。在大赛组委会的安排下，领队老师和参赛选手一起参观了长城、颐和园、故宫和孔子学院总部。10月10 日抵达昆明，此次中学生汉语桥比赛正式开始。10月11日进行第一场比赛——学贯中西，即汉语及中国文化知识笔试。10月12日是第二场比赛——能说会道，即口语表达能力比赛。10月13日进行了第三场比赛——能歌善舞，即才艺比赛。安娜和丽莎在才艺比赛中表演的是杯子歌《我做得到》，虽然最终没能进入20强，但这个节目为她们加分不少，更有一位电台主持人看了这个表演后特地邀请她们去电台参与电台节目录制，现场表演杯子歌。
在比赛期间，选手们也体验了各种各样的文化活动。比如参观世界地质文化遗产石林；参加“五洲同乐”云南省第二届校园国际音乐节；体验古老的民族文化——篝火晚会及民族舞；观看中国传统文化展示活动拜师礼；在友谊林植树；体验中国茶艺文化等等。组委会还组织了选手们进学校进行中外高中生交流活动，进当地家庭进行中国家庭体验活动等，让选手们多方位地感受到了真正的、现代的中国文化。
在此次汉语桥比赛之旅中，选手们不仅收获了比赛经历，更是体验了真正的中华文化，受益良多。我们也相信拉脱维亚赛区在今后的汉语桥比赛中会继续加油，不断进步！
The 11th Chinese Bridge Competition for middle school students finished in Kunming on 21th , October. Anna Vodolagina Jelizaveta Markosjana are in this field stands for Latvia. The leader teacher is Dongfang, who is the Chinese teacher from the Confucius Institute of Latvia University. They leaved from Riga on 5th, October and arrived at Beijing, starting their two-week journey of Chinese Bridge Competition.
From 7th October to 9th October, they stayed in Beijing preparing for the competition. Under the arrangement, they visited the Great Wall, the Palace Museum the Summer Palace and headquarter of Confucius Institute. Then, they flied to Kunming on 10th October and the Chinese Bridge competition officially started. The first competition is a written exam, mainly about Chinese language and Chinese culture. It started on 11th October. The second competition is an oral contest. It happened on 12th October. The third competition test the Chinese talents. It happened on 13th October. Anna and Jelizaveta played a cup song called “I can do it” in this competition. Even though they didn’t get a good grade in this competition, this show brought them bonus points. Further more, a radio host invited them to his programme to perform this show after he watched this.
During the competition, the contestants also experienced a lot of kinds of cultural activities.Such as visiting the world cultural heritage site stone forest, joining the music festival, experiencing one of the old culture-campfire party, watching the ceremony of inviting teaching, planting trees in Friendship Forest, experiencing Tea culture and so on. What’s more, the organizing committee also arranged them to go to the high school to communicate with Chinese high school students and to the local families to experiencing the Chinese family culture. It makes the contestants felt the real and modern Chinese culture in different aspects.
In this competition, the contestants not only gained the experience of competing, but also experienced the real Chinese culture. It’s a meaningful journey. We believe that Latvia team will keep on fighting and make progress in the next competition.
