Jiangsu University students Josephine 静美 from Nigeria and Michael 杨靖 from Zimbabwe took part in global Chinese speech contest for foreigners, 2021 汉语桥and the results were declared recently with Josephine winning "Second Prize" among participants from all over the world.

Michael from Jiangsu University also won “Best Literary Talent Award” in the same competition making Jiangsu University proud to be the only organisation around the globe to win two awards in this edition of the contest.

The competition began in December 2021 with over 950 participants from various countries including Cuba, Russia, Ghana, India and many others across the globe. Out of the 950 participants, 655 were selected to take part in the preliminary stage and votes had to be casted for the network popularity award where after intense judging only 10 would be chosen to advance to the finals.

After giving her speech, 静美 ended with a melodious performance of the song “你的答案” which made it to the top 10. For the finals, each participant was to deliver a 5-minute speech and Josephine gave her speech with the theme “Together for a shared future 一起向未来“.

Josephine's award-winning speech in which she highlighted the most recent Beijing Winter Olympics and more importantly pinpointed the need for us as humans to work together hand in hand for a shared purpose and future.

As she uniquely blended culture with her talent, she left us in total awe again with an amazing performance of the song “孤勇者“. On the 13th of May 2022, the results of the speech competition were published on the official 汉语桥 site, and Josephine was awarded second place among the final 10 participants.

Michael was also top in the list with his excellent Chinese pronunciation and Chinese story. Michael shared how China attracted him and how he felt love with the culture and languge. As a medical student, Michael also shared his impression on China's pandemic prevention. Through his speech, we understand his growth and achievement during his stay in China and Jiangsu University. Michael, who is a culture ambassador of Zhenjiang won hearts of the jury and won "Best Literary Talent Award" after his Guqin perfomance.

(OEC)