News Archive

UWA students continue to build a cultural bridge between China and the West.

For the second time in four years, two Chinese language students have taken two of the top three places in the national Chinese Bridge language and cultural proficiency competition.

Natalie Meyer won first prize, competing in spoken, written and performance Mandarin against tertiary students from around Australia.  Her classmate Daniel Rosza came third.  Both are students of Liyong Wang, lecturer in Asian Studies.  Mr Wang also taught the students who won the awards in 2010.

"Liyong is a credit to UWA," Natalie said. "We both decided at the last minute to enter the competition and he did so much to help us."

She is an Arts and Commerce student, completing a double major in Chinese and Japanese.

Daniel studies Engineering and Commerce. Two years after adding Chinese studies to his workload, Daniel spent a year in China, studying the language and culture. "It took me three months to tune in my listening skills, but it was certainly worth it.  You need exposure to a language and to spend time in that country to really understand the culture and come to grips with the language," he said.

Natalie spent two months on a China Field Study tour 18 months ago and hopes to return next year.

Both of them will travel to Beijing, then Chang Sha, in July, for the international finals of the Chinese Bridge competition.  It is funded by the Chinese government to encourage interest in their language and culture.  No student with Chinese ancestry is allowed to enter the competition.

Natalie said the people she met in China were very happy that she was learning their language.  "They are so grateful that we are trying to speak Mandarin, and very helpful," she said. "In Perth I've noticed that most people just tend to get frustrated with foreigners who are trying to speak English."

She said having learned Japanese at school was a definite advantage when she started learning Chinese at University.

"There are similarities in writing and grammatical construction, otherwise they are very different. But you don't feel so overwhelmed, knowing that you understand the foundations of one Asian language already."

Both Natalie and Daniel agree that speaking Mandarin is more difficult than writing it. "The language is very tonal and you can so easily say the wrong thing."

"Learning to write Chinese characters is no mean feat, though!" said Daniel.

The students had to deliver a two-minute speech, My Chinese Dream ; complete a 30-minutes written exam covering geography and culture; and give a short performance.

Daniel recited a poem in Mandarin and Natalie told a Chinese joke about a foreigner struggling with the language...clearly not based on their excellent performances.