By Wanjiku Mbugua

On Friday, November 4, 2022 students of the Chinese Club and the Confucius Classroom at USIU-Africa had a day of fun and experiential learning through a Mandarin spelling bee competition held at the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, LT 8 from 9.00 am to 2.00pm.

The event attracted other students of Chinese from other institutions such as The Discovery Chinese and Cultural Center and Laoshi Chinese Digital School whom we had a decent level of interaction regarding Chinese and student activities. A guest from the Kenya China Alumni Network and past advanced students of Chinese who now work as translators also graced the event.

This event promoted student engagement between USIU-Africa and other students of Chinese therefore; through the interactions, students were able to gauge their level of Chinese language. It also brought awareness to students of Chinese on the various areas of learning a student of Chinese ought to expose themselves with.

During the Mandarin spelling bee, students were tested on all four (4) language skills i.e. grammar, spoken, written and listening. There was also an additional section that tested Chinese culture and general knowledge about China. The questions were structured in line with the International Chinese Proficiency exam known as HSK, so as to help students prepare for the said exam in future. The competition attracted students from HSK level 1 – 4 out of the possible 6 HSK levels.

There was one (1) winner awarded for each level, with Simon Biar from USIU-Africa bagging the HSK level 2 win. Our students are looking forward to the next Mandarin spelling bee competition as it was a fun and effective way of learning Chinese language.