By Wanjiku Mbugua

On Friday, June 30, 2023, 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 from all levels of education, that is primary level, high school level and tertiary level whom we had a decent level of interaction regarding Chinese and student activities.

During the Mandarin spelling bee, the tertiary level 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 Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshì (HSK), to help students prepare for the said exam in future. The competition attracted students from HSK level 1 – 3 out of the possible 6 HSK levels. The primary level and high school level were tested in line with the Youth Chinese Test (YCT) level, which is also an International Chinese Proficiency exam for those levels.

USIU-Africa bagged four (4) wins in the HSK level. For HSK level 3, Cho’olle Wario bagged the first place; Esther Gichini bagged the first place for HSK level 2; while Stephanie Mwelu and Chelea Mutua bagged second and third place respectively in HSK level 1. Our students look forward to the next Mandarin spelling bee competition, as it was a fun and effective way of learning Chinese language.