Students show Chinese proficiency<\/p>\n
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Temujin Nusantara Iqbal, a first-year student of Maranatha
\nUniversity of Bandung, West Java, quickly pressed the buzzer on
\nhis desk every time a juror read out grammatical questions in
\nMandarin.<\/p>\n
He and his teammates, David Steven and Symphoni, astonishingly
\nanswered almost all the questions in the final round of the 9th
\nChinese Language Competition for the basic level, held on
\nSaturday at the School of Humanities, University of Indonesia
\n(UI).<\/p>\n
His team won the competition, organized by the students of the
\nChinese literature, after beating teams from Petra University,
\nWidya Kartika University, both from Surabaya, and the host
\nuniversity, UI.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, in the intermediate and advanced levels, the
\nwinners were Petra University and Maranata University
\nrespectively.<\/p>\n
\"We organized the competition to see how far students of
\nChinese literature have mastered the Chinese language. And we
\nalso would like to strengthen the relationship between students
\nwho are studying Chinese,\" Etsy Tia Kartika, spokesperson of the
\norganizing committee told The Jakarta Post.<\/p>\n
Besides organizing competitions for all levels of Chinese
\nlanguage, the committee also held speech, storytelling, and
\nkaraoke competitions.<\/p>\n
Etsy said the organizer was surprised by the enthusiasm shown
\nby the students to participate in the competition.<\/p>\n
\"The language competition participants came from the
\nuniversities that we invited. But for speech, storytelling and
\nkaraoke, we only set a quota of 15 participants for each
\ncompetition. But more than 20 registered for each competition,\"
\nshe said.<\/p>\n
Iwan Lee, one of the jurors at the competition, said that this
\nwas heartening because it showed how Mandarin has become popular
\nin the country.<\/p>\n
\"Chinese has become the second most popular language after
\nEnglish in the world. The fact that many students are mastering
\nthe language proves that this trend has also infected Indonesia,\"
\nhe said.<\/p>\n
However, Joanne Liu of Taiwan said that Indonesian students
\nshould improve their Mandarin speaking capability as soon as
\npossible to allow them to interact with foreigners who speak the
\nlanguage.<\/p>\n
\"Most of them are good, but that's not enough. They have to
\nspeak the language more often because Indonesians are actually
\nlate in learning the language. Malaysians and Singaporeans
\nalready mastered the language more than 10 years ago,\" she said.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/students-show-chinese-proficiency-1447893297",
"image": ""
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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