On Monday 18 January 2016, the Minister for Education, Children and Youth, Claude Meisch, joined the Chinese Ambassador to Luxembourg, Huang Changqing, in receiving the four Luxembourg high school students who participated in the 8th edition of the international 'Chinese Bridge' competition.
Chinese Bridge, the most recent edition of which took place from 16 October to 2 November 2015 in the Yunnan capital Kunming, is a Chinese language contest for foreign secondary school students which aims to test thier mastery of Chinese whilst introducing the language to the world.
Two students, Michel Knaff from the International School of Luxembourg, and Francesca Chapman from the European School, managed to win a six-month scholarship after undergoing various tests. Two others, Marie Lanners and Tom Herz from the Lycée Aline Mayrisch, attended as observers and provided the editing for the daily report produced for Luxembourg.
Each student has been studying Chinese as an option course and represented Luxembourg at the competition. Their Chinese teacher, Pinglan Yao, accompanied the students and was awarded the Teacher Excellence prize.
During their stay in Yunnan, the students were able to interact daily with Chinese students from the university in which the competition was being held, as well as fellow students from schools around the world. 312 students from 80 countries registered for the 2015 edition, which is held every year by Hanban, a national organisation dedicated to teaching Chinese as a foreign language.
The Luxembourg delegation's participation in the competition was supported by the Chinese Embassy and the Lycée Aline Mayrisch.
Photo by MENEJ
