The Chinese proficiency competition brings together many students from all over the world every year (COURTESY PHOTO)

Culture is the very possibility of creating, renewing and sharing values, the breath that increases the vitality of humanity, says an African proverb. It is in this spirit that students from all over the world came to Hunan in central China for the 18th Chinese Bridge Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreign College Students, which obscures differences, colors, races or origins to highlight intelligence and culture.

One world, one family

Initiated in 2002 by Hanban, the National Bureau for the Promotion of the Chinese Language, the annual competition has since brought more than 3,000 students from all around the world to the country.

This year, a total of 157 competitors from 122 countries competed against each other in order to achieve the coronation, with the best among them earning a scholarship to study in China. Following many rounds, five candidates, worthy representatives of their continents, fought on August 22 in a television show as epic as thrilling. The final of the competition included three tests to distinguish the rivals: a three-minute speech on a topic chosen from 10 subjects, allowing the jury to evaluate the speakers' Chinese skills; a knowledge quiz on China that would overwhelm any sinologist; and finally, a demonstration of Chinese cultural competence through singing, dancing, calligraphy or martial arts, to name just a few.

In the last second of the final event, 22-year-old Passant Sayed from Egypt, the representative of the African continent, distinguished herself against the other competitors to grab the top prize.

ChinAfrica had the pleasure of meeting her. Following is an edited version of the conversation.

ChinAfrica: Chinese is considered by many as the most difficult language. Why did you choose to learn it?

Passant Sayed: When I was little, I learned French and English. In high school, I started to learn German. Originally, I did not intend to learn Chinese. I did not know anything about Chinese culture. In high school, my dream was to enter a communications university, but unfortunately I could not get admission. I was depressed. So I decided to learn another foreign language. My father advised me to choose between Japanese and Chinese, because few Egyptians had mastered them, which would make finding a job easier.

At that time, Chinese President Xi Jinping paid a state visit to Egypt. Since then, Chinese culture has grown in popularity in my country and more opportunities are available to people who speak Chinese. So, I decided to learn this language. I was a little tired at first, because Chinese was not my favorite subject. But I am a rebel and I said to myself, "Whatever the barriers, I will cross them." It is true that it was difficult for me to learn it, because there are sounds peculiar to Chinese, of which we do not find the equivalents in Arabic. But after one or two weeks of practice, I already found it less difficult. My peers quickly gave up on it, complaining about the complexity, but it was not my case; I did not agree with them.

In Egypt, my family thinks I'm good at studying, and I thought learning Chinese would not be a problem for me. However, after working hard for a while, I did not progress as I hoped; I was a little disappointed and wondered why I was not going forward. I was unhappy and almost gave up my studies. Fortunately, my teachers, my friends and my parents were there to encourage me to continue. Of course, I still have difficulties. But when it comes to something you are interested in, you're happy to do it even if it's tiring.

Today, there are many Egyptians who are learning Chinese and Chinese who are learning Arabic. Egypt has several Confucius Institutes, which have more and more students.

The African representative of the competition Passant Sayed won the top prize (COURTESY PHOTO)

Why did you decide to participate in this contest and how did you prepare for it?

I did not decide to participate on a whim. I planned for it in 2015 when I was in the first year of the university. A fourth-year student had entered this competition. I attended the preliminary round held at the Cairo University Auditorium. He won first place and thus became the representative of Egypt for the final to be held in China. Being in first grade, I did not know much about Chinese. But I was very interested in this contest and had the opportunity to see many videos.

I realized that participating in this competition contributed to the development of his proficiency, not only in terms of language, but also of culture, history and poetry. That's why I took part in different competitions and activities in the first year. In doing so, I planned to consolidate my base before starting to get the best possible result in the contest in my fourth year.

The preliminary round in Egypt was really hard. I really wanted to study, and spent all my time studying in the first semester and started preparing for the competition only in the second semester. During the winter holidays, I had many ideas: for example, to include several skills in my performance, such as tongue twisters, singing, Taijiquan and kungfu. It would have made it richer in content and therefore more attractive to the public. I had several ideas but I did not have a specific plan yet. Then I thought about connecting them. I finally chose tongue twisters, traditional Anhui Opera, and Taijiquan. My plan was to introduce myself as a robot during my performance. As everyone knows, China is vigorously developing its technologies and robots are on the rise.

What advice would you give to people who want to learn Chinese?

If you want to master Chinese, you have to practice listening, speaking and writing. We must develop all these skills. There are people who are excellent at writing but less comfortable in speaking, and there are also people who speak without any accent but write poorly. It is therefore necessary to pay attention to these three aspects. I think you have to watch TV shows, movies and listen to music to improve. Even if you do not have the opportunity to go to China to study or travel, you can still discover the daily life of the Chinese through videos.

What are your plans for the future?

As a champion of the African continent and the world, I received two scholarships from the Confucius Institute. I chose to study at the Beijing Normal University, which is strong in pedagogy. I will also do my Ph.D. in China. After graduation, I will return to my country where I want to teach Chinese, either at Cairo University or at the Confucius Institute. I will reflect on these two possibilities.

(Comments to christophe.alexandre@chinafrica.cn)