Buffalo Grove students win awards in Chinese speech contest

Five Buffalo Grove High School Mandarin Chinese students competed in the Fifth Midwest Chinese Speech Contest on April 27, with all five winning awards.

Held at Northside College Preparatory High School in Chicago, the event was hosted by the Midwest Chinese Teachers Alliance and sponsored by the Taipei Economic & Cultural Office in Chicago and the Confucius Institute in Chicago. Students currently enrolled in a Chinese program at the K-12 levels, taught by an MCTA member, were eligible to enter the contest.

The theme of this year’s speech was “Chinese … Anytime, Anyplace.” Students were invited to come up with individual speech titles in the context of this theme, to reflect on the value of learning languages and the impact it has had on their lives. Creativity and originality were highly encouraged. The speeches were required to be entirely in Mandarin Chinese and four minutes in length, without the use of notes, printed materials or PowerPoint.

“I am very happy that our students brought home awards,” said Buffalo Grove’s Mandarin teacher, Caili Chiu. “It was definitely tough this year, but they did very well. Imagine how hard it would be to deliver a speech, nonstop, for four minutes in Chinese. They practiced every free moment for weeks, and met with me to practice during lunch and after school.”

Buffalo Grove’s award-winning students were the following: Anna Shabayev (Chinese I student), Bronze; Suyenne Jabido (Chinese II student), Bronze; Christopher Cooper (Chinese III student), Silver; Jason Giolli (Chinese IV student), Bronze; and Linda Zheng (Chinese IV student, for the Chinese Heritage student category), Silver.

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