Competing

Studying in a Chinese university can sometimes be quite different from studying in an European one. When I was a teacher here myself, I got to be on the different side of the divide, now I have to take the same things in from a student's point of view.

I remember the times in Baoding when I was asked to be a guest of honour or a jury member in an English speaking competition. Although for the students it was often an important moment, for me it was more something that made me grind my teeth.

And now, to my horror, my university here is organising a Chinese speech competition! And as after they initially asked volunteers to put down their names for the contest, there were only a couple of names, they changed tactics and informed us that everybody will now be participating. Argh.

But, at least I found a way out of having to recite some silly story in front of all the leaders of the university, as I was asked to be the host of the evening. I accepted, as I prefer to introduce others than having to do it myself ;) At least nobody will be giving me marks for my pronunciation this way (i hope).

But the worst is yet to come, in November our university will host a city-wide Chinese speech competition between all the universities in ChongQing. I'm only hoping they will not use the same method of 'volunteering'...

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But as for something else, the space craze here is as high as it can be. Have you seen the heros of the hour?