As Yew Chung International Schools are preparing to celebrate their 80th Anniversary, students, teachers, and parents have all been wondering how to celebrate this monumental occasion. Tommaso Del Giudice from YCIS Shanghai gave us a good start.

Tommaso is the champion of the YCIS 2011-2012 Chinese as an Additional Language (CAL) Story-telling Contest that was held at YCIS Shanghai Puxi Gubei Campus. This emboldened the young orator to attend the “Selection of National Children’s Story King” held in August in Chengdu. This contest has been held every two years since 1984. YCIS Primary has always achieved remarkable results at this competition. This year, more than 200 students from 33 cities gathered together to compete for the title of “National Story King.”

The large numbers of competitors did not make Tommaso feel nervous. Rather, while waiting for his turn to speak on the final day, he was relaxed and humorous. His story not only commanded the audience’s full attention, but also won high praise from the judges, who said, “It is amazing to see a foreign child telling a story in Chinese so fluently and vividly!”

During the awards ceremony, the audience sat on the edge of their seats, anxious to learn who had won. The famous comedian Jiang Kun delivered a special prize of the 12th “Tianfu Longquan Cup” National Children’s Story-telling Contest to…Tommaso Del Giudice! After the ceremony, he was interviewed by the local media. Smiling, he said, “I will always remember that I won the national story-telling contest.”

Congratulations to Tommaso on his success! His story can be an inspiration for Yew Chung students to have the courage to face challenges.