Rebekah, Year 7, Gubei Campus

In April, YCIS attended the 4th Annual Asia-Pacific Chinese-English Bilingual Festival for International Students. This festival was organised by Shanghai Elite Education Academy, East China Normal University, and the Asia-Pacific Chinese Language Teachers Association.

When I heard that I was selected to participate in the competition I was surprised and excited because this was my first opportunity to take part in a competition, especially outside of school. Students were put into different categories according to their skills, and I was placed in the picture storytelling category, where we were given two pictures to tell a story, one in Chinese and one in English.

During the competition, when it was my turn to present I was thinking to myself that I needed to speak slower since I am a fast speaker. During my presentation, I knew that I made a few mistakes but I carried on regardless. After all the stories had finished and I was about to leave, one of the judges stood up and said I did a great job at describing my story, and I felt relieved after he said that. After the first day’s events were over, I couldn’t wait for the next day!

The next day our teacher managed to get an early notice about who got into the top three and I was thrilled to be one of them. During the closing ceremony, I was so excited that I received first prize for my category. This was not only an awesome moment for me, but I felt proud for our school.

Also, the Bilingual Festival was a great experience for me to make new friends and have fun!