DVC students win at Chinese contest

Chinese speech group 2009

Diablo Valley College students of Chinese were among the winners of the 34th annual Chinese speech contest of California.

The Chinese speech contest was inaugurated in 1962 by Professors K.Y. Xu, Leo Chen and Maurice Tseng of San Francisco State University. Open to all Bay Area Chinese language students of various levels, from elementary to university, the contest is a challenging and enjoyable event. Through the years, this popular event has evolved into the present-day Mandarin speech contest, and is the largest of its kind in the country.

The competition was held April 25 at Lowell High School in San Francisco, with 680 students participating. DVC speakers brought back six awards.

Myo Takaichi won first place among third semester students. Other DVC winners:

First semester students:

Jessica Stewart, second place
Seo Yun Shin, third place
Sundo Seo, honorable mention

Second semester students:

Suguru Miyamoto, honorable mention

Third semester students:

Harold Speer, honorable mention

The contest is sponsored by the Chinese Language Teachers Association of California, a nonprofit organization whose goal is to promote Chinese language teaching and learning in California.

In addition, the 8th annual "Chinese Bridge" Language and Performance Competition was held May 10 at SFSU, hosted by the Confucius Institute at San Francisco State University and co-sponsored by the Consulate General of the People's Republic of China.

This year marks the second time DVC students have participated in this event. Winners were first semester students Jessica Stewart, who won the Best Eloquence Award, and Jasmine Ocegueda and Sundo Seo, who both won the Best Effort Award.

Chinese is currently one of the most popular languages to learn. DVC's Chinese department offers CHIN 120, 121, 220 and 221, and in fall 2009, will also offer CHIN 120 as an online class.

Chinese professor Sheree Lin extends thanks to Lily Miao, speech consultant, and to all the Chinese instructors in the department, as well as to the dean's office for generous support.