When Arman first came to Ningbo two years ago, the only Chinese he can say is ‘hello’, ‘thank you’, and ‘I'm sorry’. With the interest in Chinese, Arman worked very hard and took every opportunity to study and practice Chinese that he often carries a notebook when chat with Chinese people, and writes down the words he didn't know or couldn’t understand. The progress was so impressive. From a beginner to pass HSK level 4, it took Arman only one year. When Arman shared his learning experience in the seminar held by NCI Ningbo, every participant admired and was proud of his achievements.

Arman noted his another "magic weapon" to improve Chinese quickly is to participate in the competition, as he said the competition  can effectively test his knowledge, and help him to meet and study from  other Mandarin learners. So when the 2017 Chinese Bridge Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreigners across the Globe opened for registration, Arman signed up without hesitation.

One month before the competition, the teacher from Confucius Institute China Ningbo branch provided a pre-game counseling for Arman. As The Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreigners across Globe is a comprehensive competition, the participants should not only  have a relatively high level of Chinese, but also a profound understanding about the Chinese traditional culture, art, literature and s habit it is undoubtable a huge challenge for Arman. Every day he has to read piles of materials to prepare for the competition.

Chinese Bridge·2017 Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreigners across Globe included competition in teams and individuals.  There were two routes for competitors to go to the semi-final competition: competitors of team competition would be selected by their performance in the team competition while the individual competitors would be selected through an online quiz. After defeated hundreds of competitors online, Arman got the ticket to Beijing. Arman arrived in Beijing on July 24^th and immediately devoted to the competition.  Amongst 108 competitors only 11 would go to the final. Therefore the 6 rounds semi-final competitions became really fierce. The competition covers all kinds of questions and competitors have to answer it as fast as they can.  Arman said that in one round of the semi-final competition, he answered all the questions correct, but still failed to go to the final just because of a few seconds delay. What a pity! The 10-day’s competition challenges competitors’ knowledge about Chinese language and culture and more importantly  the mental quality. Arman claimed the knowledge he acquired in the 10 days is more than that in the past two years.

Though Arman was not qualified to go to the final, he still got a good place in the competition, which is a very good start of his study of Chinese language and culture.  He won the scholarship for a Master Degree in Business Administration in SWUST (Southwest University of Science and Technology). We wish him all the best in learning Chinese and developing in China.