On March 14-15, 2024, the 7th Olympic Chinese Language Competition for Students of the Republic of Belarus, organized by the Belarusian Ministry of Education and hosted by the Confucius Institute for Chinese Studies of the Republic of Belarus State University (hereinafter referred to as BSU Confucius Institute), came to a successful conclusion. This year’s competition attracted 113 university students from 13 universities in Belarus, an increase in the number of participants and universities compared to previous years. The competition aims to stimulate the enthusiasm of young Belarusian students to learn Chinese, enhance their understanding of Chinese language and culture, cultivate Chinese talents in Belarus, and strengthen friendly relations and cultural exchanges between China and Belarus.
Introduction of Judges
In order to ensure the fairness of the competition to the greatest extent, the BSU Confucius Institute invited 9 senior experts and scholars from the Belarusian State University, Minsk State Language University, the Belarusian State Knowledge Supervision Institute, the Beijing Uni.-Construction Group co,Ltd, and the Belarusian "Rudensk" Co., Ltd. to serve as judges. Dr. Liwei Luo, Senior Legal Counsel of China Merchants Group’s Representative Office in Central Asia and the Baltic Region, chaired the jury.
Competition Site
The competition is divided into two stages: written test and oral test. A total of 15 contestants successfully qualified for the oral test. In the final of the oral examination, the contestants made oral statements on specific topics and shared their stories of learning Chinese and their feelings of pursuing their dreams in Chinese. After fierce competition ,Гринчик Виолеттfrom the Department of International Relations at the National University of Belarus and Леонова Виктория, a second year student from the local teaching class at the Confucius Institute of Belarus, ultimately stood out and won the first prize in this competition.
Award Ceremony
On the afternoon of the 15th, Hu Yunbo, Second Secretary of the Science, Education and Culture Department of the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Belarus, Vice President of Minsk State Language University Лущинская Ольга, Dean Tozik and Liu Suling of the BSU Confucius Institute , as well as the Director of the Chinese Department at the Minsk State Language University and the Head of the Chinese Department of State Relations and Language at the Belarusian State University, jointly attended the award ceremony held at the BSU Confucius Institute auditorium. The award ceremony is presided over by Dean Tozik.
In his speech, Dean Tozik first congratulated the contestants on their excellent achievements, and encouraged them to pay attention to training vocational skills while learning Chinese, enhance employment competitiveness, and lay a solid foundation for future career development.
The Chairman of the jury, Dr. Luo Liwei, fully affirmed the fairness of the scoring and the organization of the competition. “Those who learn Chinese will never lose their jobs”, Dr. Luo praised the contestants for improving their Chinese proficiency year by year, and encouraged them to continue to study hard to provide high-quality talents and inject new vitality into the Chinese job market in Belarus.
Mr. Hu Yunbo, Second Secretary of the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Belarus, spoke highly of the achievements and experience of the Olympic Chinese Competition for Belarusian University students, and fully affirmed the organization work of the university for holding the competition for seven consecutive years. He further pointed out that in the context of the rapid development of China-Belarus relations, Belarus needs to train more and more high-quality lawyers, financial practitioners, economists, accountants, translators and other experts in various fields who can speak Chinese and understand national conditions, so as to solve various problems in bilateral cooperation. Finally, Mr. Hu Yunbo said that the Embassy will continue to support the Chinese language teaching in Belarus, create better conditions for the majority of Chinese learners in Belarus, and provide more high-quality and extensive learning resources.
The Vice President of Minsk State University of Languages expressed his congratulations to the winners, positively commented on the importance of Chinese language education in cultivating young Belarusian talents, and mentioned that learning Chinese well not only contributes to the mutual understanding and friendship between China and Belarus, but also provides the youth of Belarus with broader opportunities for international development.
In recent years, more and more universities in Belarus have opened Chinese courses, and the scale of Chinese teaching has been expanding, and Belarusian university students have closely integrated Chinese with their career development. In this context, the Olympic Chinese Language Competition plays an important role. It is not only a stage for young Belarusian Chinese language learners to demonstrate their learning achievements and show themselves, but also a channel to promote exchanges and interactions, inherit China-Belarus friendship, and provide a platform for improving international development opportunities and vocational skills.
List of Winners
First Prize
Гринчик Виолетта Валерьевна（Belarusian State University）
Леонова Виктория Викторовна（Teacher Class of Republican Confucius Institute of Sinology）
Second Prize
Бирюк Джейн Леонидовна（Minsk State Language University）
Бавтрукевич Алёна Викторовна（Minsk State Language University）
Third Prize
Ходасевич Полина Александровна（Minsk State Language University）
Ризванова Елизавета Хафизовна（Minsk State Language University）
Outstanding players of Belarusian states:
Grodno Region
Кошель Анастасия Викторовна（Yanka Kupala State University of Grodno）
Brest Region
Курьянович Анастасия Сергеевна（Baranovichi state university）
Vitebsk Region
Литвин Янина Александровна（Vitebsk State University）
Gomel Region
Ежова Мария Павловна（Francisk Skorina Gomel State University）
