Female language student achieves feat in world's largest Chinese language competition

(Dan Tri) - Surpassing hundreds of contestants from countries around the world, Nguyen Thanh Mai has just won the Asian championship and ranked 3rd in the world in the "International Chinese Bridge" contest in 2025.

Achieving the feat of the world's largest Chinese language competition

Nguyen Thanh Mai, a 12E student at the Foreign Language High School ( Hanoi National University), has just excelled as one of the five Asian champions of the 18th "Chinese Bridge" competition for high school students worldwide, held in China.

To achieve the above results, Mai surpassed 119 contestants in 4 rigorous rounds in the following categories: Answering questions (testing knowledge), performing Chinese cultural and artistic talents, situational dialogue, and topic-based eloquence.

Nguyen Thanh Mai excellently won the Asian championship and ranked 3rd in the world in the "International Chinese Bridge" contest in 2025 (Photo: NVCC).

This is the first time a Vietnamese student has been in the world's top 5 and is the best achievement of high school students in our country up to this point.

Sharing with Dan Tri reporter , Thanh Mai said that when she was announced as the continental champion and world runner-up, she was very surprised. Her friends and teachers behind the scenes shouted and cheered, making her burst into happiness.

"I am proud to bring the national flag to the international arena. Our efforts have been duly rewarded," Thanh Mai said.

Sharing more about the contest, the female student said that the organizing committee only announced the rules and the set of 125 multiple choice questions (with answers) a few days before the official contest.

The comprehensive set of questions includes many difficult knowledge related to China, including grammar, vocabulary, science and technology, culture and arts.

Like other candidates, I was required to memorize and have an account to do the online tests. In just under two days, I spent every possible moment, even on the bus, to study.

Thanh Mai shows her talent at the contest (Photo: NVCC).

Especially in the final round, with the requirement to show talent with a new work that has never been used to participate in the competition, I only had 4 hours to choreograph.

According to the female student, this was probably the most memorable experience because it was the first time she had the chance to test her limits in such a short preparation time. In addition, participating in the competition gave her the opportunity to collaborate with friends from Asia and other continents.

Performances by Thanh Mai at the world competition (Photo: NVCC).

Continuing my grandfather's love of Chinese

It is known that Thanh Mai used Chinese as a foreign language to take the entrance exam to grade 10 at the Foreign Language Specialized High School.

In grade 10, the female student won third prize in the Chinese Olympic competition at Hanoi National University. In grade 11, the young student continued to win first prize in this competition.

In the Chinese Bridge competition, although she knew about it since grade 9, the 11th grade female student just participated and was one of two candidates selected by the school to compete at the national level in 2025.

In the national round, the language student won the championship and first prize in eloquence. Especially with the song “Big Mountain”, Thanh Mai also won first prize in talent.

Female students had to practice day and night to improve their hieroglyphics (Photo: NVCC).

Around last August, Thanh Mai started preparing for the international competition. To start, she chose to continue with the talent and speech competitions like in the country.

With the topic given by the organizers as "Fly high with the dream of Chinese", candidates need to write about their journey of learning Chinese.

“I wrote down my journey and dream, my love for learning Chinese originated from my grandfather. His love for Chinese characters nurtured my dream and the magical feelings of learning Chinese since I was a child. Although he is no longer with me, he was the source for me to start my journey of learning Chinese,” Thanh Mai said.

According to this female student, at first she was very poor at writing Chinese characters. During that time she really wanted to give up because she lost faith, but with the close supervision and encouragement of her teacher, she overcame it.

Sharing the secret to learning Chinese, one of the most difficult hieroglyphic languages, with strange writing, especially difficult pronunciation. She said that in addition to studying at school, she self-studied by writing a lot to improve her writing.

There was a time when Thanh Mai thought about giving up her dream of pursuing Chinese, but she overcame it (Photo: NVCC).

Overcoming difficult times, the little student gradually found this language to be magical, helping her to approach the world, to larger and more open horizons...

It is known that after the contest, Thanh Mai received a 3-year scholarship to study in China from 2026-2028.

“First, I will spend all my time taking the high school graduation exam, then I will study abroad on a scholarship,” Thanh Mai shared.

Commenting on Thanh Mai, Ms. Chu Minh Ngoc, homeroom teacher and Chinese teacher at the Foreign Language Specialized High School, said that since grade 10, Mai has shown the ability to pronounce standard Chinese, and has good reflexes and communication skills.

She has the ability to sing and dance well, and can control the stage. In the final round of the Northern and Central regions of the country, the judges were surprised and highly appreciated Mai's performance of "Dai Son". At that competition, in addition to first prize, Mai also received the talent and eloquence awards.

In particular, I am a dynamic school Youth Union secretary, capable of leadership, work organization, responsibility for work, and able to withstand high pressure.

“During the qualifying round in Vietnam, Mai fell off her bike and couldn't walk, so she had to take two painkillers to be able to perform on stage,” said Ms. Ngoc.

Thanh Mai (right) is an active school Youth Union secretary (Photo: NVCC).

According to the homeroom teacher, with only one and a half days to prepare, Mai had to take part in the knowledge test, artistic talent test, situational conversation test and eloquence test on the topic "Future World", which are relatively difficult concepts, so the preparation process encountered many difficulties.

The night before the final, the teacher and student continued to practice with their Jordanian co-star until 1am, then Mai edited the presentation clip herself.

On the day of the rehearsal, the teacher and students had to search through many software applications for buying, selling, renting, etc. in other countries to find the right costume for the performance, not to mention some other small problems.

“But the biggest surprise was in the round to find the continental champion (top 15 choose 5), when Mai had to compete with 2 other contestants from Laos and Indonesia, both of whom were extremely excellent contestants.

Mai's high score, far surpassing the two Lao and Indonesian candidates, made her and her students burst into joy," Ms. Ngoc recalled.

The Chinese Bridge is a competition held annually worldwide. It is a playground of knowledge for students learning Chinese. The semi-finals and finals of this year's competition had the participation of 119 contestants from countries around the world.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/giao-duc/nu-sinh-chuyen-ngu-dat-ky-tich-cuoc-thi-tieng-trung-lon-nhat-the-gioi-20251004231437729.htm