Students talk up China link

Rotorua Boys' High School student Ryan Beamish won the Waiariki Challenge trophy at the Rotorua inter-schools Chinese Speech Competition.

Judges were impressed with the standard at this year's Rotorua inter-schools Chinese Speech Competition where more than 100 students took part.

Held at the Waiariki Institute of Technology Mokoia campus last week, it was the 14th year of the competition and provided an opportunity for children to showcase their talent at Chinese speechmaking, organiser Laytee George said.

"We had 109 students all together with 16 schools participating. Today we have 25 schools in Rotorua, through to Reporoa and stretching to Tokoroa that have Chinese in their curriculum," Mrs George said.

Western Heights High School student Stevie Dawson was runner-up in the Year 12 and Year 13 category.

"The highlights for me was how the judges continue to say how blown away they were with the standard, not only the delivery but the pronunciation and content - we're looking at children as young as Year 3. Two of the judges learnt Chinese as university students and they said in their first year they were unable to do the things they saw the students do and wished they had the same head start."

Speech topics were open and competitors had to speak for one to three minutes. They were judged on their fluency, presentation, style and content.

Mrs George, a teacher at Western Heights High School, said that her Year 11 to Year 13 students used the competition for their NCEA assessment. She said schools locally were being supported by the Confucius Institute at Victoria University where Mandarin language assistants were helping raise the language skills of teachers.

"Rotorua is a tourism centre and the Chinese embassy has already forecast there will be a 25 per cent increase in Chinese visitors. We are already seeing more than that in Rotorua. Our children in Rotorua and parents are beginning to understand how important it is for our children to connect with China.

"There are more and more requests from the increasing elite Chinese visitors to have tailor-made tours and special Chinese-speaking guides and our children have a huge opportunity to fill this market. They want local guides who can speak Chinese and give them the local story," she said.

Rotorua inter-schools Chinese Speech Competition winners:

Years 5/6: Aidan Nicholson, St Mary's School

Years 7/8: Maia Hollis, John Paul College

Junior Native: Daniel Meneses, Kaitao Intermediate

Year 9: Andrew Swanson, Rotorua Boys' High School

Year 10: Joape Nagera, Rotorua Boys' High School

Year 11: Sean Osborne-Curtis, Rotorua Boys' High School

Years 12/13: Ryan Beamish, Rotorua Boys' High School (Waiariki Challenge trophy winner)

Senior Native: Vanessa Chau, Western Heights High School (May Kingsford trophy winner)