FOR a second year running Virginia Preparatory School Grade Four learner Aleah Ramouthar showed off her linguistic talents at the sixth ‘Chinese Bridge’ Chinese Show for Primary School Students competition in Durban recently.

The nine-year-old, who only started learning Mandarin last year, placed first in the primary school competition and will now represent SA at an international event later this year.

She will travel to the cities of Beijing and Tianjin in China to compete in the international Chinese Bridge competition in September.

Also read: La Lucia mom credits blood donors for saving her life

Aleah was recommended by the Confucius Institute at DUT and improved on her results at the national competition where she finished second last year.

The local resident gave a speech and sang a song at the competition.

“I feel very happy with my performances. I’ve practised a lot more this year. My prepared speech this year was about my family and their support. I’m very excited about going to China. My goal is to win but also have fun. The thing I’m most looking forward to is seeing the pandas” she said.

Aleah was inspired by her teacher Vivian Zeng, who works for the Confucius Institute in uMhlanga.

Also read: Virginia’s chess team triumphs at SA School Team Champs

“This is the third year that my students have participated. It has been very rewarding to see my students excel and compete internationally. Aside from Aleah, another one of my students Iylah Lane got the excellence award this year at the Chinese Bridge competition and she is looking forward to enter it again next year. It is also wonderful to see more and more youngsters starting to learn Mandarin. I’m super proud of Aleah because she has put in a lot of effort,” Zeng said.

For more from Northglen News, follow us on Facebook ,X or  Instagram. You can also check out our videos on our YouTube channel or follow us on TikTok.

Click to subscribe to our newsletter – here