The Confucius Institute in Sofia Held Chinese Idioms Interpretation Competition

On December 12, the Confucius Institute in Sofia held a Chinese idiom interpretation competition. More than twenty Chinese language learners registered to participate, including students from the Headquarters of the Confucius Institute in Sofia, its affiliated Confucius Classrooms and teaching sites, as well as “Saint Kliment Ohridski” Sofia University.

Before the competition, the Confucius Institute provided three intermediate-level and advanced-level Chinese textbooks for students’ reference. Under the guidance of Confucius Institute teachers and local teachers, the students prepared diligently. The competition was conducted in the form of an on-site written test, requiring participants to explain the meaning of ten Chinese idioms in Bulgarian within 60 minutes and to create one example sentence in Chinese for each idiom. The contest comprehensively assessed the students’ accumulation of Chinese idioms as well as their ability to understand and use them.

Compared with last year’s ‘Hundred Words in Chinese’ competition, this year’s idiom interpretation contest further raised the level of difficulty, providing a platform for advanced Chinese learners in Bulgaria to demonstrate their practical language application skills. Through the competition, the Institute investigated the implementation of vocabulary teaching across its affiliated teaching institutions, using the contest to promote learning and to provide references and a basis for formulating the Institute’s vocabulary teaching guidelines.

Confucius Institute in Sofia
Text： Ding Chen
Photos: Zhang Kaiyue; Han Fang
Editors: Chen Ying, Aksiniya Koleva, Chen Chen
English translation: Dima Pironkova