On Saturday, April 16, junior Kalina Pateva won second place in the 2016 Ohio K-12  Chinese Speech Contest held at Cleveland State University.

Pateva competed against more than 800 participants who have studied Chinese for two or more years. Some were heritage Chinese speakers.

“I found out about the competition through Ms. Lin, our Chinese teacher; she forwarded us a file with all the information,” Pateva said. “Originally, I didn’t want to enter the speech competition, but Ms. Lin encouraged me to go for it, and it seemed like a perfect opportunity to focus on practicing the language and becoming comfortable speaking it.”

In the preliminary competition, students wrote and recorded speeches in Mandarin Chinese up to four minutes in length.

“The speech I submitted to make it into the final round compared Bulgarian, American and Chinese culture in a couple of different categories,” Pateva said.

Then a group of finalists from each age group were selected to compete at CSU in the Main Classroom Building in front of a panel of judges.

“The speech I presented at the university was about my experience learning Chinese — why I chose to take it, what it has taught me, what kind of hardships I have encountered, and how I worked to overcome them,” Pateva said.

After the speakers performed, the judges asked them to answer a variety of questions about the speeches and about Chinese culture.

“I felt that I was the most prepared to speak extemporaneously [out of the competitors],” Pateva said. “My speech was very personal, so I felt confident I would be able to answer the questions related to it.”

Pateva noted that she has a lot in common with her competitors.

“My fellow competitors were very similar to me; some were heritage speakers, but the majority weren’t – it was interesting to see their style of presentation and what kinds of details they incorporated in their speeches.”

The judging panel consisted of highly-skilled Mandarin Chinese speakers.

“I was concerned as to whether or not I would be able to understand their language,” Pateva noted. “One of the judges in particular used a lot of complex, more AP-level structures, but also colloquial vocabulary, so my main concern was being able to understand the actual question, taking into account the dialect and the structure.”

However, after presenting her speech, she became less nervous.

“Once I got there I think I was so caught up in the atmosphere and more in-tune with the language, so it wasn’t a problem at the actual competition.”

In the end, Pateva rose above the competition and won a second place plaque and certificate.

“It was definitely a very helpful experience,” she said. “I felt confident as I was speaking, and overall, I think the pacing was pretty adequate. So even though it was stressful, it was also kind of fun.”

Pateva added that she admired her fellow competitor’s knowledge and love for the language.

“Most of us were clearly passionate about the language. It was really cool to see so many people interested in it, especially because you don’t hear a lot about Chinese here in Beachwood too often.”