Russian student Ruslan Ustinov won the 17th Chinese Bridge Chinese Language Proficiency Competition for Foreign College Students last month in Changsha, in central China’s Hunan Province.
Over 150 students from 118 countries took part in China-based heats. Five—Ruslan, John Gardner (U.S.), Anthony Ebuka (Nigeria), Guan Huimin (Indonesia), and Theodore Joseph (Australia)—made it to the championship round.
All five were crowned champions of their respective continents. They were also offered full scholarships by the Confucius Institute to continue their Chinese studies in China.
“Chinese language is the love of my life. I hope the romance will never fade,” said Ruslan in perfect Chinese. In the final round, he delivered the three reasons why he should win the championship, while impressing the judges by using some popular Internet slang words.
As a world economy major, he also illustrated his plans. “China and Russia are friendly neighbors.
The bilateral economic and trade exchanges are increasingly close. The courier service in China is so fast, which always makes me happy,” he said. “I want to introduce China’s fast courier service to Russia one day, as well as more Chinese products of quality.”
Ruslan said the most difficult aspect of Chinese pronunciation was the phonetic tone. “The Russian tone is very flat, while the Chinese intonation changes a lot.”
After the competition, Ruslan will return to Russia for a short break before coming back to spend the next two years studying in China.
