VALLETTA, April 22 (Xinhua) -- Malta celebrated United Nations Chinese Language Day by hosting its first-ever Chinese character writing competition for secondary schools on Saturday.
Organized jointly by the Ministry for Education, Sport, Youth, Research and Innovation, and the Confucius Institute at the University of Malta, the competition saw the participation of 16 students representing five secondary schools.
The students were tasked with transcribing two Chinese poems describing the beauty of spring within a time limit of 25 minutes. Isabel Montan Rivier, 13, won the first prize.
Following the competition, the students also had the opportunity to learn Chinese calligraphy with a brush and participate in a quiz covering various aspects of Chinese history, culture, and geography.
Rivier, who is currently studying Chinese at St. Martin College, expressed her excitement about participating in her first-ever Chinese character writing competition in an interview with Xinhua after the competition.
She described Chinese as "very interesting and different" and highlighted that learning the language would help her broaden her global perspective.
Alice Micallef, assistant director of the Directorate for Learning and Assessment Programmes at the Ministry for Education, Sport, Youth, Research, and Innovation, expressed her happiness about organizing the event which aimed to familiarize learners with the Chinese language.
She told Xinhua that an increasing number of students are expected to show interest in Chinese. "We find ways of how to encourage students and to motivate them to learn a new language," she said.
Dennis Mizzi, the foreign director of the Confucius Institute, described the Chinese character writing competition as a "very important event" and a "good success." He told Xinhua that he hoped to organize more similar events in the future, with the goal of expanding the study and teaching of Chinese in Malta.
