Competition time or 2 weeks of talent search!

In the middle of January I managed to get a better idea of Chinese public education system and to get that X-factor or Idol show judge feeling ;), cause as a member of English competition jury I was visiting schools of Rizhao in search of true English speaking (+ singing, reciting, tongue twisting, dancing, playing musical instrument) talent :)

Number of schools visited in 2 weeks: 12 schools
Number of students listened to in 2 weeks: 690 students!!!
Number of photos taken with students: many :)

TOP 10 songs heard again and again in different schools:
1) Emilia "Big world" ... more than 30 times - seriously!!!!
2) "10 little Indians"... primary school hit :) (English learning song)
3) Taylor swift : "Back to December" and other songs..
4) songs of Westlife...many times :)
5) "Yesterday once more" by Carpenters...where do they get these ideas?! (everyone seems to know this one here!!!)
6) Michael learns to rock “Take me to you heart”
7) Justin Bieber “ Baby” (first time heard Bieber songs during this competition)
8) "Nothing`s gonna change my love for you"...and again - where do kids get these ideas?!!
9) “God is a girl”... around 10 times :))
10) "Amazing Grace"!!!

Here`s how it went..




in different schools of Rizhao





Also part of my job for the last two weeks: posing for photos with students and school management and EATING :)) Most of the directors of the schools we went to wanted to invite "the grand jury" for lunch or dinner... and trust me it`s not an easy job when as a foreign guest you are kindly encouraged (and expected) to try all the dishes (usually we had 13-20 different dishes during such a round table meal)


And to finish...some cool stuff I heard during the competitions (that made me laugh out loud ;)

"We are all high this afternoon"

"My first name is “ HUI” , it means I can do everything" (HUI does mean “to be able to do smth” in Chinese, but for Russian speakers this sentence is sooooo MUCH MORE ;)

Now that the best students are selected we are getting ready for the Semi-finals and Finals in March!!! More fun to come :)