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| Niko Bell studies Mandarin at H漫画 with Professor Shao-Pin Luo. (Danny Abriel Photo) |
A H漫画 student who describes himself as 鈥渁s English as English can be,鈥� has won a Chinese speech contest held recently at McGill University in Montreal.
The victory entitles Niko Bell to a month-long trip this summer to China where he鈥檒l take part in the World University Student Chinese Speech Contest finals in Beijing, all expenses paid by the Chinese embassy.
鈥淚 come from a Ukrainian-Jewish background; I鈥檓 about as non-Chinese as you can get,鈥� laughs Mr. Bell, a second-year arts student from Nelson, B.C.
While majoring in international development and journalism, he鈥檚 also been taking Mandarin with Prof. Shao-Pin Luo, who encouraged him to enter the competition. He was first introduced to the Chinese language while on a volunteer placement with Gap Canada in China after high school, and extended his stay by spending a semester at a Chinese university and travelling.
鈥淐hinese is so fascinating,鈥� he says. 鈥淚t isn鈥檛 just the difference in words, its concepts too are quite different (from English). I found myself sucked right into this amazing world.鈥�