By Amanda Malnik

From Jan. 31 to Feb. 1, Oak Hall Middle and Upper School students enrolled in Chinese I through AP Chinese attended the annual Florida Statewide Chinese Competition at the Lake Yale Conference Center in Leesburg, Fla.

Senior Harrigan Rambo, juniors Henry Palmer, Caitlyn McMahon, Victor Chiu, sophomores Asher Dobrin, Sofia Guico, Caya Wilcox, freshman Spencer Fuhr, and eighth grader Riley Boswell competed against middle and high school students from across the state. The students ranked as either “Outstanding Performance” or “Excellent Performance”.

Their achievements listed as follows: Rambo received excellent performance in Level IV Listening and Reading; Palmer received outstanding performance in Level IV Reading; McMahon received excellent performance in Level IV Listening; Chiu received outstanding performance in Level IV Listening and Reading; Dobrin received outstanding performance in Level III Speaking and Level III Listening; Guico received outstanding performance in Level II Listening and excellent performance in Level III Reading; Wilcox received excellent performance in Level III Listening and Level III Reading; Fuhr received outstanding performance in Level IV Listening and Level IV Reading. 

Students competed in various events including listening, speaking, reading, and a game of Jeopardy. There was also a gala for the students to showcase their talents related to the Chinese culture. The listening test was a new event this year. With this event, students listen to a recording of a passage or conversation and answer multiple-choice questions regarding the passage. The speaking portion tests a students’ ability to create a complex speech with correct grammar, extensive vocabulary, accurate pronunciation, organized content relevant to the topic assigned to their level of Chinese, and overall fluency. The reading test is a multiple-choice test entirely in Chinese that consists of several passages with reading comprehension questions. Jeopardy evaluates students’ knowledge of Chinese geography, history, culture, famous people, food, architecture, and art.

Students prepared all year with the information they learned in class, as well as studying for Jeopardy before school began in the morning.