New Delhi, June 11 -- Did you know there are an estimated 1.31 billion Chinese speakers in the world, making it the most spoken language? And interestingly, Mandarin Chinese is the most common, with nearly 900 million people using it as their native language. In India, Chinese language has always enjoyed great popularity. The City of Joy was a witness to the popularity of this foreign language when the India final of the 2025 'Chinese Bridge': Chinese Proficiency Competition was held at a city hotel in Kolkata recently.
The Chinese Bridge Proficiency Competition is an annual event for the non-native Chinese speakers to promote the language, education, and cultural exchange by providing a platform. Organised by the Chinese National Hanban, it started in 2002 for university students. Later in 2008, the secondary students also took part in the competition. This year, it was the 24th edition for college/university students and the 18th edition for secondary students. In Kolkata, the event was segregated into two parts and teachers from reputable colleges across India judged the language proficiency of the students. Qin Yong, the Deputy Consul General at the Chinese Consulate General in Kolkata; Yang Xiuhua, Counsellor of the Chinese Embassy in India; and Xu Wei, Consul General of the Chinese Consulate General in Kolkata among others were present.
Among the university students, Amit Arun Mali of Visva-Bharati University went home with the champion badge. Adija Vijay Sutar of Jnana Prabodhini Prashala bagged the first prize among the secondary students.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.