Serbian students compete in Chinese proficiency contest

Serbian university students recently competed in Chinese language proficiency at Belgrade's Megatrend University.

At the competition, Serbian students Veljko Savic and Leonora Ristic won in the advanced and basic proficiency categories, respectively.

Savic will represent his country and compete against peers from around the world in the Chinese Bridge competition to be held later this year.

Savic says that he started learning Chinese four-and-a-half years ago while he was still in high school.

After visiting China, he decided to enroll in the Chinese language course at the Faculty of Philology of Belgrade University.

"I feel that by winning this competition, I got the chance to improve my confidence and motivation, as well as further my progress in learning Chinese," Savic says.

"It's great that the friendship between our two countries has been rapidly developing in recent years. This will help our people to get to know more about the Chinese language and culture, and it will help the Chinese to learn Serbian and get to know our beautiful country."

Chinese teacher Chen Hui, who works at the Confucius Institute of the University of Novi Sad, notes that the Chinese Bridge competition has been organized in Serbia since 2018, drawing an increasing number of students to learn Chinese. She says that she hopes more Serbian people choose to learn Chinese and better understand Chinese culture.

Chang Bo, an official from the Chinese embassy in Serbia, praised the performance of the students, in a statement, pledging that the embassy will continue to promote Chinese language study among Serbian students, as well as more exchanges between China and Serbia.