从“美国天女”到孔子学院院长助理——我和“汉语桥”的不解之缘

From “America’s Heavenly Maiden” to Assistant to the Director of the Confucius Institute:My Inseparable Journey with “Chinese Bridge”

2010年秋天,我进入纽约州立宾汉顿大学学习。正好是那个秋季,宾汉顿大学戏曲孔子学院开始正式运行,这也间接开启了我的三次“汉语桥”参赛之路。我在中学学了西班牙语,进大学后想学一门较难的语言,就选了汉语课,而我的汉语老师正是孔子学院的汉语教师志愿者薛颖涵。她发现我喜欢唱中文歌,就鼓励我参加孔院正在筹备的“汉语桥”比赛。可是,拿什么曲目参赛呢?薛老师教我唱了一首《前门情思大碗茶》。这首歌词儿多,京味儿重,叙述性强,对我来说是一个很大的挑战,但我很快就唱了下来。

In the fall of 2010,I entered SUNY Binghamton to pursue a career in languages.As luck would have it,just that fall,the Confucius Institute of Chinese Opera(CICO)at Binghamton University had just opened and become fully operational.From that point,my three journeys with"Chinese Bridge^^have been indefinitely intertwined.In middle school,I had studied Spanish language.Upon entering college,I decided that 1 wanted to study a more difficult language,and thus begun my Chinese language learning journey.My Chinese language teacher at that time was Volunteer Chinese teacher Ms.Xue Yinghan.She realized that I also enjoyed singing,and encouraged me to participate in the"Chinese Bridge"Chinese language proficiency competition.She taught me to sing a wellknown Chinese song,4The Big Bowl of Tea at the Front Gate^^.The song has long lyrics with Beijing dialects.For me,it was a big challenge.However,I was still able to learn and sing the song quite quickly.In the Spring of 2011,1 then went to New York City to participate in the US Eastern Regional round of the"Chinese Bridge"competition at the Junior division.The US Eastern gion was comprised of 10 states,including all of the Ivy League Schools,as well as numerous other famous universities with many talented contestants.The Junior level of the competitions consisted of first-and second-year Chinese language students,some of whom had already been studying for that full two years,while I had only studied for less than one.I was blissfully ignorant of the rigorous competition around me as I gave my speech and then sang"A Big Bowl of Tea",much to the admiration of the judges,and received second place that year,which made me really happy.