The fourth annual "Chinese Bridge" US High School Student Chinese Speech Contest took place this past weekend at the University of Massachusetts. High school students from 21 states took participated in song, pronunciation, and dialogue events that were graded by a panel of Chinese language teachers and native speakers. Students with higher abilities were graded on individual speeches on self-selected topics. The American students opened the competition with a rousing rendition of "北京欢迎你," ("Beijing Welcomes You"). We're happy to see so many young people taking an interest in the Chinese language, but we couldn't help but chuckle at the thought of a young Bostonian with a thick Bean Town accent talking in a learned Beijing accent. That would be wicked pissah-儿！ more ›