Butuka Academy, a friendship academy with China has hosted its 19th Chinese Language Bridge Competition last Friday at its school hall in Port Moresby.
An all nine girls’ competition ended with Two sisters, Ruth and Naomi Laeka finishing on first and second while Erea Morea Harry finished third.
The girls put their Mandarin language speaking skill to test in front of the judges, National Capital District Governor Powes Parkop fellow students and parents along with other guests.
School director, Florendo Tuguinay said the recital of poems and speaking of the language from local Papua New Guineans shows a strong connection of culture through education both PNG and China can build.
“The voices and performances are the reminder to all of us that the strongest bridge that we can build is through education,” Tuguinay said.
“Education guilds nations, it fosters respects among us and open doors of opportunities for our students.”
He added that the performances are for the students to also gain confidence and build better characters.
Butuka Academy Board director, Babani Harry said the academy teachers its student Mandarin language apart from English. He said though they do not teach local language, the students coming out of elementary schools in Kira-kira are taught local language and later go on to learn English and Mandarin.
Parkop who was at the event express that learning different languages open doors for the students who may go abroad in the future and be part of the global community.
It was unfortunate no male student were interested in taking part in the annual event. However, the area is said to be address in the years to come.
