With the improvement of the foreign language learning atmosphere at WHU, the 20th Luojia Foreign Language and Culture Festival (LFLCF) started as usual at the beginning of March. All the members of the Student Union of WHU’s School of Foreign Languages and Literature prepared well for the event, including the competitions of foreign language songs, English three-line poem calligraphy, English dubbing and English speech. Each contest has its own highlights, and the foreign language feast normally lasts until May.
Foreign language song competition
In the preliminary of the foreign language song contest, after scoring all the entries uploaded to the online platforms, the judges selected 12 terrific entries from individuals and groups. The contestants were guided to the music studio to record their own songs. They also created a music video called We Are the World to highlight the LFLCF’s theme “Together as one”. Their audios were posted to the “Wai Yuan Ren” WeChat account for voting.
Contestants recording songs in the music studio
Among all the entries, Lost Boy sung by Zhao Ruoyun with her ethereal and beautiful voice, won first place. Just as the lyrics read, “Away from all of reality / Neverland is home to lost boys like me / And lost boys like me are free,” her voice seemed to take all the listeners to the Neverland, where people are free and blissful.
“Music connects me with plenty of friends from other departments, and my feeling is just as is said at the end of the music video. Music is the shelter where we know we’re not alone. Music is a beautiful international language, creating an avenue for empathy and understanding. Music is the voice of my soul. When the song begins, we are together as one,” Luo Yushan, one of the contestants, said.
English three-line poem calligraphy competition
Two topics were given in the English three-line poem calligraphy competition, Young and beautiful and Peace will be found. Students could choose either of them to compose a three-line poem with graceful handwriting. The works were posted online for viewers to vote on. Students’ competence and enthusiasm in English were shown strongly in the free flowing writing styles.
Beautiful calligraphy works by a contestant
English dubbing competition
The most eagerly anticipated contest was the English dubbing competition. There were two rounds in the final. First, the teams performed clips drawn from the given options, and then they chose video clips freely and dubbed them using creative adaption.
The first round of dubbing involved clips from The Stepmother Tea Party, The Secret Life of Pets, 2 Broke Girls and other classic films and television works. Mastering excellent pronunciation and intonation, all the contestants performed well and displayed passion behind the screen.
Contestants dubbing a clip from Zootopia
In the second round of creative dubbing, each team gave full play to their creativity, combining hot topics with film and television works. Elements such as nucleic acid testing were skillfully combined with works such as Empresses in the Palace and Soul. The carefully designed lines highlighted the characteristics of each team, and the creative situation showed the flexibility of the contestants’ voices.
Works adapted by contestants
The members of the dubbing champion team were sophomores majoring in English, whose performance was extracted from 2 Broke Girls and Soul. Their sense of empathy for the characters left a deep impression on judges and the audience.
English speech competition
Ten contestants were selected for the final of the English speech competition held online. The contestants first spoke for five minutes on the given theme, ‘From zero-sum game to win-win situation’, and then began their impromptu speech.
In the first round, contestants’ heartfelt interpretation showed their independent thinking on the topic. One contestant took the ‘involution’ phenomenon as an example to illustrate the zero-sum game, and her novel idea successfully grabbed the judges’ attention. In the second round, contestants showed their ability to quickly organize their language and express their ideas clearly in English. Skillful use of language expression and passion for English speech were the strongest proofs of their common belief in the speech competition slogan ‘Hear my voice; Hear my dreams; Let us make a world in which I believe in’. Among them, Cheng Tianyi, a freshman majoring in translation, performed exceptionally well and won the special prize. She would subsequently go on to represent WHU and compete with students from other universities in the “21st Century Cup” National English Speech Competition. “Everyone ought to impact the world with an investment of their personality, making their voices heard and leaving the world better than how they met it,” said Cheng Tianyi, “that’s what speeches are all about.”
A contestant giving her speech online
Even though almost all of the competitions were held online due to the epidemic, the screen did not dampen the enthusiasm of the participants. Actually, all the activities have received ardent responses. Just as one of the participants said, “I come here because I want to seize something cheerful and add something new to my daily life during the pandemic. I hold the firm belief that everyone can get through such a tough period by embracing this kind of challenge to start an odyssey.”
Indeed, COVID-19 has witnessed drastic changes in everyone in recent years, and people have had to put aspects of their former lives on hold and try to get used to quite different times. WHUers have positively responded to this challenge and passionately seized delightful fragments in life. The two-month LFLCF has come to an end, but this eagerness of WHUers to learn foreign languages and explore cultures will never end.
Photo by “Wai Yuan Ren” WeChat Account
Edited by Li Hefeng, Li Jing, Qin Zehao, Sylvia, Xi Bingqing
