Huge congratulations to our team of GCSE Mandarin linguists who took part in a brilliant Business Language Champions (BLC) competition this week with several other schools and scooped the winning place! The Challenge of China competition tasked competitors with bringing an English food product to the Chinese market via an international trade fair. Taking on the role of a newly recruited international team of graduate marketing trainees, students focused on three British products - Cathedral City Cheddar, Maynards Bassetts Jelly Babies and Real Lancashire Eccles Cakes. Putting forward a business case for their newly named Chinese product to be exhibited at the SIAL Shanghai trade fair, the team had to create a name, slogan, design a promotional leaflet, arrange a buyer appointment with the Chinese Walmart supermarket buyer and create a TV advert.  

The winning team of Tiffany, Lydia, Chloe, Iris and Cecilia, chose Real Lancashire Eccles Cakes as the product to promote in China.  Their entry was called:

Read the write-up from two of our winning students: 

The Mandarin Challenge involved being split into groups to complete a series of challenges. We had to choose a product, and come up with practical ways to advertise our product in Mandarin. For example, we had to create a leaflet and complete a live 5-minute telephone call to a potential buyer to market our product. Overall, I had such an amazing time and built on so many of my Mandarin skills. For instance, I did a telephone call with another member of my group, and this has given me more confidence in speaking and has helped my pronunciation. Apart from just practicing my Mandarin, this activity also helped me to build collaboration and leadership skills. It was such an amazing experience and I am delighted to have been provided with this opportunity. 

Written by Tiffany, Year 10 

I really enjoyed the Challenge of China - it was a fun activity that allowed us to practise our Mandarin skills. The challenge allowed us to exercise our teamwork skills and our speaking skills, especially during the speaking challenge, and we were able to undertake our own research into Chinese culture. For example, during the first activity, we researched Chinese culture and learned that many workers look for a convenient and time-efficient breakfast. Overall, the experience was very fun and entertaining.  

Written by Lydia, Year 10