Business student earns trip to explore her love for Chinese culture

Following a stellar performance at the annual Jiangsu Cup Chinese Speech Competition in Washington, D.C., last fall, Liberty University rising senior Mai Chi Nguyen looks to expound upon her linguistic and cultural studies through a scholarship-funded trip to China this month.

Nguyen, an international student from Vietnam, received a silver award at the competition, which earned her an all-expenses paid trip to attend a summer language program at the renowned Nanjing University in eastern China June 4-11.

For the competition, held in October at George Washington University, Nguyen was required to prepare a speech in Mandarin — a Chinese dialect that is spoken across most of northern and southwestern China — and answer impromptu questions while speaking in the language for five minutes. She competed against students from schools such as Georgetown University, Johns Hopkins University, and the University of Virginia.

Nguyen, who is double majoring in International Business and Marketing with a minor in Chinese, said she is excited to use the trip as a way to take what she has learned in the classroom about the Chinese language and culture and experience both in person.

“I have always loved studying languages, and languages and cultures are always so interconnected, so it will be really cool to actually go to China and observe firsthand how the language and culture intersect and affect each other,” Nguyen said.

As a business student, Nguyen said she is also looking forward to visiting Chinese businesses and learning how they compare to the traditional American business structure. She believes the trip has the potential to help her decide whether she wants to pursue a career in China or the United States.

The trip will also prepare Nguyen to take the HSK — a Chinese language proficiency test, comparable to the SAT, that shows that a student can speak the language fluently in a professional setting.

“I hope to come back from this trip with more of an in-depth understanding of the Chinese language and China in general,” Nguyen said. “I really want to become proficient enough in Chinese where I can use it as much as I can use English.”

Throughout her time at Liberty, Nguyen has received support from Liberty’s Center for Research & Scholarship (which funded her trip to D.C. for the competition) and from her professors in the Department of Modern Languages, whom she said have become more like mentors to her.

“I’m so thankful for the support of my professors and the faculty,” Nguyen said. “This whole experience has been a great motivator for me to continue my studies in Chinese and pursue my love for languages.”

The trip won’t be her only learning experience this summer. She begins a marketing internship with Pearson in July.

Victoria Conner and Will Young contributed to this report.