Chinese DLI students win state competition
Feb 03, 2025 01:48PM ● By Jet Burnham
Mountain Ridge High School Chinese DLI students Miles Garber, Kylie White and Brynlee Dalton pose with their teacher Wei Wei after winning first place at the 2024 High School Business Language Competition. (Photo courtesy Wei Wei)
Students in Jordan School District’s Chinese Dual Language Immersion program are immersed in the Chinese language at least half of the school day beginning in the first grade. By the time students reach high school, they’ve passed their Chinese Language Advanced Placement test, so much of their learning comes from participating in competitions, organizing cultural events and seizing opportunities to go to China.
“I want my students to take what they’ve learned over the past 10–12 years and apply it in real-world settings,” high school Chinese DLI teacher Wei Wei said.
In November, she took her students from both Riverton High School and Mountain Ridge High School to compete with 22 other Chinese language teams for cash prizes at the High School Business Language Competition, which is held at Brigham Young University each year.
Mountain Ridge High School students Miles Garber, Kylie White and Brynlee Dalton took first place in the competition, and Riverton High School students Gracie Nelson, Clancy Wan and Olivia Stott took third place.
Students showcased their business and language skills by developing and presenting a marketing strategy for the Busankam Wola Foundation—which teaches women to weave baskets—to market their products to Chinese consumers.
Students said the project was a lot of work and it challenged them to manage their time and to hone their memorization and presentation skills.
Their presentation was given in Chinese, so students took the opportunity to expand their Chinese vocabulary with specialized business and commerce terminology.
“I just made a vocab list of probably 50 words that I didn’t know that were specifically business words, and then just memorized them, honestly, because if you don’t have them memorized, you can’t really talk about it and explain it in your presentation,” Dalton said.
The first-place team felt they won because they were well-prepared, with a completely memorized presentation. They also included cultural considerations in their marketing strategy.
“We tried to add a lot of the Chinese culture, like traditional words or colors that mean fortune or prosperity, and putting those Chinese words on the baskets,” White said.
Knowing young people in China are environmentally conscious and that they value honoring their parents, the students proposed marketing the hand-woven baskets as an environmentally friendly gift for parents.
Team members also decided to dress professionally for their presentation, wearing black clothing with red accents because of its cultural meaning.
“Red is really significant in Chinese culture; red means luck,” Dalton said.
The winning team members also had a unique solution that they think helped them stand out from the other competitors.
“The biggest thing we were hung up on was shipping costs and this is where the kind of long shot idea came in,” Garber said. The team pitched the idea of shipping only the basket materials from Ghana and then assembling them in a factory in China, saving money on shipping costs and offering a faster turnaround time on the finished products. Their plan also included providing jobs and educational opportunities for the basket weavers.
Wei Wei said it was a great learning opportunity for her students.
“Our students won so many awards, and they were over the moon about it,” she said. “That kind of recognition really fuels their passion for learning Chinese, creating this awesome cycle of hard work and success.”
Other opportunities high school Chinese DLI students have to apply and expand their language skills are at a statewide STEM competition, an international Model UN program in China, as well as local teaching opportunities and cultural celebrations.
Their next big event is the Chinese Language Fair which is hosted by Mountain Ridge High School each March. Students of all ages from all Jordan School District Chinese DLI programs participate in the fair, which features language competitions, talent shows and cultural crafts, activities, games and music.
“It’s always a hit, and the kids love showing off their skills,” Wei Wei said.
Garber, who is a senior, said he has developed a lot of unexpected skills by participating in these types of activities.
“I’ve been able to run Chinese events for our school—we’ve done a Chinese New Year’s Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival,” he said. “I’ve had lots of opportunities in leadership to delegate and plan activities and stuff that I never thought I would get from Chinese. So I’ve grown a lot as a leader from those. And the projects really test my creativity. There are lots that are super creative and this just really helps me grow a lot with my critical thinking and creativity that I never, ever thought it would. I’ve been able to do so many really cool things. The Chinese trip was one of them—that was just unreal.”
Garber and White both have gone on one of the cultural exchange trips Wei Wei tries to arrange as often as possible for her students.
“Last June, I took 20 students to Jiangsu Province, and it was unforgettable,” Wei Wei said. “They performed Chinese songs and dances, gave speeches, and even did interviews in Chinese. People were blown away, saying, ‘Their Chinese is so good!’ One of my favorite moments was seeing Chinese and American kids playing guitar and singing Taylor Swift songs together. It was such a beautiful reminder of how music, culture and language can bring people together.”
Dalton, a sophomore, is looking forward to the opportunity to visit the country she’s learned so much about her whole life.
“I really do want to go to China at some point—I think that would be a really, really cool opportunity for me,” she said. “I think you can learn Chinese as much as you want, but until you actually go there and experience it—. I think you just need to be able to experience it to really know what it’s like.”λ