Bangladeshi Planning Minister Muhammad Abdul Mannan speaks at the inaugural session of a language festival featuring competitions in Bangla, Chinese and English languages in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Oct. 18, 2019. A two-day language festival has kicked off in Bangladesh's top leading North South University (NSU) in capital Dhaka with around 1,000 school, college and varsity students participating in various competitions in three languages -- Bangla, Chinese and English. The NSU organized the national festival titled "Language League 2019" to promote language learning. (Str/Xinhua)
DHAKA, Oct. 19 (Xinhua) -- A two-day language festival has kicked off in Bangladesh's top leading North South University (NSU) in capital Dhaka with around 1,000 school, college and varsity students participating in various competitions in three languages -- Bangla, Chinese and English.
The NSU organized the national festival titled "Language League 2019" to promote language learning.
Bangladeshi Planning Minister Muhammad Abdul Mannan and Yan Hualong, minister counselor at the Chinese Embassy in Dhaka, among others, were presented at the inaugural session of the festival on Friday.
Speaking as the chief guest, Mannan said this program is very representative. "We have to keep our mother tongue in our hearts, while respecting other languages and learning other languages. Learning a language is not only to make our students more professional, to have a skill, but also to make our students more humanistic," the planning minister said.
A NSU spokesman said around 1,000 students from a number of leading universities, colleges and schools in Bangladesh are attending various competitions like poetry recitation, quiz and general knowledge in Bangla, Chinese and English languages during the two-day festival which will conclude on Saturday.
This program is the largest language contest in Bangladesh, and Chinese is also included in the competition with Bangla and English for the first time. The Confucius Institute at North South University has undertaken the design and related organization of the Chinese section.
The contestants of Chinese section came from two Confucius Institutes, Chinese language teaching sites and other Chinese institutions in Dhaka. Some students came to the game from Rajshahi and Chittagong.
