Judges watch participants in the 19th Chinese Bridge Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreign College Students competing online last month in Beijing. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

For 22-year-old Belgian Lucas Deckers, an unexpected benefit of learning Mandarin was finding a Chinese girlfriend. Another bonus was winning the 19th Chinese Bridge Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreign College Students last month.

The annual competition, organized by the Ministry of Education's Center for Language Education and Cooperation and Yangshipin, the new media platform of the China Media Group, was moved online this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, the changes did not deter foreign students' enthusiasm for learning Mandarin, with hundreds of thousands of students signing up for this year's competition, according to the organizers.

Since its launch in 2002, the competition has been successfully held 19 times, attracting more than 1.4 million participants from over 150 countries to demonstrate their Mandarin skills and knowledge about China's culture and history, the organizers said.

Deckers said wining the competition was a great confidence boost, but it also increased pressure on him to further improve his Mandarin.

"I remember the moment was kind of weird because I was just in my room by myself, and I couldn't really celebrate with my family until a day later," he said. "I needed some time to realize that I had won."

ALSO READ: Common language solves math problem

Deckers, who also speaks Dutch, French and English, started learning Mandarin when he enrolled for a Sinology degree at KU Leuven University in Belgium at age 18.

After I started, my passion for China grew really fast. I suddenly started to like everything about Chinese culture.

Lucas Deckers, a 22-year-old Belgian learning Mandarin

He chose the major because of his long-held desire to see the world and travel to a faraway place like China. "That's what attracted me to study Mandarin in the first place. But after I started, my passion for China grew really fast. I suddenly started to like everything about Chinese culture."

At the university he met his girlfriend from the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region who is one year his junior. She helped him with his Mandarin and preparation for the competition. "We have our secret communication system. When we do not want other people to understand us, we speak Mandarin in Belgium and Dutch in China," he said.

Deckers went to Chongqing Normal University as an exchange student last year and instantly fell in love with Chongqing.

One of his biggest passions is cooking, and he thinks Chinese food is delicious.

As he was unable to return to China due to the pandemic, Lucas started to post clips on the video platform Bilibili to share his life in Belgium and talk about cultural differences between East and West.

His channel Lukesiyi, which combines his name Lucus with the Mandarin idiom bukesiyi, meaning something unimaginable, has garnered almost 20,000 fans.

"I want my life to become unimaginably good and I am ready to work hard for it," he said. "I hope to return to China as soon as possible, and when China reopens its borders to foreign students I will immediately go there, because I can't wait."

ALSO READ: Border guard crosses the language barrier

Improving ties

Matilda Murphy from Australia, the runner-up in the college students' competition, said she hopes to become a diplomat when she graduates from university.

Murphy, who majors in law, said she wants to use her Mandarin and legal skills to improve the Sino-Australian relationship.

More Australians are learning Mandarin due to increasing trade and cultural exchanges between the two countries, the 20-year-old said.

She started to learn Mandarin when she was a secondary school exchange student in Wuxi, Jiangsu province, in 2014. She also attended Shanghai International Studies University as an exchange student last year.

Apart from talking with Chinese people, she learns Mandarin by watching Chinese TV shows and movies. However, learning the language has not been easy and speaking it is harder than comprehending it, she said.

"Another secret to learning Mandarin well is not being afraid to make mistakes," Murphy said. "Just talk with others in Mandarin and you will learn from your mistakes."

While Deckers and Murphy speak Mandarin with accents, Canadian Fiona MacDougall, who won the 13th Chinese Bridge Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreign Secondary School Students, speaks the language with a perfect Northeast China accent. Croatian Maro Knezevic, runner-up in the section, speaks mandarin with a strong Beijing accent.

They both started learning Mandarin at a much earlier age than the college group; MacDougall at 3 and Knezevic at 6.

For Knezevic, learning Mandarin was natural. He moved to Beijing with his mother at the age of 6 when she started teaching Croatian at the Beijing Foreign Studies University. He spent nine years attending primary and middle school in the city before returning to Croatia.

"I learned Mandarin the same way my Chinese classmates learned the language. Although it was very difficult for me in the beginning, it became easier as time went by," the 17-year-old said.

He not only knows how to speak the language, but is also adept at writing Chinese characters, which can be difficult for foreigners to master, he said.

Knowing how to speak Mandarin is an advantage he has over his high school classmates in Croatia, and he wants to use it to stand out from his peers, he said.

"I have not decided whether I want to go to China for college, but I am sure my future job will be related to China."

MacDougall is determined to study at a Chinese university and work in China after graduation.

The 15-year-old has been learning Mandarin for 12 years. Her fascination with the language was inspired by performances at the Spring Festival Gala, she said.

"Many of the performers of the sketches are from Northeast China and I was immediately mesmerized by their infectious accents," she said.

Apart from the gala, watching Chinese TV shows has also become a hobby for her. To improve her Mandarin, she takes every opportunity to practice the language with Chinese people in Canada, she said.

"Being fluent in Mandarin has made me happier and more confident. I often serve as the bilingual master of ceremonies at my school, and I also act as a Mandarin interpreter for Chinese visitors to my school," she said.

China has been developing at a very fast speed and many foreigners have been amazed at the country's achievements over the years, she said. "I would love to be able to use Mandarin in my future job as nothing is better to turn your interest into your future career," she said.

READ MORE: Learning Mandarin in school a good start for youths

Contact the writer at zoushuo@chinadaily.com.cn