Selina and I leave soon - a 7 week adventure - thanks for all the support

[The Choonies]

The British Council write "

We are happy with everything. Selina can safely tell her friends. We'll be announcing the results at the end of next week (13th) on our website.

I am delighted to tell you that Selina has in fact won the first prize in the 8 -11 category of the Languages for the Games competition. 

Selina has won a trip to London at the start of the Paralympic Games. We will be organising a small tour to various London and Olympic highlights. Selina should be accompanied by a parent or guardian. As I said, we will be in contact very soon to organise details including visas etc."

 

 

To comment then hear the latest version of the song - here you can see details about the song.

http://music.weibo.com/t/i/100039544.html

Click on the triangle on Selina's picture.

The best student I have ever had and ever will have,

British Council International Competition - Languages for the games - The Paralympics 2012 in London.

With the only Chinese entry, Selina is up against strong entries from 29 different countries from 5 continents.

For over 4 years Selina has been taught by Martin Hendrick from ME school. She has learned both English and PowerPoint really well and she has been taught how to cartoon quite well too, as well as many other skills.

So it was with great delight that we found and entered "Languages for the games" - a competition for 8-11 year olds run by the British Council for the Paralympic games in London this summer. All entries had to be in by 31st of May midnight. The theme is - my hero or heroine.

It is a strong entry and Selina has drawn all the images and created all the animation by herself.

The song she sings was written by Martin Hendrick called "You are my heroine" with the words she has learned in her research for this project.

Her heroine in Qian Hongyan who lost both her legs at the age of three is such a inspiring story and I urge you to research it on the internet - it will truly move you.

She is sometimes referred to as the basketball girl.

She is from Yunnan province and goes to the Yunzhinan Swimming Club. Qian Hongyan is 16 now and is swimming in this years 2012 Paralympic games in London, England for the first time.

Selina herself is a great swimmer too. It's her best sport and her favorite pastime.

Selina goes to Dong Bei Shi Da Fu Xiao in central Changchun, Jilin province and also ME School for private one-to-one classes. There she works with her Scottish English teacher Martin both for English and IT, especially Microsoft packages such as PowerPoint and Word. Martin is also an artist and musician so both of these skills are highly featured in Selina's classes.

Selina has just turned 12 so Qian Hongyan is just a little older and a great inspiration to Selina. She is very excited about the Olympics and Paralympics.

Selina too is really a very special child with such a beautiful nature combined with an amazing creative mind and always curious and desperate to learn and it has been a pleasure to work with her.

Click here to see Selina's entry on the British Council

Just received notification today from the British Council. This is great news as she will now win some level of prize with the first prize being an all expenses-paid 4 day trip to the Paralympics with pocket money for 2 people, with opportunities to meet the athletes and visit the Olympic Village. But any prize in an International competition is a great achievement for her.

Latest development - British Council want to contact Selina's family directly and also verify her age. All easy enough to do. It all looks good - maybe not top prize but could be in the top 3.

They have emailed 4 times today with questions and confirmations. All very exciting.

Click here for Selina's entry on the British Council site Here you can see her PowerPoint presentation and hear the first version of the song recorded by her on her computer using just PowerPoint.

The English for the games British Council site is here

http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/english-for-the-games/com...

London 20012 Paralympics Site is here

http://www.london2012.com/paralympics/sports/

The London Olympics Site is here

http://www.london2012.com/

Sina news in English

http://english.sina.com/

Thec Global Education site for the Olympic games is here

https://getset.london2012.com/en/get-set-goes-global/international-...

To comment then hear the latest version of the song - here you can see details about the song.

Click on the triangle on Selina's picture.

http://music.weibo.com/t/i/100039544.html

To just hear the latest version of the song which is now on the weibo charts

http://music.weibo.com/t/player.php?songids=100039544&songlist=...

[The Choonies]

Thanks for all the comments - keep them coming.

[CCF Beijing]

Selina Xiao of Changchun, China: "The Golden Girl with a Gold-Medal Voice"

[Ward Lynds 赖获得]

Changchun must be very proud. For 2 reasons. The best student and the best teacher. Congratulations Selina and Martin.

[Richard Roman]

Martin - a superstar is born!

[The Choonies]

I need to prepare Selina for interviews and the media attention she will get in London.

So Changchun Live will give her first English interview - thank you so much Matt and Ferney I really appreciate your involvement and expertise.

and any other ideas are so welcome.

I will bring her to any appropriate event with lots of foreigners - she just turned 12.

[Mary Sun]

Hi Martin, What an amaing job you had did for Selina! You are such a genius, unbelievable person i have ever met. Both Thomas and i love you so much, we are so proud of you.

[The Choonies]

Thanks Lee. I really appreciate your comment. As I appreciate all the kind words that I will pass on to Selina and her family.

[Lee McCrone]

Fantastic news Martin. Selina and Qian Hongyan  and you are all so inspirng. Well done. If you believe in yourself great things can happen!

[The Choonies]

I hope to make a much bigger congrats for Selina but so far this is how it looks.

If you want to make a personal one - company logo or whatever, I'll be glad to display it.

The info will be posted in many places and with much more to come - especially when we get to London and face the British Council PR team.

These cartoons are becoming such a useful thing now. By the way, Happy has printed many of the Choonie and framed them and they now proudly cover his main wall - thank you Happy and Happy 1st birthday.

[Fin MacDonald]

Wow!!  What awesome news!! Congratulations Selina!