A LUMEN Christi pupils has won top prize in a prestigious Mandarin speaking competition.
Leo Doherty, an upper-sixth pupil, placed first in the intermediate category of the British Council contest.
The competition aims to build interest in Chinese language and culture.
Leo, who has only been learning Mandarin for two years, was joined by students from 42 secondary schools from across Britain and Northern Ireland.
"I've always loved linguistics and with Mandarin, it changes the way you think about languages – it's almost like a problem to be solved. I also like that you can watch different TV, listen to Chinese music and communicate with people across the world," he said.
"I was shocked when I won. There were so many good competitors and I didn't expect to come away with anything. I was just there for the experience, and it wasn't really about the winning so to speak - it still feels very surreal."
As the most spoken language in the world, Mandarin is recognised as a valuable skill for young people to acquire.
More than three quarters of British business leaders surveyed in 2018 said that speaking Mandarin will give school leavers a career advantage. Research by the British Council has found that Mandarin is the second most important foreign language for the UK's influence on the global stage.
Jonathan Stewart, Director of British Council Northern Ireland said language learning was an essential part of understanding and collaborating with other countries and cultures.
"With more than one billion Mandarin speakers in the world, it's important that more young people in the UK learn the language – those that do will find it opens up exciting study and work opportunities in our increasingly interconnected world," he said.
