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“Big Bang” Wins Big Honour for Eight Year Old Boy

Posted on 01/02/2012

From British Council:

A misspelling of London’s famous Big Ben captured the hearts of judges and saw eight-year-old Nguyen Song Anh win first prize in an international art competition.

Anh entered his drawing into British Council’s Young Learner’s Art competition and drew a sketch of the Palace of Westminster best known as “Big Ben”. However his young ears must have misheard his teachers as he mistakenly labelled it “Big Bang Clock”.

However instead of his error counting against him, judges including British Council director of teaching Anna Searle and Paralympics competitor Susannah Rodgers, awarded him first prize with his work set to be displayed around the world.

Robin Rickard, director of British Council Vietnam commented:”It’s hard to second guess the judges’ thinking but either they were charmed by the innocent spelling mistake or thought that there was a deeper hidden meaning.

Song Anh won prize — British Council Senior Young Learner Teacher Joanna Adkin presents Anh with his Olympic prizes.

“Next year will see the London 2012 Olympics and in his picture Anh also shows us a winners’ podium complete with medal winning athletes. So the ‘big bang’ could refer to anything from the starting ceremony to the starters’ pistols in each race. So if it was a mistake it was a very good mistake!”

There are now less than 200 days to go till the London 2012 Olympics with the British Embassy recently marking the milestone with an Olympic flag hoisting and reception for athletes at the Ambassador’s residence.

Anh later admitted the misspelling but thought perhaps he’d become confused with the Swiss brand of watch of the same name. He said he’d been: “Very pleased and happy” when he found out he was a winner, and thanked British Council teachers for encouraging him to enter, his parents and his art teachers at Luong The Vinh School in Ho Chi Minh City.

He also attributed his good fortune to increased confidence in academic activities since studying at British Council Vietnam.

Now Anh’s drawing has been printed by British Council offices around the world and is the front page of their new calendar which is already sitting on thousands of desks in over 100 countries.
Alongside the honour of having his artwork viewed internationally Anh also won a selection of London 2012 souvenirs.