Home Other Three Exciting Competitions of British Council

Three Exciting Competitions of British Council

Other

Posted on 27/03/2012

Click to enlarge

Mr Gum, Languages for the Games and Stand out from the Crowd – Join these exciting competitions and win trips to the UK

From British Council:

Let’s join the three exciting competitions of British Council: Writing or Drawing Mr Gum, Languages for the Games and Stand out from the Crowd. For more information, see below:

Writing or Drawing Mr Gum

The Writing and Drawing Contest featuring Mr Gum, launched by the British Council Vietnam and Nha Nam Publishing House, is an interesting contest for Vietnamese young people aged 7-17 who have read and loved Mr Gum, an award-winning series of children’s books by the British author Andy Stanton. In Vietnam, seven books in the series have been published with the most recent being Mr Gum and the Cherry Tree.

Each entrant can compete in both Writing and Drawing categories to secure a chance to win the two handsome first prizes with each including a free English course at the new Teaching Centre of the British Council Vietnam, based at Brendon Primary School, T2, Trung Hoa – Nhan Chinh, Le Van Luong Street, Thanh Xuan District, Hanoi and a set of Mr Gum books.

More interestingly, the prizes will be given by Andy Stanton himself when he is in Vietnam for EUNIC (European Union National Institutes for Culture) Literature Festival, set to happen in Hanoi at the National Library from 11 to 13 May.

To enter the Drawing Contest, applicants are asked to think of a title for a Mr Gum story set in Vietnam (e.g. Mr Gum and the Fish Sauce Thief) and then draw a book cover that depicts that title on A3 or A4 papers. For the Writing Contest, applicants are asked to think of a title for Mr Gum story set in Vietnam and then write a summarised plot in either Vietnamese or English (approx. 500-word in length).

Andy Stanton started the Mr Gum series with the idea of completing it to read for his cousins on Christmas Day as a present. It took him just eight hours on Christmas Eve. However, his cousins, full of festive excitement of Christmas, did not pay attention to Andy’s story. Then the manuscript was kept in the drawers for several years before Andy found it again and discovered that the story still made him laugh. He made some changes and sent to several agents. And this was how Mr Gum started his journey, in the UK and on to many countries across the world.

Mr Gum, story by Andy Stanton and illustrations by David Tazzyman, won numerous awards that include the Roald Dahl Funny Prize Award and the Blue Peter Book Awards.

Languages for the Games

Languages for the Games is British Council’s global competition for school children aged 8-16 with great prizes for the winners including a trip to theUK. The aim is to show young people’s creativity in a second language while carrying out a task about Paralympic sports and values.

Entries will consist of the initial Microsoft PowerPoint (2003, 2007, 2010) or OpenOffice ODT presentation along with any images, audio and video uploaded as part of this with the longest duration of three minutes. For the 8-11 age group, the presentation title is She’s my heroine/He’s my hero. For the 12-16 age group, the presentation task is My Perfect Paralympic Poster. The video that instructs how to enter the competition for each age group can be found on the British Council homepage (http://www.britishcouncil.org/vi/vietnam).

Stand out from the Crowd

The Stand out from the Crowd competition consists of three rounds with the first round being held from 12 March to 8 April. This is a competition for young Vietnamese citizens who are High School (Cap Ba) students in Ho Chi Minh City. The First Prize winner will be entitled to a full scholarship that includes full tuition to a summer course in the UK, accommodation and living costs, return tickets to the UK, travelling costs to famous cities such as London,Cambridge,Edinburgh, etc.

In the first round, competitors will do an online test that includes 20 multiple choice questions in the duration of 60 minutes starting after the competitor finishes his/her registration. 100 highest scorers who completed the test in the shortest amount of time will go through to the interview round (set for 14 and 15 April) where each competitor will be interviewed by British Council teachers for five minutes. The interview panel will select the15 best contestants for the Grand Final where top three and other awards will be announced. The Grand Final will follow a Game Show format.