各位选手、各位评委、各位来宾：
Judges and contestants,
Ladies and gentlemen,
首先，祝贺“汉语桥”世界大学生中文比赛十周岁生日。我很高兴再次出席英国区预选赛。当你再到一个地方或再次出席一项活动，中国有一句唐诗叫：“前度刘郎今又来”。恰好我姓“刘”，所以这句话形容今天的场合是再贴切不过了。
I have real pleasure attending this 10th "Chinese Bridge" Competition. I enjoyed it so much last year – so it's very good to be back! We Chinese people love poetry and are always looking for amusing word links. So I cannot resist giving you a link about 'coming back' - and it's from a poem written over a thousand years ago. The poem was written in the Tang Dynasty – a period which we think produced many great poets. This line describes the feelings of a person coming back to a place that means a lot to him. It goes: "Qian Du Liu Lang Jin You Lai." This literally means "Here comes Mr Liu again". Now that's rather apposite tonight - as I am indeed a Mr Liu come back again!
我再度前来，是要给各位选手加一把油，希望再次给你们带来好运。去年，英国赛区选拔的蒋思哲等三位同学在中国举行的总决赛中取得了特等奖及两个三等奖这一前所未有的好成绩。我希望今年你们再接再厉，能有新的优秀选手脱颖而出，再创佳绩。我也希望你们不仅仅把这里当作是一个赛场，更把这里当作是一个展现学习成果的舞台，互相交流学习心得的平台。
I come back to bring you good luck again. The same event last year produced three finalists. One of them, Mr Stewart Johnson, went on to win the very top prize in China. The other two won third prizes in the finals. That was Britain's best ever performance. I wish you the very best of luck to achieve the success of the UK contestants last year – and they set you a rather high standard! So there's the challenge! I wish you more world-beating success from you British contestants this year!
我再度前来，是要给在英的“汉语热”添一把火。我高兴地看到，近10万英国人正在学习中文，英格兰1/6的中小学开设了汉语课程，英国54所大学开设了中文课程，其中7所大学设有中文专业，13所孔子学院和54间孔子课堂在英落地生根。不久前，我应邀与查尔斯王子一同为威尔士兰德福瑞公学孔子课堂揭牌，令我意外的是，查尔斯王子用非常标准的汉语对我说：“威尔士欢迎你!”我想，有你们的王储亲作表率，你们的汉语一定会学得更好!
I come back to heat up the Mandarin fever. The contest is motivating the learning of Mandarin. I cannot tell you just how thrilled I am by that. Nearly one hundred thousand people are learning Mandarin in Britain. In your secondary and primary schools - one out of six schools is teaching Mandarin. In your higher education - 54 British universities teach Mandarin. 7 of those universities offer Mandarin as a major subject. Then there are 13 Confucius Institutes and 54 Confucius Classrooms that have been opened. On a personal note, not long ago, I had the honour of joining His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales in the opening ceremony of a Confucius Classroom at Llandovery College in Wales. His Royal Highness said to me - in surprisingly pure Mandarin - "Wei Er Shi Huan Ying Ni!" (Wales Welcomes You). What a wonderful example of leadership by the Prince to encourage young people to learn Mandarin! His example is very valuable.
（责任编辑:allen）
