The Quizbowl Resource Center

The National History Bee and Bowl is delighted to announce the official launch of our Asian Division. The website can be found at http://www.nhbbasia.com for those interested. Our Asian Division will be initially smaller than the European Division this year, with two planned full tournaments in Shanghai and Japan (likely Tokyo), along with a mini-tournament with an as-yet-to-be-determined format in Bangkok in June. The latter will be held in conjunction with the Global Round (i.e. world championships) of one of our international partners, the World Scholars' Cup (see http://www.scholarscup.org)
For 2012-2013, if all goes according to plan, we are looking to add tournament sites in up to eight additional cities including Singapore, Kuala Lampur, Colombo, Mumbai, New Delhi, Dubai, Beijing, and Seoul. Tentatively, we are looking at Singapore as a site for a 2013 Asian Championship as well.
Currently, NHBB International Director Nolwenn Leon is on a recruiting trip in China which has been generating lots of interest. Stops include Shanghai, Hangzhou, Tianjin, and Beijing. Greg Bossick will direct NHBB China on Feb. 14 at Shanghai American School. After China, Mlle. Leon flies to Tokyo where I will meet her next Wednesday evening, when I am en route to NHBB Guam. Our plan is to invite History teachers at international schools from Tokyo and Yokohama out to dinner and discuss NHBB Japan over sushi. Future recruiting trips include Korea in April (Mlle. Leon), Dubai in May (me), and Southeast Asia, Sri Lanka, and India (both of us in June and July between ACE Oklahoma and ACE Ohio).
All tournaments will be done in English for now. Foreign language tournaments should commence in the 2014-2015 competition season in Asia (and likely as early as next year with French and German pilot tournaments in Europe).

Banzai!

nationalhistorybeeandbowl wrote:Foreign language tournaments should commence in the 2014-2015 competition season in Asia (and likely as early as next year with French and German pilot tournaments in Europe).

Who are you going to get to write these foreign language tournaments? Are they going to be translatiosn of English question sets?

I can translate them into German, and Nolwenn can translate them into French. We'd do it primarily off a C set, and control for content and a European-heavy distribution. These also wouldn't be full length tournaments at least at the start. This may or may not happen next year; it really depends on what sort of registrations we get in France and Germany. If it doesn't happen next year, though, I'd like to try this out for sure in 2013-2014.

Actual excuse given by some school in China not to meet with our International Director:
"Because The lunar year is at the corner, the final exams come soon.We are busy preparing for them. So sorry, we don't have enough time to know more about your quiz."

On the plus side, the French School of Shanghai is planning on sending 5 teams. Exploring terra incognita for qb - never a dull moment...