A 15-year-old schoolgirl from Glasgow has won the beginner category at a national competition judging people by their ability to speak Mandarin.

Ellie Koepplinger gave a presentation on Taiwanese band Fahrenheit, her favourite pop band singing in Chinese, and answered questions in Mandarin from judges at the British Museum in London.

Ellie, who has been learning the language for one and a half years, won a trip to China as part of her award – and she certainly won’t need an interpreter when she visits Beijing’s Forbidden City and the Great Wall of China.

She said: “The judges weren’t looking for memorisation – they wanted you to demonstrate fluency in the language and an ability to improvise.

“I think learning any language is a challenge at the start but once you’ve got your head round the pronunciation and tones in Chinese, the grammar is virtually non-existent.”

There were 10 other winners in the competition’s intermediate, advanced and group categories.