When I came to China, I thought my days as a movie critic were over. I was wrong.

Yesterday, my teaching colleague Darren and I were judges in a movie-dubbing contest. Eleven students showed clips from a favorite film and dubbed the scenes in English with their own voices.

Darren and I were part of a five-judge panel that was asked to rate the students’ introductory speech, their dubbing skill, their appearance and their responses to questions. (Written film reviews submitted before the show were also considered.) I felt like a judge in the Miss America pageant, except I didn’t have to get dressed up or decide how sexy the women looked in a swimsuit.

We saw clips from “Forrest Gump,’’ “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone,’’ “Flipped,’’ “The Great Gatsby,’’ “Alice in Wonderland,’’ “Ice Age,’’ “Despicable Me,’’ “The Princess Diaries,’’ “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring’’ and “Brokeback Mountain.’’ Two of the students chose “Despicable Me,’’ though they picked different scenes.

I was surprised by the selection of “Brokeback Mountain,’’ and not just because frank discussions about homosexuality are rare in China. The scene was also peppered with lots of “fucks,’’ which isn’t a word you hear a lot on campus. Finally, the dubber was a girl with a high-pitched voice and a heavy Chinese accent, which gave a comical twist to a serious scene between the lovers played by Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger.

After all the film clips were shown, five female students dressed in shorts and tank tops did a dance routine that reminded me of cheerleaders performing during an NBA halftime show. Then the results of the dubbing competition were announced.

The winner was a female student who picked “The Princess Diaries.’’ (I preferred the girl who dubbed “Harry Potter’’ because she did a spot-on British accent.) “The Great Gatsby’’ finished second and “Brokeback Mountain’’ was third.

When the top three finishers were announced, several people started gesturing toward the table where Darren and I were sitting. Though we weren’t told in advance, it turns out we were supposed to come on stage and present the awards. So we dashed up there, had our pictures taken with the winners and were each handed a 100 yuan ($16.44) bill as a present. Refusing a gift is an insult in Chinese culture, so we accepted the money even though we didn’t want it.

I also learned a valuable lesson about accents. During the Q&A session, I asked simple questions like “What is the lesson of the movie?’’ and “What was your favorite character?’’ Still, the students had a hard time understanding me. The three Chinese judges asked longer and more complex questions (also in English) such as “What is the symbolism of the ring in the `Lord of the Rings’ and why do you think the author chose that title?’’ Yet the students seldom had trouble answering them. So even though I don’t think I have an accent, to Chinese students, I obviously do. (They couldn’t understand Darren either, but he has a very distinct Scottish accent.)

One of the Chinese judges kept asking the girl who dubbed “Brokeback Mountain” why the mountain was broken. The student was as puzzled by the question as I was.

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The language barrier can lead to embarrassing misunderstandings.

I recently asked 26 students in one of my freshman classes to name as many countries as they could in Africa and South America. Only two responded. One mentioned Brazil and the other said Egypt. I reacted with a quick lecture on the importance of learning world geography. When I finished, a student raised his hand and explained that he and his classmates did indeed know many countries in Africa and South America, but they couldn’t name them in English.

This happens quite often. Students know the answers to questions, but they can’t express themselves in English. The problem isn’t ignorance, it’s language.

That said, the Chinese education system does have limitations because of its emphasis on memorization and standardized testing. Students aren’t taught to act independently or how to solve problems. They can’t think out of the box because they are all taught to think the same.

Their education is also very Sino-centric. Chinese students aren’t taught much about other countries, and they aren’t told the truth about their own history. Few of my students, for instance, know about the great famine under Mao, the political persecutions during the Cultural Revolution or the brutal crackdown on the protesters at Tiananmen Square.

Emotionally and intellectually, my freshmen are more like middle schoolers than college students. It’s almost like they’ve been raised in a cocoon and are just now realizing there is a big world out there.