By Junerose Palmer
Advance skills teacher – Internationalism and Cultural Diversity
Harris Academy Chafford Hundred
Last summer, I joined the Experience China Course and spent three weeks at the East China Normal University in Shanghai, learning Mandarin . It was an excellent opportunity for me. Challenging but exciting.
Following my own experience and learning, I have been able to start teaching Mandarin to interested students and this is progressing very well. There are thirty students on the register and twenty four of them attend regularly. The lessons take place on Mondays as from 15.45-16.45. The students I believe enjoy the lessons because they turn up for them and they are also very keen to learn. We are on our sixth week of learning and we have learnt greetings, numbers 1-100, the birthday song some pin yin and calligraphy.
The students appreciate the fact that I am still learning the language myself even though I am not as confident teaching it as I am when teaching French. There is a native Mandarin student in the group and she sometimes supports us with our pronunciation. Also, once a month, we receive a guest teacher from Essex Jiasngsu Centre. She teaches us Chinese culture and calligraphy.
I am in the process of planning some thrilling activities to celebrate the Chinese Spring Festival in January (Chinese New Year).
There is also the visit to Beijing, Shanghai and Wuxi in October 2013. There are two places left. If you would like to join us, I will be delighted if you can come and speak to me.
Harris Academy Chafford Hundred is a very diverse outward looking school and we are always looking for ways of offering new opportunities to our students. Introducing Mandarin this year shows that we are school for the future.
Attached are some pictures of the class hard at work. The Learners of Mandarin and I would like to wish you a Happy Christmas and a successful 2013.
Happy Christmas Shèng dān kuài lè!!! Happy New year Xin nián kuài lè!!!
Click here to find out more about the Experience China Course
