On Tuesday 8th December, Dr Jonathan Stalling from the University of Oklahoma presented a Jueju session on ‘How and Why to Write Classical Chinese Poetry in English’. In his own words;
“The beautiful thing about poetry and why I believe it is so key to language learning, is because it has a deep personal and spiritual connection to the learner. If students are more open and authentic, then the student in return will give you something really meaningful to them in poetry, which brings the Chinese language closer to their heart.
The more you link the Chinese learning to the culture, the closer their identity will become to be a long term Chinese speaker.”
The session covered:
- Using Chinese poetry to help the beginning of learning the language
- Cultural understanding
- What is Jueju
- Tools and online teaching resources
Please find the session via the video link below.
We would like to thank presenter Jonathan Stalling who delivered the session brilliantly from both our own Confucius Institute team and from our teaching community.
Within the session, Professor Stalling engaged with the audience, encouraging group to work in workshops to put together Jueju poems, with some impressive results from the teachers!
The creativity shown by the group was really impressive and these teaching methods will play a key role in developing the language skills and ability to students.
Newman Prize for English Jueju
In exciting further news, the Newman Prize for English Jueju is open for submission for the best classical Chinese poems written in English. This is the first time this has been open to students in the UK, and is offered as a collaboration between the University of Oklahoma and the UCL IOE CI for Schools.
A fantastic opportunity, with a prize of $500 for the best UK English Jueju – Please read the Newman Prize for English Jueju Flyer for more information.
Submissions open on the 20th December 2020, please submit your poem by February 26th 2021 to newmanpoetryaward@ou.edu
