I have always believed that it’s a privilege to be a teacher – being able to learn with the students and watch the joy and excitement on their faces when they obtain the knowledge.  What a privileged time I have had!

For the kindergarten students, they have learned colours in Mandarin. We conducted a little survey in Mandarin and found out that the boys’ favourite colour is 蓝色 (lánsè) blue and the least favourite is 橙色(chéngsè) orange. We have learned about the three primary colours: red, yellow and blue. We did a simple colour experiment using the food dyes to make the secondary colours of orange, purple and green.

To accompany Stage 1 Inquiry lessons, we talked about the lights and shadows (光和影guāng hé yǐng) in Mandarin, the moon, the Moon Festival and the story about the Goddess who lived in the moon called Chang Er (嫦娥 cháng é). We also applied our knowledge of the light and shadows in a form of entertainment and we attempted our first shadow puppet show. Although we encountered some technical flaws we had a lot of fun.

Who doesn’t like food? Lucky Stage 2 students have learned about procedural writing by reading and understanding two easy recipes in Mandarin. They learned how to make Chocolate Strawberries and Popcorn. I have had fun teaching and discovering the boy’s cooking talents.

The Stage 3 students worked hard on discovering their feelings and emotions. At the end of the unit, the boys analysed their study techniques:

“I achieved this by assessing myself and taking my time and making sure I carefully read the question.” Nicholas (Yr 6)

“I did well because of the learning to type in pinyin. It really drilled the answers into me so I knew them off by heart.” Connor (Yr 6)

I would also like to thank all the parents who encouraged the boys to apply their Mandarin skills at home. I have had Year 4 boys tell me that they were teaching their Mum, Dad or even grandparents Mandarin either in person or via Skype. Learning languages is not about the test scores in the test – it’s all about applying it in real life situations. I am extremely proud of those boys who made it happen.

Eva Angel – Mandarin Teacher