Chinese 2020

Ni Hao! 2020 was an interesting year for the students studying Chinese at Christchurch Girls’ High School. The onset of COVID meant that physical classes became online classes and that Chinese character writing homework had to be shared online. Students brought their pets to the Google Meets (much to Hong Lao Shi’s delight) and we spent many lessons pronouncing Chinese words out of sync. It was a challenging period, but the students took it in their stride.

We have had a number of exciting events happening since returning.

The senior students were unable to go on their annual Chinese restaurant trip, so we got takeaways and bubble tea instead! The students tried a variety of Chinese dishes such as gu lao rou (sweet and sour pork), chao mian (fried noodles), and chao fan (fried rice). The students ate their food and drank their bubble tea while watching Chinese dramas on Netflix and had a great time.

The juniors put up with Hong Lao shi’s love of song and dance and learnt many this year. The year 9’s loved learning the xiao ping guo (Little Apple) fitness dance and the year 10’s memorised many of Hong Lao Shi’s original songs/chants. The students felt a little shy at first but were able to learn many new words and had a good laugh at the end of it all.

We ended the year with a variety of cultural activities. Students made Christmas cards in Chinese, practiced the traditional art of paper cutting, and tried some Chinese calligraphy. Calligraphy was challenging at first. Students had to write in the correct stroke order and use the right amount of pressure when writing. The students eventually got the hang of it and wrote beautiful characters by the end of the lesson.

Kylie Ang (Hong Lao Shi)