大家好 (Dà jiā hǎo) – Hello everyone!

During the last week of Term 3 we celebrated Chinese language week. We decorated the school with Chinese phrase posters and Chinese lanterns made by the Year 12 Chinese class. Each day in the notices there was a phrase to learn and each form class was given a copy of the school prayer in Chinese to pray with the class. During lunchtime on Wednesday, Mrs Borger and her Chinese classes ran a few activities including Bingo with Chinese numbers, a Jianzi competition, a stunning Gu Zhen performance by Coco Yan, and James Qian and Jun Deng, Year 12 pupils, showed their expertise in Chinese calligraphy by writing pupils names in Chinese. The Year 10 class also had an opportunity to learn further about Chinese calligraphy with a lesson by the National Chinese Advisor, Fu Ji wei.

It is never too late to learn a language and as Nelson Mandela says: “If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.”

Here are some Chinese phrases for you to try:

你好 (nǐ hǎo) – Hello - pronounced ‘knee how’

谢谢 (xiè xie) – Thank you - pronounced ‘she-yea she-yea’

耶稣爱你 (yē sū ài nǐ) – Jesus loves you – pronounced ‘Yea sue I knee’