Pilot project teaches Chinese language, culture
“Ni xihuan shén me yánsè?” Yan Zhao asks her students at Sir Winston Churchill Secondary School, speaking Mandarin.
Most of them understand her question: “What’s your favourite colour?”
They were spending their lunch break Tuesday learning the basics of a new language, and one poised to become more prevalent in years to come as China’s international influence increases.
Zhao’s students clearly understand the value of learning China’s official language.
“It could open a lot of doors, even just learning basic conversational skills,” says Grade 12 student Sarah Cameron, 17.
And her classmate Taylor McRae, 17, says a love of learning new languages inspired her to get involved in the pilot project, being offered twice a week for the first time this semester at the school on Glen Morris Drive.
Other students, including Grade 11 students Lichi Chung, 16, Kate Hou, 17, and Grade 10 student Kaiah Ing, 15, say they signed up for the program to enhance their understanding of their own heritage, and help them understand conversations of their parents at home. It’s a tough language to learn. “I don’t want to say you want to expect to be a bit lost, but you should be prepared to have to really pay attention,” Cameron says.
Even teachers Peter Domarchuk, Lissa Murray and Cliff Sayliss who sat in on Tuesday’s class found the lesson challenging.
While Zhao understands the challenges, she’s impressed with her students efforts and the progress they’re making.
“Chinese,” she adds, “might be one of the most difficult languages to learn in this world, and they are making progress.”
But Zhao is teaching her students more than just her native tongue. She’s teaching them about the people and culture of the country she left behind earlier this year.
After years of teaching English to students in Fujian Province in southeast China, Zhao travelled to Canada three months ago to start a job at Brock University’s Confucius Institute, working to promote and share Chinese language and culture with people in this area.
“I think it will be an honour for me to make any contribution to the promotion of China and Chinese languages, because obviously not a lot of English-speaking people know about China,” she says.
A lot of people here still believe that China is a developing country “with a lot of bad habits,” Zhao adds.
“They have some misunderstandings about Chinese culture.”
During the two years she plans to spend working with Confucius Institute, Zhao hopes to help educate Canadians about her country.
“China is a loving country, actually.”
And considering China’s growing international influence, she says understanding the most widely spoken language in the world, used by about 1.2-billion people, “will be a really useful tool, from a career prospect.”
“China is building a relationship either in business or politics with the rest of the world, and we would like to show that we are sincere,” she says.
“We are friendly. I think it’s not only about the role played by the country, but also us – as Chinese people, as teachers here – to render a good concept and good message to students and also people living here.”
Domarchuk worked with Sir Winston Churchill principal John Shaw and the Confucius Institute to establish the Mandarin Club, hoping the project “might be something great for the students.
“It broadens their horizons, gives them opportunities, opens doors, that sort of thing,” Domarchuk says.
“The reason the trigger was pulled here and no where else was because of the administration. That’s what started the ball rolling. Now we have this great experience for the kids.”
Unlike typical classes at the school, there are no tests or marks offered at the Mandarin Club.
Instead of being part of the curriculum that students are required to learn, Zhao’s students are there because they want to learn.
Zhao and Domarchuk are in the early stages of developing plans to give students an opportunity to put their new language skills to use.
A language immersion trip to China “would bring it up a level,” Domarchuk says.
While the students are already making progress, he said “the next step is to be completely immersed” in the language and culture.
Zhao says that trip, tentatively planned for March, 2018, will be “a great experience for them,” exposing them to the vibrant culture of China.
“It will be a chance to experience for themselves the real China, not just filmed or told by anyone else,” she says.
As challenging as the Mandarin lessons have been so far, they could be much harder.
For instances, the question “What’s your favourite colour?” looks like “你喜歡什麼顏色?” written in Chinese characters. But that lessons is still to come. “We haven’t gotten to the words yet,” Zhao says. “We are dealing with the sound and pronunciation first because I think daily communication will be the priority.
“Learning a new thing will be difficult, but I think we’ll start step by step from syllables to sounds and pronunciation, words and sentences. I think they are doing good here, and I’ll do my best to help them.”