By: Daniel Charvat

The Confucius Institute has been working with local schools in their efforts to set up Confucius Classrooms. The project has been going from strength to strength with DSG and St Andrews planning to offer Mandarin courses from grade 9 in 2011.

Another aspect of the introduction of Chinese is the possibility of students attending summer tours, much like our Chinese Studies students. While the school tours will be organized and funded themselves, they hoped to draw inspiration from our previous trips, and use our experiences as a means of enticing and incentivising their students.

Students from both Chinese Studies 1 and 2 met with a group of nearly 50 St. Andrews and DSG students to present them with a brief overview of our recent trips to China. The school children were presented with a short slideshow highlighting the major aspects of our trips, and were also given the opportunity to ask questions about Chinese culture and the tour itself.

The presentation took place on Tuesday 19 October and the schools were grateful for our efforts and time, since the students left with a much better understanding as to what their trips would entail. Mark Havemann and Michele Ellis from Chinese Studies 1 presented, while Daniel Charvat and Gisela Zipp represented the Chinese Studies 2 group.

Last Modified: Fri, 05 Aug 2011 16:22:07 SAST