IN THIS NEWSLETTER…
* JUNE MEETING
Chinese University students – Growing up in China and Studying in New Zealand
Six Otago Uni students from diverse parts of China share their experiences. Find out how they became interested in Health Science, Biochemistry, Pharmacology. Undergraduate and Post Grad experiences. What influences are strong? Parents, peers, ambition? What next?
WEDNESDAY 19 JUNE 7.00pm
Venue: Home of Dr Haixin Jiang
55 Glendining Ave North East Valley
NB. Sometimes Chinese Language Senior Lecturer Dr Haixin Jiang wishes she had been a professional chef, so you will enjoy the supper!
* ANNUAL CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS
* KAZBA IN CHINA
Currently…Dunedin Branch Member Karen Jamieson is on a three month Ministry of Education scholarship in China on leave from Tahuna Normal Intermediate where she teaches a Mandarin class. You can follow her blog.
https://karen-jamieson.squarespace.com/
* MANDARIN IN DUNEDIN SCHOOLS
Recently…and coming up…
Worth reading the article below about a cultural event, and good news that Mandarin is being introduced into the curriculum at Otago Girls High School.
So with Columba College, Tahuna Normal Intermediate, Dunedin North Intermediate, and Balmacewan Intermediate, the opportunities are expanding. Keep up the lobbying.
From the OTAGO DAILY TIMES 15 May 2013
OTAGO GIRLS HIGH SCHOOL
Pupils enjoy taste of China
By Shawn McAvinue on Wed, 15 May 2013
Words, swirling silk and shattered plate iron made the schoolgirls scream in the Otago Girls’ High School hall yesterday.
Principal Linda Miller said about 400 OGHS pupils and 85 Arthur Street School pupils watched the Confucius Institute performance in Dunedin.
Mrs Miller, who took part in a principals’ delegation to China in April, said Chinese would be introduced to the OGHS curriculum in the second half of the year. Prof Hong Hu, the deputy director of the Confucius Institute at the University of Canterbury, said the tour consisted of 30 free performances in New Zealand schools that had, or planned to have, Chinese in their curriculum.
The performances were a mix of Shaolin Kung Fu and folk music and were funded by the Confucius Institute in Beijing, she said.
The tour gave prospective New Zealand pupils a ”taste of Chinese culture” and the feedback from the first three tour stops had been positive, she said.
The 26 performers in the troupe were split evenly to perform at Otago Girls’ High School and Columba College yesterday. The fast tempo of the bamboo flute solo by Wang Hongliang had the crowd applauding for an immediate encore.
Then the Songshan Shaolin Wushu Vocational Institute performers entertained the crowd by shattering plate iron with their heads and invited girls on to the stage to imitate the movement of animals, including a scorpion and a snake.
Read more articles in the June 2013 newsletter. To receive a copy contact Secretary Colin Child [email protected] Please put me on the newsletter mailing list.
