Chinese Fun Night 2015: Summary and Photos

Last Tuesday, Oct 13, the Chinese language program organized its annual Chinese Fun Night activity. This activity is designed for first year heritage and non-heritage Chinese learners in the 8 sections of CHIN 101 and 3 sections of CHIN 111 students. Over 220 students got together and made new friends in Chinese. The night began with the xuesheng (students) bringing handmade business cards and family photos to exchange or share with other students, which they were asked to place in their ‘passports’–booklets with instructions for three unique activities.

These activities are designed to improve students’ ability to communicate in putonghua(Mandarin) while also building up their confidence, a critical step in second language acquisition. In addition to the basic patterns for exchange personal information and family information, students were involved in learning Chinese tongue twisters and songs.

It is a rare opportunity for students from different streams (heritage and non-heritage) and different sections to get together and experience Chinese outside their classroom and enjoy themselves in Chinese. As an encouragement to students, those who successfully complete all three tasks on their passport got the opportunity to participate in a lucky draw for candies or souvenirs related to the Chinese culture or Asian Studies.

This year’s activity is also very special in that students from CHIN105 003 were involved as volunteers for the activity so that they can help and encourage beginning learners to develop their Chinese proficiency through the activities.