300 pupils from Carlton Le Willows Academy immersed in Chinese language and culture

14/3/2018

On 9^th March, all year-7 students at Carlton Le Willows Academy, approximately 300 in total, attended a variety of language and cultural workshops led by eight NCI teachers. Students not only learnt some basic Mandarin along with a Chinese number song, but also did paper cutting, Taichi and Chinese calligraphy with brush and ink.

One of the highlights of the day was for them to watch a short video clip about Chinese pandas living in Chengdu Conservation Areas – the cute black and white bear cats won lots of wows and “how cute!” from the pupils. Many of them said that they really enjoyed the day event and that would like to go and visit China and see the Chinese pandas in the near future.

Feedback from the school was also very positive. “The workshops were varied and well delivered, they were engaging and all of the facilitators enthusiastic, “commented one teacher. “The students clearly enjoyed the activities and the fact they had things to take away at the end made it really special,” said another.

Carlton Le Willows Academy has organised two student delegation visits to China since 2016, with support from NCI, our partner Fudan University and our CI Ningbo Branch. There is a wall display in one of their halls full of pictures and student comments from the trips (see picture on the bottom). The next student visit is scheduled to take place this October. We wish the students another successful and enjoyable trip!

~ENDS~

诺丁汉孔院赴Carlton Le Willows Academy开展工作坊活动

文/吴昊 图/卡尔顿中学

      3月9日，英国诺丁汉大学孔子学院老师受邀赴Carlton Le Willows Academy（卡尔顿中学）开展中国传统艺术工作坊活动。该校七年级10个班约300名学生分别体验了汉语言文化，中国电影，折纸、剪纸，太极与书法活动。

     Carlton Le Willows Academy（卡尔顿中学）是一所以体育为特长的中学，活泼好动的学生们对中国文化表现出极大的热情。 汉语课上，学生争前恐后回答老师提出的“年”的由来，十二生肖等问题。学生在老师的带领下第一次学习了中文的简单用语和数字，学会了唱中文数字歌。

      中国电影课上，学生们观看了关于熊猫的纪录片。现场不时发出’So cute！’的赞叹声。在老师的带领下，孩子们学习了有关熊猫的基本知识，一些学生对熊猫玩具爱不释手，表示非常希望有一天能去中国抱抱熊猫。

      太极拳体验课程将含蓄内敛、连绵不绝、以柔克刚、行云流水的拳术风格尽数传授给学生，出拳、抬腿、打云手……

      剪纸、折纸课上，孩子们学习了剪窗花、剪“春”字，折灯笼。学生们通过自己的努力完成了自己独创的作品，打开纸的那一刻，纷纷感叹剪纸艺术的神奇。

      书法课上，老师教学生研墨，体验中国古代墨汁的诞生，体会中国古代的智慧；学习毛笔的正确拿法，体验书写汉字的乐趣。虽然孩子们并不能真正理解太多书法艺术，但都对这种独特的技艺产生了浓厚的热爱，纷纷尝试用毛笔描摹书写。

      Carlton Le Willows Academy（卡尔顿中学）学生和教师们给了这次工作坊非常好的反馈，希望有机会体验更多的中国语言和文化课程。