Chinese at home 

LOTE Chinese

Thank you - our fantastic Bimbadeen communities - for your support to help our students with their remote learning of Chinese. Seeing the work of our students and getting the feedback from parents and carers really motivates me to do it better. There has definitely been a lot of learning for me, from starting to really use Webex this term, to exchanges with my fellow Chinese teachers about remote learning, to professional learning to design the best remote learning experience for our students... 

It has been great to see how resilient our students have been during the remote learning of Chinese for the past four weeks. Learning a language remotely can be challenging, especially when Zheng laoshi talks a lot in Chinese in the videos and no one around seems to be able to help (unless they know some Chinese). 

So here’s the first three tips to help you learn Chinese remotely (more to come):

1. Watching the videos in sequence (each video has a number) will help you understand the language better. Videos for each week build on the knowledge you have from the previous week, so watching them in sequence ensures you build up your language skills.
2. Watch each video a few times until you understand what’s been spoken in Chinese. Pause the videos to practice speaking and gesturing the words spoken, making sure you mimic the pronunciations and intonation patterns.
3. Understanding gestures as the remote learning of Chinese uses a gestured approach to help students understand the language. Gestures are used as a signal for students to produce the words and expressions in Chinese. It’s essential to know what each modelled gesture means so students are able to follow teacher talk or speak key words and expressions gestured by the teacher.

Please keep up your fantastic work. For any students who are yet to start remote learning of Chinese, TODAY is the day you start watching your first video. Please do not start from week 3-4 or week 5-6 work, go to week 1-2 first, as the language is designed to build on previous week’s language skills. 

Remember that Zheng laoshi is only one click away - please send your questions, photos sharing your Chinese remote learning experience at home or video clips of you speaking Chinese is always welcome! 

I look forward to hearing from you all. 

Have a great week ahead!

Zheng laoshi

Some of the examples of how our students have been learning Chinese for the past few weeks: