Tag Archives: Mandarin Chinese program

01.31.25
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TNCS Rings In Year of the Snake with a “Scaled Up” Lunar New Year Event!

As a multilingual school offering instruction in English, Spanish, and Mandarin Chinese, The New Century School honors the Lunar New Year in high style each year. Celebrating the new year and observing many of its rich cultural traditions is not only wonderful fun for TNCS students and highly anticipated each year, it also finds them eagerly speaking, reading, and writing in Mandarin Chinese—as will be revealed.

This year’s Chinese zodiac representative is the Wood Snake, which heralds a year to explore, get inspired, and share your light—a nice respite from the challenging Year of the Dragon just passed. TNCS students did just that in the Lunar New Year Event held Thursday, January 30th: they explored, they got inspired, and they shared their lovely light with packed audience.

TNCS Community Sees Red!

As in, marveling at all of the beautiful red Lunar New Year decorations gracing the auditorium! Many of these decorations are actually projects that students in all divisions worked on throughout the month of January. You’ll see Chinese penmanship, history, lore, and more!

This event was planned and executed by Yan “Eve” Lui, who has lots of event-planning experience:

The whole Chinese teacher team helped a lot. Ms. Steffan and Ms. Simonetti played key roles in the planning and operating of the event. Ms. Steffan sent emails to parents for volunteers, and the parent volunteers helped so much during the event. Ms. Arelis helped to search the leftover materials from previous years. Mr. Mike helped with the decoration and the equipment setting and training for me.  Here are some key points that helped a lot during the planning:
• I asked Ms Jia for the experiences that she had during the celebration last year.
• During the planning meeting with Ms. Steffan and Ms. Simonetti, we talked about my ideas and how we should adjust and suit the best expectation to current parents. There are cultural differences and social norm differences, and it is the communication that helped us to combine my former knowledge and experiences in China with the TNCS school and parent preferences.
• Ms. Simonetti also has experience in event planning. She took care of the layout of the stands in the consideration of the queueing directions. She organized the student hosts scripts and prepared a stand for putting the scripts of the hosts. She also tested the volume of the microphone to make sure that it was not too loud. She organized the shop stand to make it look appealing. She brought table cloths from home to make the table look neat and nice. She basically took care of the control of the whole operation and many details to make sure it went well.
• I intentionally encouraged more students to participate in the event. I talked to their teachers and organized them to volunteer. They were the hosts, the helpers, the photographers, the video designers… This is part of education, which is to provide real situations to practice what they have learned at school and gain experience and real knowledge. They practiced self-confidence, communication, team work, trust, courage, offering help, performing on the stage, skills of design, and so much more. One minor intention is to make sure that they all come to the event. Since they were involved they and their family had to come. This is to make sure more people come to the event, and we did attract around 120 people that night. This is a big success because all our performances are to show how much we have taught our students Chinese language and culture. (The performances, the happy new year greeting videos, and the posters on the wall are all presentations.)

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TNCS Head of School Ann Marie Simonetti gave opening remarks, introducing the event and thanking attendees:

Xīnnián kuàilè—Welcome and Happy New Year! It’s wonderful to see so many of you here as we gather and welcome in a new year filled with growth, unity, and endless abilities. . . one that we hope brings joy and meaningful connections for all of you and us. We’re excited to share this special evening with you. I hope you enjoy the performances and all of the lovely things that our students and faculty and staff put together for you as well as, most importantly, the spirit of community that makes this event so meaningful here at TNCS. Thank you for being a part of our celebration this evening.

The audience was then treated to some video footage of TNCS preprimary students practicing their Chinese lessons with Liu Laoshi (Jia), who also teaches Chinese to TNCS middle schoolers.

Next, a video of TNCS K–2 students!

Then, some older TNCS students danced onstage in traditional Chinese clothing.

A group of 6th- through 8th-graders then demonstrated “pi ying xi,” which is a traditional Chinese puppet show using paper cutout puppets and shadows to create a beautiful effect. See for yourself!

After the performances, attendees had multiple activities to choose from, including traditional craft stations, games, and food—and even an auction for merchandise! Oh, and don’t forget the photo booth!

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About the auction, Eve Laoshi explained:

We purchased products that have unique Chinese cultural features, and then it came to us that we needed to introduce those cultural features via the products to the parents as well as to generate more revenue and create an exciting atmosphere for the event as well. We also chose good causes for parents to bid on and to support our Language Immersion Program at TNCS. That is why we decided to do the auction. We had a shop stand as well to sell all other products, and most of them were sold out that night. Ms. Simonetti has experience in auction operations, and it is her wisdom to put some items together and to carry out a casual auction that suited the situation at the event. She decorated the items gorgeously on the plates and had me show the plates around the audience during the auction.

Said Ms. Simonetti:

The event was a beautiful display of community and a reminder of the transformative power of coming together. Our staff, students, and volunteers brought the space to life with beautiful artwork, traditional decorations, delicious smells, and masterful performances. But beyond that, I felt like the presence of staff, alumni, students, and families—spanning multiple generations—truly transformed the space, creating a palpable sense of connection and belonging.

Happy New Year, everyone! 新年快乐! Xīnnián kuàilè! Honor this time to renew your goals, embrace changes that align with your true self, and shed your old skin!

Did you know that TNCS is partway through its second full turn of the Chinese zodiac? And that this is TNCS’s second snake year? TNCS launched in the Year of the Tiger, 2010. Since then, TNCS has marked many a Lunar New Year in a variety of ways!

Immersed had not yet met the world for the Lunar New Year of 2012, but you can be sure that Year of the Dragon was one to behold.

11.03.23
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Check-In with TNCS’s Elementary and Middle School Mandarin Chinese Program!

Multilingualism is a cornerstone of academics at The New Century School. The Mandarin Chinese program is therefore a “jewel” in the school’s crown, along with the Spanish and ELA programs. Speaking of jewels, the current TNCS Chinese team has the ongoing support of Xie Laoshi—aka “Jewel! Xie Laoshi is a veteran TNCS instructor, having led the classroom and multiple summer camps, including StarTalk! Xie Laoshi is very pleased to have mentored the newest member of the elementary/middle school Mandarin team, Jia Liu (“Liu Laoshi”).

Meet Jia Liu!

Liu Laoshi came to the United States in 2021 to pursue a master’s degree in Music Education at the University of Auburn. After graduating, she moved to Baltimore with her partner. As luck would have it, her neighbor turned out to be TNCs’s K/1 Mandarin immersion teacher Cui Laoshi, who recommended she apply at TNCS for the 2023–2024 school year. Xie Laoshi was immediately impressed with her work ethic, and she is now fulfilling what is known as Optional Practical Training during her time at TNCS.

Liu Laoshi is originally from Luoyang, an industrial city in central China’s Henan province, where evidence suggests Chinese civilization originated.

She plans to bring her musical prowess into the Chinese classroom in various ways to make learning fun and well-rounded for her students. Although she teaches Mandarin Chinese at TNCS, she has a rich background in teaching music—her family owns a music school (Golden Vienna Academy of Piano) in Luoyang, and Liu Laoshi still helps run it long distance.

Mandarin Chinese Curriculum

Together, the Mandarin team (that also includes Cui Laoshi in K/3 and Wang Laoshi in preschool) have ensured that the curriculum is up to date and effective. As before, Xie Laoshi’s approach aligns with that of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL). ACTFL continues to promote the 5 Cs—an ingrained part of the Mandarin program at TNCS from the very beginning, but they have adapted and innovated over the last decade to promote additional effective language instruction and assessment practices that align with current research in education and language acquisition. Among these, two prominent instructional approaches are “backward design” and “project-based learning” (PBL).

Xie Laoshi explained these two approaches in detail and how the Mandarin Chinese team implements them in the classroom.

Backward Design

The essence of backward design is to start with the desired results (end goals or objectives) and then design instruction and assessment to achieve these goals. This ensures that educators first identify the desired outcomes and proficiency levels for students, then they design the learning experiences and assessments to achieve these targets. ACTFL’s standards emphasize performance goals, which align well with the backward design model. By first determining what students should be able to do in the target language, educators can then plan meaningful instruction to help students reach those performance goals.

Project-Based Learning

In PBL, students work on a project over an extended period, which challenges them to solve a real-world problem or answer a complex question. PBL encourages authentic language use in meaningful, real-world contexts and promotes the integration of the three modes of communication (interpretive, interpersonal, and presentational). It encourages students to research, collaborate, communicate, and reflect in Mandarin Chinese, which makes the learning experience more engaging and relevant.

Part of PBL is the “can-do” statement: these are performance descriptors that articulate what language learners can do in terms of communication at various proficiency levels. They offer a clear way to describe language skills in the domains of speaking, listening, reading, and writing. They also serve as benchmarks for assessing a learner’s progress and growth over time; they help educators and learners to understand where a student is currently and what they need to work on to reach the next level of proficiency. In essence, can-do statements act as a bridge between the theoretical framework of the proficiency guidelines and the practical application in the classroom.

Want to see PBL in action? 

For their first-quarter project, TNCS students were asked to create characters and elaborate on who these characters are and what their lives look like. To familiarize students with what they were trying to achieve, Xie and Jia Laoshi used teaching language proficiency through storytelling (TPRS). They start with a one-word image and collaboratively build on that (such as with a name, gender, age, personality, and so on) to tell a story. Their launch visual was “door.” “Each day you circle around the image, building first maybe the appearance and continuing from there,” explained Jewel. Lots of repetition happens, and students start understanding grammar patterns and how to use conjunctions. They love this character, so they want to keep talking about it.”

Then, they were let loose to create their own individual characters! Part of the genius of this TPRS project is that students had to read, write, and think in Chinese, and they also had to present their characters to the rest of the class. As one student described it, “I thought it was a really fun project. It was really great to make our own characters. I learned a lot, and it helped improve my comprehension.” This student, by the way, is learning Mandarin Chinese for the first time! (Xie Laoshi credits the prework they did as a class as well as the concept of “comprehensible input”—a linguistic theory that states that second language learners need to be exposed to linguistic input slightly above their current language level so that they can understand new inputs—for this student’s success so far).

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And here is a sample presentation!

 

Other projects that TNCS students have been working on are what Liu Laoshi calls “mini Chinese dramas.” Fortunately, she is an accomplished videographer and captured one on film for us.

 

All in all, Mandarin Chinese class is a highpoint of TNCS students’ day. Xiǎngshòu nǐ de xuéxí, TNCS students! 享受你的学习

12.02.22
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Yujie Peng Takes Over Mandarin Chinese Instruction at TNCS!

Since its inception, multilingualism has been an integral part of The New Century School‘s identity, with instruction provided in Spanish and Mandarin Chinese as well as English. With long-time Mandarin teacher Wei Li (“Li Laoshi”) returning to China this fall to help her family, an important position opened up. As you’ll see, TNCS could not have found a more perfect new teacher to take over Mandarin Chinese instruction than Yujie Peng!

Meet Yujie Peng!

Peng Laoshi came to Maryland in 2012 from her hometown of Wuhan in Hubei Province in central China. She enrolled at Towson University to pursue a Master’s Degree in secondary education, having gotten her undergraduate degree from Wuhan Polytechnic University with the plan of returning to China to resume teaching English as a Second Language to high school students. She says, “It was really fun to be a high school and homeroom teacher in a public high school in China because I enjoy communicating with young people. After 4 years, I sought further education because the more I taught, the more I feel I want to improve myself.”

She gets her desire to teach (and to always keep learning) genetically—both her parents are educators. She says she always knew she would follow in their footsteps:

I love being a teacher. When I was in high school, I really appreciated my English teacher, and I knew I wanted to be a teacher like her because she was so encouraging and very caring. Now, we’re more like friends, and I still keep in touch with her, sharing updates in my career. I have also kept up with my professional development.

But returning to her high school classroom in China never happened. While at Towson, Peng Laoshi met and married her husband, who was studying information technology, and wound up staying here. Coincidentally, he, too, is from China, from the capital city of Fuzhou in Fujian province. The couple settled in Howard County and now have two children, both TNCS students as of this year!

But before coming to TNCS, Peng Laoshi taught for 3 years at Oyster-Adams bilingual school, a public preK–8 school in Washington, D.C. She taught students in 4th through 8th grades. The school was a dual language school in which students take some courses in English and some in Spanish and then switch them the following year. Peng Laoshi was brought on to teach Chinese as well as to create a Chinese curriculum for 4th- and 5th-graders (Chinese was already being offered at the middle school level). Peng Laoshi even picked up a little bit of Spanish herself while there!

A note wishing Peng Laoshi well from a former student.

While at Oyster-Adams, she took a graduate course in Trinity Washington University and earned K–12 teaching certificates for both D.C. and Maryland. She also attended as many Chinese education conferences as she could to learn from different teachers. She really is a born educator!

Peng Laoshi at TNCS

As for how she brought all of this teaching talent to TNCS, we have her 4-year-old daughter to thank. Peng Laoshi was eager to get back into the classroom after her children were born, but only half-day programs were available for toddlers. Coming to TNCS means that her daughter can be in Ms. Sharon’s primary Montessori classroom and her son in Ms. Weiskopf’s 2nd-/3rd-grade classroom all day, and she even gets to take them to school and bring them back home with her! Her children are “heritage speakers”—they were born in the United States and speak Mandarin at home. So far, they are both adjusting very nicely. Her son is her “helper” in Mandarin class, and she thinks the Montessori program is just great for her daughter: “I see kids working very well like in the mixed ages. They can learn from each other. The older students take the leadership to help the younger ones, and the younger students learn from the older ones.” Even on the weekends, her daughter is asking to go to school!

Back to Peng Laoshi, she joined TNCS in September and learned the ropes from Li Laoshi, who stayed through October to ensure a smooth transition. (Peng Laoshi covers instruction for students in 2nd through 8th grades, while Cui Laoshi continues teaching her K/1st immersion class.) The challenge has been differentiating instruction within age groups. She was accustomed to differentiating by age group, but now, she explains, she has multiple layers of differentiation to manage.

She quickly adapted and has figured all that out beautifully. Really, her philosophy of teaching is probably a big reason why. She also credits the foundation that Li Laoshi built, using a textbook focusing on real-life interaction rather than abstract linguistics. Peng Laoshi has used this foundation—and her education and experience—to develop and formalize the curriculum. She says that engaging the students is critical, not only to keep their interest so they continue to learn, but also because they work in different capacities to accomplish the needed differentiation, sometimes with her, sometimes in small groups, and sometimes independently. The work also needs to be meaningful to them, so, for example, the younger cohorts made mooncakes out of Play-Doh for the Mid-Autumn Festival in September, and all students are learning songs in Mandarin for the upcoming Winter Concert. Other “hands-on” activities for older cohorts include taking a walking field trip to a Chinese restaurant and ordering in Mandarin. “I love the idea that students can learn not just in school, but everywhere!” she said

The 6th- through 8th-graders went first.

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And the 4th- and 5th-graders were next.

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Games are another way she keeps students engaged. In one, she had students build towers out of vocabulary cards they made themselves. The group with the tallest tower won a prize. The hitch? Students had to demonstrate their understanding of the word to be able to make the cards and to correctly write them in Mandarin. “Students love to play vocabulary card games to review vocabulary. This year they make vocabulary cards for each lesson by themselves (a set of different color cards are given to them for each lesson,” she said (see photo). Here are some of the games they play:

1. 听音找字/Find a word

Student A: Read aloud a vocabulary word (e.g., 学) or term (e.g., 老师) or ask a question (e.g., How to say goodbye? Or when you first meet someone, you will say…)

Student B: Find the correct word card and lay it out on their desks.

2. 翻读认卡/Flipping Cards

Instructions: Spread the words out face down on the table. Students take turns flipping a card over and reading the word on the card. If they read it correctly, they win and can keep the card. If they do not read it correctly, they have to place the card back in the pile. The winner is the one with the most word cards at the end of the game.

Variation: To make this game slightly harder, mix up the cards when replacing them in the pile to avoid students remembering what word was on which card.

3. 排字卡/Make a sentence

Student A: Say a sentence (e.g., 你好吗？)

Student B: Find the word cards to lay out in the right order. (你+好+吗)

4. 抽卡配/Memory

Instructions:

  1. Student A and Student B put their cards together and mix them up;
  2. Spread cards out on the table face down;
  3. Students take turns flipping over two cards.
  4. If the cards are the same, then the student can say the word out loud and will win this pair of cards and may take another turn;
  5. If the student reads it incorrectly, they must return the cards to the table.
  6. Whoever wins the most cards wins.

5. 字卡宾果/Bingo (Group game)

Instructions:

  1. Group chooses the word cards they have decided to review from their own sets.
  2. One student piles up all his/her cards and mixes them face down;
  3. Other students lay their own cards out in a 3*3, 4*4 or 5*5 squares like a bingo card.
  4. Students take turns to pick one card from that pile and read it;
  5. Students who have this word card can flip that card over.
  6. Students who are able to flip over all the cards in a row, column or diagonal can say “宾果bin guo”. The student must read all the flipped over cards to win.

6. 拖拉机/Choo Choo Train(Pair/Group)

Instructions:

  1. Students pile up their cards and mixes them face down;
  2. Students take turns to pick one card from that pile, read it, and lay it down face up in the central area (All the face up cards connect like a train);
  3. If a student lays a card that is the same as one of the cards in the train, the player can collect all the cards between those two cards, including the two same cards;
  4. Whoever wins the most cards wins.

Although her classes are only 40 minutes long, she does everything she can to make them productive, often coming up with ideas during her half hour commute to and from school. She reflects regularly on what is working well and what might need some adjusting to make sure every student is supported. Routines are important, she explains, so that students always know what they should be doing and in that way making the most out of class time. Each class starts with deep breathing to help students get calm and focused, and then they dive right into the lesson of the day.

Her students did a beginning-of-year assessment and will do another at the end of the school year to see their progress throughout the year. “By the end of each unit, they do both a project and a quiz to assess how well they learn in four language domains: listening, speaking, reading, and writing,” she explains. “I also monitor students’ progress everyday through their work, their interaction with me, and with their partners. I give students frequent feedback and support whenever needed.”

Independent work often comes from a website and app she uses regularly called GimKit, through which she can set up games, homework, quizzes, audio, and so on. Correct answers earn either more power to continue playing against other opponents or in-game “cash” that students can use to enhance their profiles with upgrades or buy “powerups.” Peng Laoshi is able to monitor students’ progress within GimKit and verify that they have completed assignments. She also adds her own layer of earning rewards in the class as a whole. These rewards might be Fun Friday activities, extra time to complete homework, or stickers.

Duolingo and Hello-World are also still in the mix. No matter what students are working on and in what capacity (independently or in groups, in class or on field trips), Peng Laoshi makes sure that lessons are consistent so students continuously make connections.

It’s kind of a funny twist that in China Peng Laoshi taught English and in the States she teaches Chinese! But that kind of multilingualism in practice is very important to her:

I really love to see students grow. I really feel rewarded when I see students make progress, and I believe being multilingual helps their brains. They can see the same thing in different ways, and they are more open minded. It prepares them to be global citizens—they know different cultures, so they can accept different perspectives from different people.

In the coming year, we can anticipate another “visit to Chinatown” via the TNCS auditorium to usher in Year of the Rabbit for the Lunar New Year and lots of Mandarin Chinese learning. We are so glad to have you, Peng Laoshi, huānyíng (欢迎)!

The weekends, says Peng Laoshi, are for spending time with her family!

10.26.18
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MD Secretary of State Visits TNCS!

On Wednesday, October 17th, The New Century School welcomed some very illustrious guests. Maryland’s Secretary of State John C. Wobensmith, Director of International Affairs Mary E. Nitsch, and intern Rosanna Mantova (Intern, International Division, Maryland Office of the Secretary of State) visited the TNCS campus to see the Mandarin Chinese program firsthand. Secretary Wobensmith met TNCS Co-Founder/Co-Executive Director Roberta Faux earlier this year, who told him about TNCS. Based on her description of how Mandarin Chinese is taught at TNCS, he was eager to see it for himself. As part of the Maryland Sister States Program, Secretary Wobensmith and his team find ways to promote the connection between Maryland and Anhui Province of China, and education is a key area.

Ms. Nitsch explains:

Anhui Province, China, is one of 20 Sister States that Maryland has around the world. It is also the state’s oldest Sister State partnership, having been established in 1980. The program was established to provide a forum for the promotion of international cooperation and understanding. Through broad-based citizen participation in a wide variety of exchanges in areas of mutual interest, like education, arts, and culture, and economic development, the Sister States Program offers countless opportunities to develop partnerships around the world.

Mandarin Chinese Program at TNCS

It was easy to showcase TNCS’s program, owing to the amazing teachers and students who participate. The members of the Office were met at reception by Ms. Faux, TNCS Head of School Shara Khon Duncan, TNCS Dean of Students Alicia Danyali, and staff member Monica Li. After a brief welcome, the group began a tour of the school, starting from the ground up with Donghui Song’s preprimary classroom of 2- and 3-year-old students. Song Laoshi’s class is immersive; students are spoken to in Mandarin Chinese throughout the day. They are expected to understand and respond with the appropriate action to instructions given in Mandarin—and they do so beautifully. Not long after entering the classroom for the first time, they begin speaking a few words and singing songs.

The group next visited Lisa Reynolds’ primary classroom on the second floor. At ages 3 through 5 years, primary students are no longer in an immersion environment but are taught both Mandarin Chinese and Spanish (in addition to the Montessori curriculum representative of the primary program) and have native-speaking assistant teachers rotating through the classrooms and conversing with and instructing students in their native languages. At these ages, students are not just responding to instructions but are rapidly increasing their verbal skills. They demonstrate perfect intonation and pronunciation. They begin to recognize Chinese characters.

They charmed the visitors, saying “hello” and “welcome” in Mandarin.

Hope to see you again!

The group continued their climb through building south, headed next to Pei Ge’s kindergarten/1st-grade classroom on the third floor. The members of the Office of Secretary of State were very impressed by what they witnessed here. The entire classroom was bubbling with eagerness, a testament to Ge Laoshi’s teaching skills, and their Mandarin is nothing short of amazing.

Throughout the tour, Ms. Faux explained details about the school and its approach. “It’s less about being a linguist,” she said, “and really more about becoming a global citizen.” Thus, culture is an important emphasis and taught alongside the target language. So the visitors could get the full picture, the group also visited Barbara Sanchez’s 2nd-/3rd-grade Spanish classroom. These students also learn Mandarin, but, at the mid-to-upper elementary level, core subjects are partially taught in the target language, so, in addition to Spanish Language Arts, Sra. Sanchez integrates Spanish into her Math and Global Studies lessons.

Ms. Faux gave a quick powerpoint overview of the school, including the background, history, and overall ethos, and then the group finished up their classroom tour in Wei Li’s middle school lesson. Li Laoshi led the 6th- through 8th-graders in a conversation in Mandarin, then had them write sentences using Chinese characters and finish by making a presentation.

The group wrapped up the tour in TNCS’s beautiful Union Box space inside building North, which provided a chance to talk about the history of St. Stanislaus Cathedral and the Mother Seton Academy, and how they became part of TNCS’s campus.

Said Ms. Nitsch in a follow-up email: “One of the nicest parts of my job is having the opportunity to personally experience so many of the wonderful international programs and projects that are taking place around the state. As a former ESL teacher, I truly appreciate how important multilingualism and multiculturalism are to our state and country’s future success. And, as a Baltimore resident, it’s inspiring to know we have such wonderful resources like TNCS here in the city.”

For his part, Secretary Wobensmith declared himself “totally smitten” with TNCS. “Your enterprise. . .  is a remarkable effort, and it struck me that you have done it exactly right in all aspects. Congratulations!” he said. When he asked Ms. Faux about the possibility of expanding to other locations, she thought for a moment and then replied, “We have built a very strong community here, and that might be hard to replicate somewhere else.” It’s true—that foundation of families, teachers, students, staff, and everyone else who is part of the TNCS community is integral to the school’s continued success.

The visit by the members of the Office of the Secretary of State will not soon be forgotten. TNCS will cherish the memory of this great honor!

md-secretary-of-state-visits-tncs-mandarin-program

11.20.15
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TNCS Visits Schools in China!

tncs-chinese-bridge-delegation

2015 Chinese Bridge–American School Principals’ Trip to China Forum

This month, The New Century School was pleased and honored to be part of the 2015 Chinese Bridge Delegation to China. This annual 9-day educational program aims to help K–12 schools strengthen their Chinese programs and partnerships. School visits, cultural activities, and educational workshops comprise the itinerary for this very special opportunity.

The delegation is hosted by Hanban/Confucius Institute Headquarters in China in conjunction with The K–12 College Board. Hanban is the executive body of the Chinese Language Council International, an organization affiliated with the Chinese Ministry of Education of China. Hanban’s mission is to “[make] Chinese language and culture teaching resources and services available to the world, to [meet] the demands of overseas Chinese learners to the utmost, [and] to [contribute] to the formation of a world of cultural diversity and harmony.”

Welcome speech by Xu Lin, Director General (Vice Minister), Hanban of China Chief Executive, Confucius Institute Headquarters, P. R. China.
Hanban Headquarters in Beijing.

The 250-member delegation comprising school representatives from all across the United States arrived in Beijing on November 10th and from there dispersed into smaller groups to visit respective provinces. TNCS had the good fortune to visit Tianjin, a bustling port city of ~15 million residents in northeastern China. Tianjin’s mix of traditional and modern architecture is quite renowned, perhaps only slightly less famous than its cuisine. In Tianjin, guests are traditionally welcomed with all manner of noodle dishes and bade farewell with an equal variety of dumplings. But the most well-known Tianjin delicacy is “da mahua,” or 麻花.

The Tianjin Eye on the Hai River has the distinction of being the world’s only ferris wheel to have been built atop a bridge!
The Ma Hua Culture Center in Tianjin.
Da mahua is a fried dough twist made with ingredients such as flour, sesame, walnut, peanuts, osmanthus, and other variations. Rock sugar provides sweetness.

Despite all of the amazing sights Tianjin had to offer such as Wudadao (Five Great Avenues) and the surrounding historic districts, however, the real purpose of the visit was to tour schools. TNCS was very warmly welcomed by Kunming Road Primary School and Weishan Road High School, with whom friendships were made and future partnerships proposed.

Students from Kunming Road Primary School pulled out all the stops to welcome the Chinese Bridge Delegation.
The paparazzi followed the delegation everywhere :)!
These 3rd-graders show their respect for their teacher by turning their palms inward when raising their hands . They also sit on their hands to prevent fidgeting during instruction!
After a lovely cultural presentation on traditional Chinese dancing by various ethnic groups, these little ambassadors shared delicious local grapes.
A welcome from Weishan Road High School.
Weishan Road High School students—more than 1,500 of them—take morning exercises in two shifts.
TNCS!

During the school visits, the delegation met with Chinese educators, observed classes, and interacted with students. The graciousness with which Principal Li and Principle Wen welcomed the delegation into their respective schools was wonderful to experience. It was clear that they were striving to impress the delegation in the hopes of establishing meaningful partnerships with U.S. schools.

The Tianjin visit culminated with a very special tour of Tianjin International Chinese College, which hosts students from abroad to learn the Mandarin Chinese language and be immersed in several facets of Chinese culture.

The president of Tianjin International Chinese College, Zhao Hongtao, is presented with a plaque of appreciation by College Board vice president, Jim Montoya.

After a few days, the delegation in its entirety regrouped in Beijing to visit one more primary school, network with U.S. colleagues, attend presentations on best practices, and gather resources to build and support Chinese language and culture programs. TNCS will soon reap the benefits of this incredibly productive visit to China from increased idea exchange and resources as well as personal contacts.

Students wave Chinese and American flags to demonstrate our shared interest in improving education.
Students from Qi Ying Primary School greet the delegation.
Breakout session: Spotlight on Developing Successful Partnerships.

Everywhere the delegation went, they received four-star treatment . . . and lots of entertainment in the form of singing, dancing, and more. TNCS students might just recognize this lovely song . . .

感谢您阅读! Gǎnxiè nín yuèdú!