With the approach of Chinese New Year (Friday February 12th), the Mandarin Excellence Programme coordinators invited Tytherington School to provide the British Council in China with some video clips of our Mandarin students giving some information about themselves in Mandarin and English and wishing people Happy New Year.

In this Chinese New Year, we say goodbye to the Year of the Rat and welcome the Year of the Ox. Chinese people consider the ox to be a hardworking and loyal animal. Chinese New Year is traditionally a time when the whole family gets together to celebrate and cook. Children normally wear brand new red clothes, as red is the colour of happiness in Chinese culture. Parents and relatives give children ‘Hongbao’ which are red envelopes with money in. On Chinese New Year’s Eve, people eat dumplings and then set off firecrackers, as the loud noise is said to keep evil spirits away.

Here are some of the fantastic videos put together this week by our students. Here you can see Zachary Braddock (Year 8), Joseph Warrington (Year 8), Ben Thomas (Year 7),  Freddy (Year8) and Violet (Year 7) Hodgkinson, and Eleanor and Stanley Davies (Year 8), all talking about their hobbies in Mandarin. Iolo Foat (Year 9) is telling us he can speak Mandarin and Amelie Aldous (also Year 9) is talking about where she lives. At the end of each video clip, they say in Mandarin: Happy New Year of the Ox, wishing you good health and lots of money!

Well done to all the students who worked very hard in a short period of time to ensure their spoken Mandarin was perfect for these videos. Miss Kang is very proud of you!