Chinese teaching - transcript

My name is Anna Zeng and I live in Edinburgh and I teach Chinese in George Heriot's. People abroad, they think there are two types of languages in China. One is Cantonese, and another one is Mandarin. In fact, Mandarin is our official language and Cantonese is a kind of dialect which is spoken by Hong Kong people and the Guangdong people.

Like the other languages, we start from the pronunciation, like 'a-o-e' stuff. It's called the pinyin, and just like 'a-b-c'. And if you master the pronunciation of those pinyins, then it's easy for you to make the sound of those characters. And also writing is a very important part, because that's a core thing of our language, writing. I started from pinyins and also put in some cultural things like Chinese chess and calligraphy, and some history stories, which can be quite exciting to them.

The reaction varies, and some students, they are good at picking up the sound. Some are not that good, but they're still trying hard at their writing. I think they found it a bit difficult at the very beginning, which is understandable. And the material I give them can help to some extent, because it tells you how to... the order of the strokes. So I think to them it's like drawing in the very beginning, but after they have experienced writing them, they will find that there are rules that can apply, which is quite exciting for them.

I think, above all, people, or those teachers, have... how to realise the importance of learning Chinese and encourage the students to do so. As you say, they can go for the internet - there are a lot of very good websites they can study. And the materials always is not big problem, as long as you are interested and you will be driven.