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Chinese New Year

Cartoon image of 'Year of the Rat' cartoon and Chinese symbol for Chinese New Year

Introduction

Thursday 7 February sees the beginning of Chinese New Year 2008, and offers a host of language-learning and cultural opportunities for teachers of languages other than Chinese.

This MFLE Guide to the Chinese New Year should help you find your way and give your students something to start their own research into Chinese language and culture.

Chinese New Year animals

The Chinese name each lunar year by an animal. There are 12 animal names so, following this system, year names are recycled every 12 years. Since this coming year is the year of the rat, anyone who was born in the year of the rat will become 12, 24, 36, 48, 60, 72, 84 or 96 years old during the year.

The animals and their years

  1. 1996 was the year of the Rat (shu)
  2. 1997 was the year of the Ox (niu)
  3. 1998 was the year of the Tiger (hu)
  4. 1999 was the year of the Rabbit (tu)
  5. 2000 was the year of the Dragon (long)
  6. 2001 was the year of the Snake (she)
  7. 2002 was the year of the Horse (ma)
  8. 2003 was the year of the Sheep (yang)
  9. 2004 was the year of the Monkey (hou)
  10. 2005 was the year of the Rooster (ji)
  11. 2006 was the year of the Dog (gou)
  12. 2007 was the year of the Pig (zhu)

San nin faailok (Happy New Year, Cantonese)

Chinese language special

How schools have started to introduce Chinese language and culture across the curriculum - interviews with foreign language assistants and teachers and resources, quizzes and blogs.

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