Alderney schoolchildren have a lesson in Chinese culture
ALDERNEY schoolchildren were recently saying 'ni hao' to a pair of teachers from China.
Ying Ying Ye and Yuan Xie travelled from Shanghai and Beijing to Guernsey for a two-year placement teaching Mandarin.
They made the shorter, but on occasion scarcely less ardous, trip to Alderney from Guernsey to help bring in Chinese New Year with local students ranging from Reception age all the way through to Year 5.
In their native country, both women teach English to Chinese students.
They were in Alderney for three days with pupils at St Anne's School – but both hope to revisit before returning home to China.
'The children have seemed very interested,' said Yuan. 'We are talking to them about Chinese New Year and Chinese culture. It's an opportunity for them to learn about a different culture, which they don't get the opportunity to do very often.
'We have taught them a few words of Mandarin – like ni hao ("nee how") and xie xie ("shi shi"), hello and thank you. We've also talked about Chinese art and cartoons. They seem very interested.'
The children also learned about Chinese traditions, drew Chinese letters and numbers and made spring rolls.
