华人要学讲华语

Beth has started Chinese classes!

We sat in on a session at Werribee Chinese School Inc （伟利比中文学校）last Sat. Classes are held on Sat afternoons (1-3.45 pm...almost 3 hours!) @ Glen Orden Primary School, a run-down looking State school in the Birdcage area. Almost changed our minds about going in when we saw the trash-strewn school grounds and classrooms with neglected looking tables and chairs.

There are classes from kinder to Prep to primary, the teachers are from PRC (I'm guessing from their accents), and they're functionally bilingual. It was heartening to see a sprinkling of angmohs amongst the Chinese faces. In Beth's class, there are 3 non-Asians, and it was just wonderful to hear them answer the teacher in their Oz-accented 华语. Definitely put us to shame.

In one afternoon, Beth learned counting, colours, how to greet 你好！and respond to simple questions like 你几岁了？and had fun playing games that reinforced what was taught.

She came home with a student diary, exercise books to practise writing basic characters, and textbooks for conversation and 汉语拼音.

I'm thrilled to reconnect with the language again and hope some of that spills over to Beth. In her class at kinder, there's a Chinese boy from PRC who's effectively bilingual; Beth understands him, but refuses to speak to him or his mum in Chinese. Hopefully, that will change as she builds up her confidence. I'm encouraged to see she's going through the books when she's home and practising her writing and reading without any prompting from me.