If you live in East Lothian, chances are that in a primary school near you is a group of pupils who love nothing better than running around the playground singing “happy Birthday to you” in Chinese.
On 12 June, over 400 primary school pupils, teachers and parents gathered in Musselburgh to celebrate the hugely successful Early Learning of Chinese project . There was singing, traditional Chinese dancing, and even a Chinese version of the hokey-cokey – no mean feat!
Since October 2013, primary 1 students across East Lothian have been learning to speak Mandarin. Volunteers from the University of Edinburgh have visited the schools to help teach children (and their teachers!) how to count, name colours, introduce themselves, and even write simple words in Chinese.
Promoting language learning in Scotland
The student volunteers were awarded certificates by Dr. Judith McClure from the Scotland-China Education Network, to thank them for their contribution to the project.
The hard work of the children, their teachers and parents was also praised by Fhiona Fisher of Scotland’s National Centre for languages: “the Early Learning of Chinese project is a great example of how we can work together to ensure that all Scottish children have access to learning a new language”.
She noted that a primary motivation for learning a new language is the recent University of Edinburgh research showing that speaking a second language can slow brain aging . Ms Fisher then thanked all the organisations involved in the project, including Bilingualism Matters.
“The most important thing is to have fun!”
Friedericke Sell is a Bilingualism Matters researcher who is comparing the pupils involved in the project with those who did not learn a new language this year. According to Friedericke, the success of the project is due to one thing: making learning fun. From visiting the pandas at Edinburgh zoo, to celebrating Chinese New Year; from dressing up to playing games – not forgetting that hokey-cokey! “The fact that children are having fun means they are learning without realising it, the way we learn our own language” explains Friedericke.
Of course, we are not expecting all these pupils to leave primary school speaking fluent Mandarin. But bilingualism is not just about those who speak a second language perfectly, from a very young age. It’s about everyone who uses another language, no matter when or where we learnt it. And these children are well on their way to using Chinese. The ultimate proof? Mr Zhang Huazhong, Deputy Chinese Consul General, attended the event and understood every word of the children’s Mandarin.
