Did you know that Edinburgh Zoo is home to the world’s first science specialist Confucius classroom?
On Saturday 15 October, some of our newly arrived Chinese exchange teachers joined members of the CISS team for a special pop-up event. As visitors made the climb up towards the United Kingdom's only pandas, they were invited to take a pit stop and immerse themselves in Chinese language and cultural activities.
The team helped visitors create bookmarks with their given name rendered into Chinese characters. How does that work? Well, when trying to translate a name, there are a quite a few different ways to approach it.
For a forename, you can try to break it down into its individual syllables - matching up each syllable with a Chinese character which has a similar sounding pronunciation. So, if your name was Lisa, you might use the characters 丽莎, or Lìshā.
Those still brimming with energy could try out the 毽子, or jiànzi. It's a fun game played all over China, in which players keep a feathery shuttlecock flying through the air using their feet to kick it back and forth between players. We challenged visitors to see how many kicks they could manage before it hit the ground, and those that made it past three received a prize!
After that, visitors made paper lanterns and tried their hands at traditional calligraphy. Thanks to some 'magic paper' those hands were spared any ink stains as here water was used instead of ink, and a quick drying fabric took the place of the more traditional rice paper. It's a little less daunting for newcomers to try this way and the fabric sheets can be dried out and re-used in no time at all (especially when you have a bit of Scottish wind helping out).
We also helped visitors make their own mini-book which they could use to try out a new language as they explored the zoo. Eager learners as young as 4, and as old as 60, sorted big and small animals and counted how many of each kind they had seen using spoken Mandarin and Chinese characters. Having a purpose to use new skills straight away is a big motivator and a really great way to get learners using their skills straight away.
We will be visiting the Highland Wildlife park for another weekend pop-up event in Spring 2023.
Make sure you're following us on social media @cissstrathclyde for more info on upcoming workshops near you!