Miss Min Chen changed her work place as required by her job

Min Chen, a qualified Mandarin teacher from the Confucius Institute at the University of Southampton, moved from Somerset to Southampton in October 2020 as required by her job. Apart from teaching Mandarin Chinese in the CI hub in Steiner Academy Frome located in Somerset, she also delivers Mandarin lessons at Barton Peveril College and Hope Community School in Southampton.

Barton Peveril College has adopted Chinese language as one of the Q-xtra courses since 2019, aiming to enable students to complete HSK1,2,3 courses and have an opportunity to get relevant certificates for university applications. The number of students in Chinese classes at this school has increased from 13 in 2019 to 21 in 2020, and from one class to two classes.

Min is also in charge of teaching Chinese in primary schools. Hope Community School, located in the city centre of Southampton, has decided to pay for CI’s Mandarin lessons starting from November 2020 after one year after-school clubs running by CI in 2019. Mr. Steve Wright, the principal of the school, said that the inclusion of Chinese as the only foreign language course in the school curriculum is a very beneficial exploration. Learning a different language and cultural knowledge from the domestic ones will benefit pupils in creating their multicultural visions from the early school years. The school plans to establish a Chinese learning programme from Year 3 to Year 6.

The year of 2020 is a year full of uncertainties and many changes have taken place in every aspect of life. However, acquiring new knowledge and learning new culture have always been an eternal theme.