\u201cJust keep going! Almost no one else will know we even messed up.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
9th Grade Mandarin 1 speakers this week practiced a song for Friday\u2019s Exhibition of Learning, reflected on their hopes for language learning, and prepared to present a homework project using photos of family. Only a dozen weeks into learning, these new speakers and listeners already ask questions of their teacher and hear her instructions in Mandarin, and recognize and improve their tonal pronunciation. Their teacher challenged them to practice the performance song with playful tweaks, like replacing certain words with a hand gesture and starting over if anyone sang that word aloud. Then they reminded themselves and each other of strategies for performing in a setting they knew would feel a bit nerve-racking. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
One student wondered if the native speakers attending Friday\u2019s Exhibition would laugh at them and another replied, \u201cWhat! No. They know we\u2019re Mandarin 1. They don\u2019t expect us to be perfect.\u201d In addition to some joyful rehearsal (and multiple \u201cdo overs\u201d when someone sang the trick phrase), students independently reflected on their goals for learning Mandarin throughout Upper School. Some hope to understand native speakers they hear around the Bay Area, others hope to travel in places where it\u2019s the primary language, and others aren\u2019t sure yet how they hope to use Mandarin by the time they graduate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\u201cWhat! No. They know we\u2019re Mandarin 1. They don\u2019t expect us to be perfect.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Their teacher reflected that knowing their goals for learning will shape both the course content but also their individual habits. Then students prepared to present information with visuals about members of their family, practicing vocabulary for relationships as well as traits and hobbies. Their teacher modeled with a practice presentation, showing members of her extended family and pets and telling us about memories with her father. In a final photo showing her extended family, she quizzed her audience verbally in Chinese, asking questions like, is my father shown in this photo<\/em>, and point to which person you think is my mother<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Emphasizing comprehension and use over memorization and perfect form, these learners are quickly growing in their comfort and access to this important world language!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cJust keep going! Almost no one else will know we even messed up.\u201d 9th Grade Mandarin 1 speakers this week practiced a song for Friday\u2019s …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":2524,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","content-type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[242,238,250],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-curriculum-connections","category-upper-school","category-world-languages"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hillbrook.us\/voices\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/mandarin-memories-1.png?fit=2100%2C1575","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hillbrook.us\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hillbrook.us\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hillbrook.us\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hillbrook.us\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hillbrook.us\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2522"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.hillbrook.us\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2522\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2527,"href":"http:\/\/www.hillbrook.us\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2522\/revisions\/2527"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hillbrook.us\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hillbrook.us\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hillbrook.us\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hillbrook.us\/voices\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}