Chinese Corner/ Speed Talking held successfully in Latvia University

2018年11月7日, 拉脱维亚大学人文学院402教室举行了又一次汉语角活动，这次活动是由拉脱维亚留华同学会、拉脱维亚大学人文学院、拉脱维亚大学孔子学院共同主办。活动主题是“限时互换聊天”，目的是为了让学习汉语的拉国人和学习拉语的中国人获得一个练习口语的机会。毕竟，在学习外语的时候, 最难突破的就是大胆去说。

大家面对面坐着聊天，五分钟以后就交换位置，所以每个人必须抓紧时间将自己要问的问题和想说的话尽快的说出来。有个别的初学者，掌握的语言词汇量还不够，如果5分钟交换一次语伴，就可以缓解因沟通话题不足而尴尬的局面。大家喝着茶, 吃着饼干, 聊着天。每个人都有机会练习自己的语言技能。学汉语的学生说汉语, 学拉脱维亚语的学生说拉语。一位学习汉语的拉国学生说：“我是拉脱维亚人, 知道中国人学习我们的语言，确实感到惊讶。当我来到一张桌子前, 听到他们用拉语说话时,我倍感震惊，因为当人们对你的语言和文化表现出兴趣时, 那是一种愉快的感觉。”也有学生说：“这是一次美妙的经历,遇到了这么多人, 听到了他们的人生故事, 交到了新的朋友。希望今后会有越来越多这样的活动。”

这次活动较之以前的汉语角活动，增多了学生说话的机会，让学生在交朋友的过程中练习语言，真正达到了体会真实语言环境，获取语言沟通功能的目的。（艾力塔-拉脱维亚）

On November 7, 2018, Chinese Corner took place at Faculty of Humanities of University of Latvia. It was jointly hosted by Latvijas Ķīnas Studiju Asociācija, Faculty of Humanities and  Confucius Institute at University of Latvia. Its topic was speed talking, because mostly, while studying foreign languages, people are afraid of talking, so this event encouraged all the participants to throw the fear away and try.

Everyone sat face to face and exchanged positions after five minutes, so they must use this time to ask and say what they want to say as soon as possible. There are some beginners whose language vocabulary is not enough. If you exchange the language partners in 5 minutes, you can alleviate the situation of communication due to lack of topics. Chinese language students could speak Chinese, Latvian language students could speak Latvian. A student said, “I am a Latvian, it was truly amazed by Chinese people studying our language. I was just blown away when I came to a table and heard them talking in Latvian. It is always a pleasant feeling when people show interest in your language and culture. ”

（Arita Karīna Braķe）