The Online Chinese Course of Confucius Classroom at Riga Culture Secondary School Developed Smoothly

On September 3, 2020, local time, the Confucius classroom of Riga Culture Secondary School launched an online Chinese course. Affected by the epidemic, Chinese teachers volunteers are not allowed to arrive in Latvia for the time being. In order to ensure the progress of students’ Chinese learning, the Riga Culture Secondary School and the Confucius Institute at University of Latvia actively discuss the curriculum arrangement and jointly create a good online classroom environment.

This online Chinese course was carried out on the Skype platform and was strongly supported by the Chinese and Foreign language Exchange and Cooperation Center and the Confucius Institute at University of Latvia. This was the first Chinese class in Confucius Classroom at Riga Culture Secondary School after the epidemic. It was also a bold attempt to carry out online Chinese teaching in China by Chinese teachers volunteers in the context of the epidemic situation. It provided ideas and reference for the smooth development of overseas Chinese courses in the epidemic situation.

In the first online class of Riga Culture Secondary School, The Chinese teacher volunteer first get to know each other with her students and taught them some simple classroom languages. At the same time, in order to improve students interests in learning Chinese and enhance the classroom effect, the Chinese teacher volunteer prepared a lot of teaching utensils with Chinese characteristics, including paper-cut, Hulusi, table tennis, opera costumes and so on. What’s more, the Chinese teacher volunteer played the Hulusi online. Seeing this, all the students showed a strong interest. This has laid a good foundation for the future work of Chinese teaching.

Like the mountain range that stretches before you and me, let’s share the same trials and hardships together. We feel close although we are far away. Let’s join hands! In this special period, we overcome the difficulties and finally make the Chinese curriculum carry out smoothly. This has not only promoted cultural exchanges, but also brought a closer friendship between China and Latvia. Although China and Latvia are thousands of miles apart, they are close at hand. Latvian Chinese teacher Ma Xiaoxiao said that she hoped to make dumplings with Chinese teachers and enjoyed Chinese food. Martins, deputy principal of Riga Culture Secondary School, said he particularly hoped that Chinese teachers would arrive in Latvia safely as soon as possible .

当地时间2020年9月3日，里加文化中学孔子课堂开展了线上汉语课程。受疫情影响，汉语教师志愿者暂不能抵达拉脱维亚。为保证学生的汉语学习进度，里加文化中学校方与拉脱维亚大学孔子学院积极商讨课程安排，共同打造良好的网络课堂环境。

此番线上汉语课在Skype平台上进行，并受到中外语言交流合作中心、拉脱维亚大学孔子学院的大力支持。这是疫情过后，里加文化中学孔子课堂的首次汉语课。也是在疫情背景下，汉语教师志愿者于国内进行线上汉语教学的大胆尝试。为疫情中海外汉语课程的顺利开展提供了思路和借鉴。

在里加文化中学开学的第一堂网课上，汉语教师先与学生们相互认识。教授了一些简单的课堂用语。同时，为了提高学生对汉语的兴趣，增强课堂效果，教师准备了很多具有中国特色的教学用具，包括剪纸、陶笛、乒乓球、戏曲服装等。并线上吹奏了一段葫芦丝乐曲。看到这些，学生们表现出强烈的兴趣。这为今后的汉语教学工作奠定了良好的基础。

青山一道，同渡云雨。天涯咫尺，携手前行！在这特殊时期，我们克服了重重困难，终使汉语课程得以顺利开展。这不仅促进了中拉文化交流，更拉近了中拉之间的友谊。中拉虽相距千里，却亲如咫尺。拉脱维亚汉语教师马笑笑说，希望能同汉语教师一起包饺子，享受中国的美食。里加文化中学副校长马丁斯则表示，特别希望中国的汉语教师能早日平安抵达拉脱维亚。