Online Mid-Autumn Festival Cultural Class Launched in Confucius Classroom at Daugavpils University

On September 29, 2020,local time, the Grade2 students in Confucius Classroom at Daugavpils University had a “special” culture class for the Mid-Autumn Festival. Affected by the epidemic, some Chinese courses in Confucius Classroom at Daugavpils University are online, which are undertaken by Chinese volunteer teacher Gao Qing in China. As China’s Mid-Autumn Festival is coming soon, students in the Confucius Classroom at Daugavpils University also received blessings from thousands of miles away. As the famous ancient Chinese poem said “Wish us a long life to share the graceful moonlight, though thousands of miles apart”, Chinese volunteer teacher Gao Qing said, “although we are far away, we share a full moon. I wish you all the best.”

In this cultural class of the Mid-Autumn Festival, the students learned about the time, legends, main customs and greetings of the Mid-Autumn Festival, and learned the relevant Chinese expressions. The teacher told the students that the Mid-Autumn Festival, as the most important traditional festival except the Spring Festival,is significant to Chinese people. It represents reunion and happiness. In order to make up for the lack of real experience in this cultural class and further stimulate students’ interests, the teacher also took students to watch the cartoon video of Chang’e flying to the moon, and carried out classroom activities such as online riddle guessing and learning the Chinese song “the moon represents my heart”. The students said that the song expressing love with moon was very beautiful.

The development of modern distance education technology provides various possibilities for the interest and interaction of online teaching activities, and also provides effective assistance for teachers to enrich teaching.In the future, we look forward to promoting more cultural exchanges between China and foreign countries relying on the platform of science and technology.

当地时间9月29日，道加瓦皮尔斯大学孔子课堂二年级学生上了一堂“特别”的中秋节文化课。受疫情影响，道加瓦皮尔斯大学孔子课堂的部分汉语课程为线上形式，由汉语志愿者老师高晴在国内承担。正值中国的中秋佳节来临之际，道加瓦皮尔斯大学孔子课堂的学生们也收到了来自远隔千里的祝福。正如那句有名的中国古诗“但愿人长久，千里共婵娟”，汉语志愿者老师高晴说“我们虽然离得很远，但同享一轮圆月，祝你们一切顺利。”

在这节中秋节文化课上，学生们了解了中秋节的时间、故事传说、主要习俗和祝福语，学习了相关的汉语表达。老师告诉学生，中秋节作为除春节以外最重要的传统节日，对中国人的意义不同寻常，它代表着团圆、幸福、美满。为了弥补这堂文化课缺乏体验的不足，进一步激发学生的兴趣，老师也带大家观看了嫦娥奔月的动画视频，进行了线上猜灯谜、学习中文歌《月亮代表我的心》等课堂活动，学生们表示这首用月亮表达爱情的歌曲很美。

现代远程教育技术的发展为线上教学活动的趣味性和互动性提供了多样的可能，也为教师丰富教学的开展提供了得力的辅助。今后，我们期待依托科学技术平台促进更多的中外文化交流。