The First Chinese Lesson of the Confucius Classroom at Riga Cultures Secondary School Successfully Held

At 19:00 on September 9, 2021 Beijing time, the Confucius Classroom at Riga Cultures Secondary School launched an online Chinese course. Affected by the epidemic, Chinese volunteer teacher could not arrive in Latvia as scheduled, but the epidemic did not break the students’ enthusiasm for learning Chinese. At the beginning of the new semester, Martins Berzins, deputy principal of Riga Cultures Secondary School, made a friendly contact with Li Xin, the Chinese teacher through e-mail. The two sides jointly discussed the Chinese teaching arrangement of this semester and determined the course time, the number of classes and the list of students. The day before the formal class, the two sides debugged the teaching equipment in the school’s Chinese classroom. Finally, Skype was selected as the platform to carry out online Chinese teaching, and Ding Talk was downloaded as a backup software to ensure that the Chinese class was carried out on schedule.

In the first Chinese class, Li Xin welcomed and encouraged students to learn Chinese, and then showed students carefully-prepared personal videos to let students more intuitively understand teacher’s interests and teaching styles. Then each student was asked to make a brief self-introduction. Some students said that they had the same interests as the teacher and hoped to learn Chinese with the teacher. After the students introduced themselves, the volunteer teacher asked the students if they had Chinese names. The students said no and expected the teacher to name them. The teacher said that she was happy to name them, so she asked each student to teach the teacher the pronunciation of his/her Latvian name, and asked about his/her personal interests and favorite Chinese things. The teacher said that she would give each student a Chinese name according to everyone’s characteristics. The students expressed their satisfaction and expressed their gratitude in English for the sincerity and respect of the Chinese teacher.

During the break, the teacher played Chinese songs for them, and the students happily urged the teacher to continue the class. The teacher introduced the contents and arrangements of the Chinese course in the new semester, including language knowledge, Chinese skills and cultural activities. At the same time, she gave the students the Chinese character “cong” as a gift, briefly explained the word “cong” to the students with animated videos, and put forward expectations and requirements for students’ Chinese learning. Finally, the teacher and the students discussed and formulated the classroom rules together. The students agreed with this and promised to help the teacher build a harmonious and friendly Chinese classroom together. The first Chinese class ended smoothly in this online video full of joy. Everyone is looking forward to the next class.

北京时间2021年9月9日19时，里加文化中学孔子课堂开展了线上汉语课程。受疫情影响，汉语教师志愿者不能如期抵达拉脱维亚，但疫情并没有打破学生学习汉语的热情，在新学期开学之际，里加文化中学副校长Martins Berzins与该教学点的汉语教师李欣通过邮件进行了友好联系，双方共同商讨了本学期的汉语课教学安排，确定了课程时间、班级数量和学生名单等工作，在正式上课前一天，双方对学校的中文教室教学设备进行了调试，最终选定Skype这个平台来开展网上汉语教学，且下载好了Ding Talk作为备用软件，以确保汉语课如期开展。

在第一堂汉语课上，志愿者教师李欣首先对学生学习汉语表示欢迎和鼓励，紧接着向学生展示了精心准备的个人小视频，让学生更直观地了解教师的兴趣爱好和教学风格。随后邀请每个学生做了简单的自我介绍，有学生表示自己和教师的兴趣爱好一样，希望能跟着教师有趣地学习汉语。在同学们自我介绍后，志愿者教师询问了同学们有没有中国名字，学生表示没有并且期待教师能为他们取名字。教师表示很乐意为其取名，于是请每个学生给教师教读了自己的拉语名字发音，并询问了其个人兴趣和喜欢的中国事物等，教师表示会根据每个人的特点来为其取名，学生对此表示很满意，用英语激动地说感谢汉语教师的真诚和尊重。

课间休息时，教师为其播放了中国歌曲，学生开心地催着教师继续上课。教师向同学们介绍了新学期中文课的内容和安排，包括语言知识、汉语技能和文化活动等，同时以汉字“聪”作为礼物送给了学生，用动画视频向学生简单讲解了“聪”字，并对学生的汉语学习提出了期许和要求。最后，教师和同学们一起商讨制定了课堂规则，学生们对此表示很赞同，并承诺会协助教师一起打造一个和谐友爱的中文课堂，第一节汉语课在这充满欢声笑语的网络视频中顺利结束了，大家都期待着下一节课的见面。