Jade Rat Farewell to the Old Year Golden Ox—Celebration of the New Year Warmly Celebrate the smooth development of Spring Festival Cultural Theme Course in Confucius Classroom at Riga Culture Secondary School

“Amid the boom of firecrackers, a year has come to an end. And the spring wind has wafted warm breath to the wine ” From February 9 to February 11, local time,the Confucius Classroom at Riga Culture Secondary School ushered in a series of the 2021 Spring Festival themed cultural course. The course was a total of four class hours, taught by Shan Qi, a volunteer Chinese teacher.

“The internet connected us together.” Affected by the epidemic, this course adopted the way of online teaching. Although the distance between teachers and students in China and Latvia is thousands of miles away, our “Strength as much as an ox” in learning Chinese has not diminished. The students’ expectation of the course can be felt through the screen. Smiling faces filled with joy and enthusiasm were their best feedback to the course. This cultural lesson mainly started from the customs of the Spring Festival, with cultural points and language points, so that the students can understand the culture of the Spring festival and master the language knowledge at the same time.

The first class mainly showed the origin and customs of the Spring Festival: from the cleaning, purchasing and decorating with lanterns before the year, to pasting the spring couplets, watching the spring festival gala, fireworks, gongs and drums, staying up and paying a New Year’s call, all of which were full of “flavor of new year”. The students concentrated on and enjoyed the Chinese New Year with me; The second class mainly focused on the language point teaching of the 12 Chinese zodiac animals. Considering that the students are in the primary stage of learning Chinese, the 12 Chinese zodiac animals were specially picked out in the class.We Introduced its origin and connotation in detail, and systematically learned the animal names in the Chinese zodiac, supplemented by grammar point “在 + verb + object” to carry out exercises; In the third class, we learned the Spring Festival greetings and watched the BBC Chinese New Year documentary to further experience it. Before the end of the course, the students expressed their best wishes to the teachers and all the Chinese people with the New Year greetings they just learned. The sound of “新春快乐、牛年大吉、恭喜发财、牛气冲天” was not only a perfect answer to students’ learning achievements, but also a good witness to the friendship between China and Latvia. The fourth class consolidated the knowledge points, and the students completed the Chinese homework – Chinese zodiac copybook. The students wrote very carefully. During the course, they not only mastered the writing of Chinese characters, the use of grammar, but also had a preliminary understanding of the Chinese New Year. Came back with fruitful results.

Although we were not able to celebrate Chinese New Year with the students in person,the enthusiasm of the students for Chinese closely linked us together. Several students even sent a video of blessing for the Spring Festival, which can be described as sending the true love through thousands miles. Even through thousands of mountains and rivers, the strong feelings between each other can not be stopped. The cold winter will eventually pass and we will be able to overcome the epidemic! As the dawn approaches and the spring breeze strikes, China and Latvia will continue to work together to compose a new chapter.

Finally, the Confucius Classroom at Riga Cultural Secondary School wishes you: Happy New Year! Good luck!

“爆竹声中一岁除，春风送暖入屠苏”。当地时间2月9日-2月11日，里加文化中学孔子课堂迎来了2021年春节主题系列文化课。本次课程共计四课时，由汉语教师志愿者单琪主讲。

“网络一线牵”。受疫情影响，本次课程采用线上教学的方式。中拉师生虽相距万里，但我们学习汉语的“牛劲儿”却丝毫未减。隔着屏幕就能感受到学生们对这次课程的期待。一张张洋溢着喜悦与热情的笑脸就是他们对本次课程最好的回馈。本次文化课主要从春节习俗入手，以文化点带语言点，让学生们了解春节文化的同时，还掌握了语言知识。

第一课时主要展示春节的来源和习俗：从年前的扫除、采购、张灯结彩到过年时的贴春联、看春晚、烟花爆竹、锣鼓喧天、守岁拜年，处处都是“年味儿”。学生们聚精会神，与教师一起领略中国年；第二课时主要围绕十二生肖展开语言点教学。考虑到学生们处于汉语学习的初级阶段，本次文化课特地摘出十二生肖，详细介绍其来历和内涵，并系统地学习十二生肖中的动物名称，辅之以语法点“在+动词+宾语”开展练习；第三课时主要学习春节祝福语，并观看BBC新年记录片，进一步感受中国年。课程结束前，学生们用刚刚习得的新春祝福语，向老师及全体中国人民表达了他们的美好祝愿。那一声声“新春快乐、牛年大吉、恭喜发财、牛气冲天”不仅是学生学习成果的完美答卷，更是中拉友谊的美好见证；第四课时巩固所学知识点，完成汉语作业——描十二生肖字帖。学生们描得非常认真，他们在这次课上既掌握了汉字的书写，语法的运用，又初步了解了中国年。满载而归。

虽然未能亲临现场与学生们一同过年，但学生们对汉语的热忱把我们紧密地联系在一起。有几名学生甚至特地发来了新春祝福视频，可谓万里送真情。即便隔着千山万水，也阻挡不了我们彼此间浓厚的感情。相信寒冬终会过去，我们定能战胜疫情！待黎明将至，春风袭来，中拉将继续携手，谱写新的篇章！

最后，里加文化中学孔子课堂祝大家新年快乐！好运连连！