HUAQIAO UNIVERSITY OPENS EXTRA CLASSES TO ALL ENGLISH-CHINESE MAJOR STUDENT IN UNIVERSITY OF CALOOCAN CITY

Raquel Montealegre

Huaqiao University offered additional Chinese review classes to all English-Chinese students of the University of Caloocan City with the aim of strengthening students’ understanding and skills and developing their fluency in the Chinese Language. 

Chinese Review Class

Photo courtesy of Glen Mark Barlin

The current Chinese teacher of all 37 English-Chinese students at the University of Caloocan City, 刘珊 Liú Shān shān, said that “attending the Chinese class with your assistant teacher helps you become fluent in speaking, writing, and understanding the Chinese language. This will help you remember all the Chinese characters after our original discussion is finished.” Not only does it helped them become fluent, but it also helped them pass all the examinations regarding the Chinese language. Huaqiao Universities’ personnel, regarding the collaboration with the University of Caloocan City, discussed putting on additional classes to provide the students an advantage such as giving them an experience in teaching.

Liu Shanshan assigned six students who are currently studying at Huaqiao University and majoring in Chinese international education. 4 students are assigned to the second year and 2 students in the first year of college. With that, they divided the students into six groups; each group has 4–6 members, and both north and south UCC has 3 groups.  2 groups at the second-year level and 1 group for the first-year level. Prior to that, all students are required to attend the extra classes once a week. Each class consumes 1 to 2 hours of class time, depending on the free time of both students and teachers.

The topic of each class is associated with the lesson that the second- and first-year students were taught. If the second-year students are done learning lesson 11 of the HSK 4 book, then the assistant student will use that topic to review them. Review classes are more challenging than the original classes since all the tasks given are not the typical activities given by  two original Chinese teachers. 

In line with this, one of the students from the second-year level of the English-Chinese department, Ms. Phoebe Ramos, shared her experience with the extra class. She said, “I enjoyed our review class. And I think it's really helpful because it makes it easier for us to remember new words and their usage.” With that, it's evident that having this additional class helped a lot of students become fluent in speaking Chinese.

BSE English-Chinese students showed their gratitude to the 6 amazing teachers namely, 李颖薇 Lǐ Yǐng Wēi, 杨莉 Yáng Lì, 黄慧青 Huì Qīng Mi, 叶婧婷 Yè Jìng Ye, 王斯 Wáng Sī and, 胡悦 Hú Yuè, who exerted effort on teaching without being paid. Their efforts paid off when most of the students passed the HSK (Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi) level 2 and 3 examinations and HSKK Beginner stands for Hanyu Shuiping Kouyu Kaoshi.