2013 ACT Mandarin Language Award Ceremony held in Australia
More than 500 students entered the contest activities this year, and of these some 90 winners were selected by one university, and the 12 participating ACT schools. Each school used its own preferred contest format, including for example: giving an oral presentation, free style dialogue, giving a film review, speaking contest, short film creation, and interviews. The award winners are invited to attend the ceremony event to formally receive their awards.
Ms Katharine Chang, the Representative of Taiwan in Australia told everyone how encouraging it was to see young Australians taking an interest in the Mandarin language and Chinese culture. She expressed hope that the students will deepen their knowledge of these things by studying in Taiwan. The keynote speaker, Professor Ken George, Director of School of Culture, History and Language at the Australian National University, congratulated the students and their teachers too for taking part in the contest activities and attending the ceremony. He shared his own experience of learning Indonesian and urged everyone to not to be afraid of making mistakes and to keep trying.
The annual ceremony provides a great opportunity for students and Mandarin teachers to meet up. This year it concluded with a presentation of 10 items, designed by students learning Mandarin, with the help of their Mandarin teachers. These clearly disdplayed the students’ creativity and growing ability to engage with a broad range of language knowledge. Among the many highlights were:
-Mawson Primary School: 2 songs sung by Grade 1, and Grades 5 and 6 students
-Kingsford Smith School video: Teaching you Mandarin
-Radford College: its winning short film
L- R: Prof Ken George, Director, School of Culture, History and Language, ANU; Amanda Andrews Principal, Mawson Primary School; John Stenhouse, Principal, Canberra College; Katharine Chang TECO Representative; Leanne Wright, Director of Learning and Teaching, ACT Education & Training Directorate; Graeme Lambert, Kingsford Smith School; Jan Day, Principal, Kingsford Smith School; Craig Edwards, Deputy-Principal,Gungahlin College; Mr Yuri Chih, Executive Director of the Education Division at TECO