Languages : Chinese & German

Celebrating Mid-Autumn Festival at Pulteney

On 16 September, our Years 7 and 8 Chinese students came together to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival with an afternoon of traditional games, language and fun.

Students rotated through a range of activities, including lantern riddles (Cai Dengmi), pitch-pot (Touhu), Chinese calligraphy (Shufa) and the ever-popular bean and chopstick challenge (Jia Douzi). Every successful challenge earned students points, which they could then spend at the highlight of the afternoon — a “blind prize box” auction prepared by our Year 9 Chinese students.

The auction brought plenty of excitement to the courtyard! Students eagerly competed for their favourite “blind boxes”, calling out their bids in Chinese. It was fantastic to see students using Chinese naturally and confidently while enjoying some friendly competition with their classmates.

The celebration was a wonderful opportunity for students to experience Chinese culture beyond the classroom. Through traditional games, language and shared experiences, students gained a taste of the traditions and festive atmosphere associated with the Mid-Autumn Festival, one of the most significant celebrations in Chinese culture.

A big thank you to our Senior School Chinese student volunteers, who took on the role of activity leaders at each stall, and helping to create such an engaging experience for the younger students.

On Friday, 11 September, we were incredibly proud to celebrate the outstanding achievements of our students in the SA Chinese Video Competition and the Outstanding Chinese Student Awards, organised by the SA Chinese Teachers Association.

With more than 200 videos submitted, all created entirely in Chinese, the competition showcased an impressive range of talent, creativity, and dedication.

Our students’ videos demonstrated not only their Chinese language skills and cultural understanding, but also their creativity, originality, and ability to communicate ideas in engaging and meaningful ways.

Video Competition Awards

•  First Prize: Jumela Jiang
•  Second Prize: Hannah Kroon and Anella Scoleri
•  Third Prize: Shan Feng Liu

Outstanding Chinese Awards

Our students also received Outstanding Chinese Awards:

• Seb Michael
• Jumela Jiang
• Chloe Liu-Kan

Congratulations to all our students on these outstanding achievements!

Their hard work, creativity, and dedication to learning Chinese have truly paid off.

Minmin Huang
Junior Chinese Teacher

Räuberessen – A Taste of German Fairy-Tale Culture

As part of their German studies, our Year 6 students have been exploring the fascinating world of German fairy tales. After learning about the Brothers Grimm, the German Fairy Tale Route and Die Bremer Stadtmusikanten (The Bremen Town Musicians), students discovered that food also plays an important role in many traditional fairy tales.

From the tempting gingerbread house in Hänsel und Gretel to the food and feasting found in many traditional stories, fairy tales offer an interesting window into German culture and history. To bring this learning to life, our students took part in their own Räuberessen – a ‘robbers’ feast’ inspired by the robbers in Die Bremer Stadtmusikanten.

Students enjoyed a selection of German-style foods, including Laugenbrötchen, different types of Wurst and Käse, Frischkäse, Gurken and Tomaten. They created their own Räuberbrötchen and, importantly, practised their German while doing so. Students identified foods using their German names, talked about what they liked and disliked and used expressions such as Ich mag …, Ich mag … nicht and Mein Lieblingsessen ist ….

There was plenty of enthusiasm as students sampled unfamiliar foods, compared favourites and discovered that learning a language involves much more than vocabulary and grammar.

The Räuberessen provided a fun and memorable conclusion to our fairy-tale learning. By combining language, stories and food, students experienced an important aspect of German-speaking culture.

Susann Loeffelbein
Teacher