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Chinese Immersion Day
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2018
Year of the Dog
The Department of Modern Languages hosted the fifth Chinese Immersion Day on Feb. 15, 2018 in the Student Union Apollo Room. Chinese Instructor, Haili Du , organized the immersion experience for 85 high and middle school students with at least one year of Chinese language instruction.
Together, we celebrated the Year of the Dog and helped students deepen their knowledge of the Chinese language and culture. The students and their teachers represented four schools: Dayton Regional STEM School; Fairmont High School; Forest Hills School District and the Miami Valley School.
Dr. Marie Hertzler, Chair of the Department of Modern Languages, welcomed the students. She encouraged the students to dive into the adventure for the next three hours as a speaker of Chinese Mandarin. Following the Chair’s remarks, Modern Language Chinese minor senior student Mr. Alexander Gilles talked to the audience in Chinese about his own experience learning the language at Wright State University as well as at Shaanxi Normal University for the study abroad program. He pointed out learning Chinese was not easy, but it will help them better understand its rich history, cultures and arts. With the knowledge of Chinese language, great opportunities and bright futures were ahead of them.
After pledging to speak only Chinese throughout the day, the students participated in four breakout sessions. In the Peking Opera Mask painting session, students learned to use brushes to put different colors to make a Chinese traditional Opera mask. Peking Operas are listed as the masterpieces of human intangible cultural heritage.
During the Charades session, students competed within small groups to guess a Chinese phrase. The winners of each small group then competed against the other groups using complicated phrases or sentences. All of the students were very quick at recognizing the characters and actions the words represented.
In the Chinese Culture Jeopardy room, the students were not only challenged with all the Chinese cultural knowledges, but also competed with speed and listening comprehension. This year the students got the opportunity to learn Fan Dance with Chinese typical Kong Fu music; students learned the Kong Fu postures with a red folding fan in one hand. Lunch was provided by our own school Chartwells service. The meal included prosperity dumplings, longevity noodles, with chicken or tofu.
Immediately after the Chinese Immersion Day, over 200 local students and visitors came to the Apollo Room to celebrate the Lunar New Year hosted by the Latino, Asian, and Native American Center. The students from the Dayton Regional STEM School and Miami Valley School gave enthusiastic Dragan dance and martial art performances on the stage. Everyone truly enjoyed the Chinese Qipao costume performance by Dayton American Chinese team. Visitors had a great time visiting different cultural booths.
2017
Year of the Rooster
The Department of Modern Languages hosted the fourth Chinese Immersion Day on January 26, 2017 in the Student Union Apollo Room. Chinese Instructors, Haili Du and Maan Broadstock, organized the immersion experience for around 110 high and middle school students with at least one year of Chinese language instruction.
Together, we celebrated the Year of the Rooster and helped students deepen their knowledge of the Chinese language and culture. The students and their teachers represented five schools: Bishop Ready HS; Dayton Regional STEM School; Miami Valley Middle School; Piqua HS and Springfield HS.
Dr. Marie Hertzler, Chair of the Department of Modern Languages, welcomed the students with the authentic greeting phrase in Chinese: “Chi le ma?”(Have you eaten breakfast?) instead of the standard Good morning! The students were surprised but happily responded. She mentioned the support of the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts who knows the importance of learning languages. She encouraged the students to dive into the adventure for the next three hours as a speaker of Chinese Mandarin. Following the Chair’s remarks, Modern Language alumna and 2014 Chinese minor outstanding senior Miss Ashley Binns talked to the audience in Chinese about her own experience learning the language at Wright State University. She pointed out that learning Chinese was not easy, but assured the students that great opportunities and bright futures were ahead of them. Ashley is going to take an English teaching position in a university in Beijing this spring.
After pledging to only speak Chinese throughout the day, the students participated in four breakout sessions. In the Chinese Knotting session, students learned to make a Chinese traditional decorative knot with colorful silky thread for holidays and special occasions. This handcraft making can be traced back over 1,000 years ago. At the Building Sentence session, students performed activities including recognizing characters by adding different radicles to different words to come up with new characters. Students also used the characters to make additional phrases which expanded to complete sentences. In the Catching Phrases session, students played a game taking turns picking up cards with a character or a phrase on it. The student with the card made his/her teammates guess the word or phrase on the card using verbal clues or body movements. This year the students got the opportunity to learn a dance – Ice Age Dance with Chinese lyrics and light, cheerful music led by Chinese instructor Lily Chen from Dayton Regional STEM School and Lee Huntsberger, student worker from Department of Modern Language. Lunch was provided by Tsao’s Cuisine Fairborn, a local Chinese restaurant. The meal included prosperity dumplings, longevity noodles, with chicken or tofu.
Immediately after the Chinese Immersion Day, over 400 local students and visitors came to the Apollo Room to celebrate the Lunar New Year hosted by the Asian/Native American Center (ANA). The students from the Dayton Regional STEM School and Miami Valley School gave enthusiastic dances and martial art performances on the stage. Everyone truly enjoyed the magnificent Chinese magician performance by Ms. Ying Li and Face Changing performance by Mr. Chengdu Li and had a great time visiting different cultural booths.
2016
Year of the Monkey
The Department of Modern Languages hosted its third annual Chinese Immersion Day on February 8th, 2016 in the Student Union Apollo Room. Chinese instructors Haili Du and Maan Broadstock organized the immersion experience for 120 high school and middle school students with one or more years of Chinese language instruction. The event celebrated the Year of the Monkey and helped students deepen their knowledge of the Chinese language and culture. The students and their teachers represented six schools: Dayton Regional STEM School; Piqua HS; Miami Valley Middle School; Bishop Ready HS from Columbus; and Seven Hills School and Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy School from Cincinnati. Dr. Kristin Sobolik, Dean of College of Liberal Arts, and Dr. Marie Hertzler, Chair of the Department of Modern Languages, welcomed the students, commended them on becoming bilingual citizens of the 21st century, and encouraged them to continue language study.
After pledging to speak only Chinese throughout the day, the students participated in breakout sessions. In the calligraphy session, students practiced Chinese brush painting and drew a Zen Monkey – the Chinese zodiac symbol of 2016. At the “Making Sentences” session, students enthusiastically created sentences with given phrases and competed to show their knowledge of Chinese sentence structures, character recognition and reading them correctly. In the “Let’s Talk” session, students played three language games to practice their verbal communication skills. This year the students got the opportunity to learn a few moves of Chinese Martial Arts led by Chinese instructor Ms. Gu from Miami Valley School. Lunch was provided by Timmy’s Wok, a local Chinese restaurant. The meal included prosperity dumplings, longevity noodles, and chicken or tofu. The Lunar New Year Celebration, hosted by the Asian/Hispanic/Native American Center, followed the breakout sessions. Students from the Dayton Regional STEM School and Miami Valley School gave enthusiastic dance and martial art performances on the stage. Everyone truly enjoyed the magnificent Chinese acrobat performance by Li Liu and had a great time visiting different cultural booths.
2015
Year of the Goat
The Department of Modern Languages hosted its second Chinese Immersion Day on February 12, 2015 in the Student Union Apollo Room. Chinese instructors, Haili Du and Maan Broadstock, organized the immersion experience for 117 high school students with one year or more of Chinese language instruction and together, we celebrated the Year of the Goat and helped students to deepen their knowledge of the Chinese language and culture. The students and their teachers represented six schools: Dayton Regional STEM School, Northmont HS, Miami Valley School, Bishop Ready HS, Bellbrook HS and Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy. Dr. Marie Hertzler, Chair of the Department of Modern Languages, welcomed the students, commended them on becoming bilingual citizens of the 21st century and encouraged them to continue language study.
After pledging to speak only Chinese throughout the day, the students participated in breakout sessions. In the calligraphy session, students practiced painting bamboo–the symbol of spring. During the culture jeopardy session, students enthusiastically competed to show their knowledge of Chinese history and culture. The breakout session, “Character Challenge”, gave students practice with recognizing, pronouncing, and writing selected Chinese characters. For the “Let’s Communicate” game, students played a bingo game that involved the use of verbal communication skills. Tai Chi Fan Dance was a new addition to the breakout sessions where students learned a popular fan dance led by instructor Marsha Markert. Lunch was prepared by Chartwells Dining Services and included prosperity dumplings, longevity noodles, and chicken or tofu. The Lunar New Year Celebration, hosted by the Asian/Hispanic/Native American Center, followed the breakout sessions. Students from the Dayton Regional STEM School and Miami Valley School gave enthusiastic dance and martial art performances on the stage. Everyone truly enjoyed the amazing Chinese acrobat performance and had a great time visiting different cultural booths.
2014
Year of the Horse
The Department of Modern Languages hosted its first Chinese Immersion Day, “认识中国 － Discover China”, on Jan. 30, 2014 in the Student Union Apollo Room. Instructors Haili Du and Maan Broadstock organized the immersion experience for 105 high school students with two years or more of Chinese language learning to celebrate the Year of the Horse and to deepen their knowledge of the Chinese language and culture. The students and their teachers represented seven schools: Bellbrook HS; Bishop Ready HS; Centerville HS; Dayton Regional STEM School; Miami Valley School; Northmont HS; and Oakwood HS. Dr. Kristin Sobolik, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts, and Dr. Marie Hertzler, Chair of the Department of Modern Languages, welcomed the students, commended them on becoming bilingual citizens of the 21st century, and encouraged them to continue language study.
After pledging to only speak Chinese during the day, the students participated in breakout sessions. In "Chinese Calligraphy" they practiced the art of using ink and brush, which culminated in ink on paper horse character 馬 and beautiful pandas. In the "Chinese Culture Jeopardy" session, students enthusiastically competed to show their knowledge of Chinese history and culture. The "Chinese Character Challenge" gave students practice with recognizing, pronouncing and creating language with selected Chinese characters. In "Let’s Communicate" students practiced speaking and listening skills through the telephone game and competed on speed and accuracy. Students enjoyed authentic and traditional Chinese New Year lunch fare: prosperity dumplings, longevity noodles, rice and chicken or tofu prepared by Wright State dining services, Chartwells. The New Lunar Year celebration, hosted by the Asian/Hispanic/Native American Center, immediately followed the breakout sessions. Students from Dayton Regional STEM School and Miami Valley School gave enthusiastic music and poetry performances on the stage.
The Department of Modern Languages' second Chinese Immersion Day will take place Thursday, February 12, 2015.
