On 9th March, 2012, Confucius Institute for Business London (CIBL) and Routes into languages successfully held a Mandarin taster event. The event aimed to make more secondary school students experience Chinese language and culture as well as university life at London school of Politics and Economics (LSE).
The workshop lasted for three hours, and attracted over thirty students from City of London Academy, Heathland School in Hounslow, Drayton Manor High School and St Angela's and St Bonaventure's sixth form. After receiving a welcome from Mr Nick Byrne, Director of LSE Language Centre, the students began their Mandarin adventure by watching a short video on Chinese language and culture. Guided by professional Mandarin teachers from CIBL, the students soon made their first step in speaking Mandarin. After a couple of minutes, most students could greet their friends in Chinese. They were then taught how to count to ten in Chinese. All these sections were just preparatory stages for the most fascinating language activity of this event----"shopping in China". The students were grouped into six teams and each team was given a shopping list. Like businessmen, the students visited different teams to find bargains, Mandarin was the only language used throughout the game. At the end of this activity, each team did a presentation with their posters to "show off" what they had bought and sold.
The three-hour Mandarin taster event soon approached its end. All the students felt very satisfied with their progress in speaking Mandarin. At the end, all students were presented with certificates. CIBL would like to see more similar events held in the future to help students know China and take on their Chinese studies.