Beijing City International School's (BCIS) Chinese New Year festivities and Chinese debate teams' successes reflect the incredible work and efforts that take place in Chinese classrooms throughout the school.

Last semester two BCIS debate teams competed among 53 other teams and a total of 350 participants in the 2020 Chinese International School Chinese Debate Competition. The two BCIS teams performed incredibly - with the BCIS under-14 team taking first place, our 14-17 age group team coming in third place, and BCIS student Sophia Hou named as the Best Debater at the competition. Despite having limited time to prepare, the group of 14 Middle School students participated in six rounds of intense debates battling their way to the finals. Debating at this level not only requires clear and fluent expression, but also meticulous logic and reasoning skills which these students were trained in by debate specialists who taught the debaters as a part of their Enrichment Activity sessions. Starting with everyday topics, teachers initially train students how to clearly and succinctly express their opinions, from this they develop lines of argument to support their points, and finally these arguments are tested through practice debate sessions. The support of the Chinese language department and the determination of the students ensured these students were able to do themselves and BCIS very proud, and gain recognition for all their hard work. #BCISchallenge

The Chinese New Year is fast approaching and chunlian, or Chinese Spring Festival scrolls are a very important custom in the preparation for the festival. The father of Chinese teacher Ms. Mary Liu is an expert calligrapher and came into BCIS to teach Chinese and international students how to create their own chunlian for the New Year. To begin, novice character writers practice their strokes on newspaper, soon graduating to the real red chunlian paper under the guidance of the calligraphy master and their Chinese language teacher. Students transcribed their chosen Chinese character couplets onto their chunlian, which they took home to hang outside their doorways to bring good luck and fortune for the coming new year.

Chinese language and culture are an integral part of the #BCISpirit and #BCIScommunity. At BCIS, Chinese language teaching is not only to ensure students reached the required civil standards, but also to provide a unique and differentiated teaching and learning experience that is integrated and complemented by the multiculturalism and international teaching style of BCIS.