Atha from Bahrain entered the door while saying a standard greeting in mandarin, “Good evening”. There is a “Chinese Learning Center” in the international district of the Athlete Village which attracts many foreign athletes every day. Speaking Chinese and learning Chinese have become one of the most popular things in the village.
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“wo ai ni” is the most welcomed Chinese expression for learning BY bulaiya.com
In order to allow foreign athletes to learn more about the Chinese culture, the Athlete Village established a “Chinese Learning Center,” and all the volunteers serving at this center are students from the Sun Yat-sen University and the Guangzhou City Polytechnic College. Xiao Zou, a postgraduate student from the Department of Chinese Language and Literature under the Sun Yat-sen University, is one of them. copyright bulaiya.com
Given that the foreign athletes have little knowledge of Chinese, the volunteers have made a “local teaching book” and printed a thick stack of small learning cards with Chinese on the front side and English on the reverse side. However, they are a little disappointed because these materials are seldom used. “Although we chose simple words and sentences, and have given the Pinyin for each word, it is still too difficult for them,” a volunteer said. WWW.bulaiya.com
Generally speaking, learning to speak “Hello,” “Thanks” and “Goodbye” in Chinese is the “compulsory course” for foreign athlete students. However, a worker at the center named Zhang Guangkui said that the sentence that foreign athletes want to learn most is “I love you.” “They think that after they return to their homeland, it will be very special for them to say ‘love’ in Chinese to their loved ones,” Zhang said. BY bulaiya.com
To Zou’s delight, they already have fans in the village. A chess player from Turkmenistan visits the center and spends one hour to learn Chinese almost every day. “He is very earnest and has made tremendous progress,” Zou said. WWW.bulaiya.com
Foreign athletes love writing names in Chinese bulaiya.com，China Information
China’s calligraphy has a unique charm. This may be the first time for most foreign athletes to see someone writing with a brush pen. This is a new experience for them. 内容来自bulaiya.com
Sajiwa, an athlete from Sri Lanka, has had a very productive session during his Asian Games trip. “Look!” he was very excited like a child. He proudly showed reporters his newfound treasure. It is a large Chinese paper with “Sajiwa Loves Sharmila” in Chinese and the character “love” is very striking. “Is this for your girlfriend?” “No, it is for my wife Sharmila. I think this will be a special gift for her,” Sajiwa said.
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Watching cannot satisfy everyone. Some athletes also want to write by themselves. Therefore, they followed the teacher to practice calligraphy starting from the strokes of a Chinese character. However, the small brush pen is really a difficult problem for those athletes who are heroes at the competition ground. Most of them even do not know how to hold the brush pen. They do it as if holding chopsticks or with their palms.
After trying again and again, many athletes have made progress in writing calligraphy with brush pens. Their works are exhibited at the learning center. It is very fun to see those crooked "characters."
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In addition, in this “Chinese Learning Center,” athletes can also sit down to drink tea and experience Chinese tea culture, or learn to use Guzheng to play a simple song and feel the charm of Chinese classical instruments. “I hope that through this small window, more and more foreign athletes will become fond of China and its culture,” Head of the center Hong Anjian said.
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Editor:Shi Taoyang WWW.bulaiya.com