St. Joseph’s Convent Students Impress With ‘Mandarin Experience’

Over 150 Form One students from St. Joseph’s Convent put on remarkable performances during a “Mandarin Experience” activity held at the all-girls secondary school on Friday, March 3, 2023, in the school’s auditorium.

The students, all of whom began learning Mandarin in September 2022, sang songs in Mandarin, introduced their favourite vocabularies, conversed in dialogue, and made individual speeches to demonstrate their aptitude in the language spoken widely in Taiwan.

The students’ quick adaptation to the foreign language was due in major part to Ms. Nana Lin, Mandarin teacher from the Taiwan Technical Mission (TTM).

The Embassy of Taiwan in Saint Lucia has been working with the Ministry of Education to implement the Mandarin Pioneer Program at St. Joseph’s Convent and St. Mary’s College since 2022.

His Excellency Peter Chia-yen Chen, Taiwan’s Ambassador to Saint Lucia, in his address to the students and others present, said he was taken aback by the fluency the students demonstrated in the language.

“Since arriving in Saint Lucia nearly two and a half years ago, I have attended hundreds of ceremonies, and this ceremony is the most enjoyable and most joyful of them,” Ambassador Chen told the students. “I want to thank you for making my day. Your pronunciations were so perfect that I thought I was back in Taiwan.”

He added: “I want to express my gratitude to the leadership of Hon. Shawn Edward, Mr. Leonard Robinson, Curriculum Officer in the Ministry of Education, Sister Rufina Donat, and all my colleagues from the Taiwan Embassy and Taiwan Technical Mission, Ministry of Education and teachers of St. Joseph’s Convent Secondary School, and especially our Mandarin teacher, Nana Lin.”

Mandarin teacher, Nana Lin, joins the students in singing a song.

Hon. Shawn Edward, Minister for Education, Sustainable Development, Innovation, Science, Technology and Vocational Training, said the students’ performance has convinced him that teaching Mandarin in schools should continue.

“We want every child who comes through the education system in Saint Lucia to have the potential to become a global citizen,” Hon. Edward said. “So that when you leave Saint Lucia, whether by choice or your family decides to migrate, you can fit anywhere in the world because of the training you would have received. Mandarin is being spoken in almost every corner of the globe today.”

Meanwhile, Sister Rufina Donat, Principal of St. Joseph’s Convent, said learning foreign languages puts students at a greater advantage in today’s world.

“There was a big discussion when we said that the languages must be compulsory up to Form Five,” she said. “Every child graduating must have a foreign language. We have been doing this at SJC for the past 15 years so that it puts them above.”

One student, in her speech, said learning Mandarin has been an exciting experience for her.

“When I first heard that we would be learning Mandarin at St. Joseph’s Convent, I was excited, and, of course, a little anxious. Thankfully, Mandarin class has been even better than I expected. I love learning this language which is so different from our own, yet so interesting. Although it is quite challenging sometimes, our amazing teacher has made learning easier with various activities which are interesting and lots of fun.” Other invited guests at the performance included Mr. Leonard Robinson, Curriculum Officer for Modern Languages; Daniel Lee, Head of the Taiwan Technical Mission (TTM); Nana Lin, Mandarin teacher from the Taiwan Technical Mission (TTM); and deans and teachers of Form One students.