Today (Wednesday, February 13) was the awarding of the HSK certificates at Stedelijk College Eindhoven, which coincided with the Chinese New Year’s celebration.
The exams took place on 2 December last year and 24 students of the Stedelijk College took the tests at four different levels.
“I just wanted to do something interesting and challenging”, says Raquel Broekx, who received her HSK 1 certificate today. “I find it interesting how the characters are built up and the logic of it.” On our question if she has future aspirations in connection with China or Chinese she confides that she is going on an exchange next year and maybe likes to go there on holiday, but that she doesn’t have a career related motive at the moment. Her mother Sandra adds “it might come in handy as Raquel is interested in trade, but for now I am just happy she has a nice hobby.”
HSK is a Chinese proficiency test recognized internationally and the school is providing lessons since 2008. They have an official Confucius Classroom, which means that they receive support from China to teach and promote the Chinese language and culture.
Teacher Margie Li, has been teaching at Stedelijk College for 11 years. She came to The Netherlands 25 years ago to get a Ph.D at TU/e. She explains that the lessons start at a very accessible level. Step by step children learn Chinese and also about the way Chinese people think. This is unavoidable as the language represents the Chinese culture she updates us.
Merel Solinger, also a graduate gives us an example of that. “In a Chinese sentence the most important aspect comes first. So first comes the most important person or family member (the elder), the largest or biggest facet. Through this you learn about their history too.
At the moment 60 pupils are following the subject Chinese Language and Culture. The college sees an increase in interest for the topic. They think that people realise the knowledge might come in handy as in our Brainport region more and more Chinese companies are settling and also there is a lot of export to this Asian country. Chinese tourism in both directions might also be a reason to pursuit this additional study.
For Eindhoven News: Irene Martens
