LOVE CHINESE, INSPIRE LIFE

Love Chinese, Inspire life

The concert-showcase, Love Chinese, Inspire Life, which took place on 18 July 2024, during CCE Lesson featured four young students from Namibia, a sparsely populated African country with little resources.

The four students were from the Ovambo tribe and attended the ACC Africa’s Boarding School. They studied subjects including Science, Mathematics, and learnt not one, not two, but four languages—English, Chinese, French and their own Mother Tongue.

Our Nambian friends captivated the audience with a thrilling Wushu demonstration, several poetry recitals in Chinese, sang a couple of Chinese songs and Xinyao, before ending with one of their traditional Namibian songs. One of the two girls shared that she liked singing—and her unique voice, tinged with the golden timbre of music, was wonderful to listen to. They really motivated us to keep persevering in mastering the Chinese language, because if non-Chinese people could speak, write, and understand the language proficiently, we as Chinese people should be able to do so too!

Our Namibian friends also shared about the many difficulties they faced in the course of mastering the ability to converse in and fully comprehend Chinese, which is a challenge many Chinese Singaporean students face as well. The Namibians students did what we thought to be too difficult and proved to us that furthering our use in and mastering of Chinese is possible, if we put our minds to it.

It was amazing to be able to witness the talents of the Namibians as well as their determination, drive and generosity. They certainly left an impression in us Crescentians. This is an experience I would wish upon the cohorts to come.

Written by Alethea Kwek (1C2)

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