Confucius Classroom at Riga Technical University celebrates Spring Festival and perceives Chinese traditional culture

On February 1, local time, in order to celebrate the coming Chinese new year, Confucius Classroom at Riga Technical University launched an online culture course with the theme of “Spring Festival”. The  basic, advance and senior Chinese learners of RTU participated in the activity.

Jia kunnuo, a volunteer Chinese teacher, used the question of “What do you think about the Spring Festival?” as leading-in, and the students had a heated discussion, which aroused their interest. Next, played a video about the introduction of the Spring Festival and the origin, customs and traditions of the Spring Festival, Latvian friends appreciated the long historical and cultural connotation behind the Spring Festival; the explanation of dumplings, Tangyuan and other Spring Festival food revealed the symbolic significance of the food culture of the Spring Festival to surpass the material and turn the material objects into beautiful expectations.

In addition, Jia kunnuo made a comparison between Chinese and foreign New Year customs, enabling students to understand the traditional Chinese psychology and values, and found similarities between different cultures to promote positive interaction; she led students write the word “Fu” together, helping students understand the word “Fu”, which embodies people’s yearning for a happy life and their profound wishes for a better future. Jia kunnuo’s patient and detailed explanation attracted heartfelt laughter from time to time.

After the end of the course, the students sent new year’s wishes to the teacher and said,

“I have some fun learning new and complete unknown things at the same time trying to memorize the new words. It is rough but enjoyable. ”(by Oskars) ;

“I really like the spring festival culture class, because I can learn many new traditions and we also have a good time reading congratulations and poem. This is a very huge and important holiday for Chinese culture and I am glad that we learn more about it. ”(by Irina) ;

“It is very interesting , actually I like to learn about festivals in China and after the culture class I learned more about Spring Festival , such as history of it & Its specialty.”(by Sachini Ravisha Thilakarathne)

The Spring festival culture class is a new year gift from South China Normal University and the Confucius Institute at University of Latvia for Chinese learners from Riga Technical University and Latvian. In the background of the persistent Global Outbreak, I would like to thank the Confucius Institute for creating the conditions for teachers and students to get together online and watch the better year of the ox together with laughter.

当地时间2月1日，为庆祝即将到来的中国新年，里加工业大学孔子课堂开展了以“春节”为主题线上文化课程，该校的汉语初级、中级和高级学生参加了本次活动。

汉语教师志愿者贾昆诺老师以“关于春节，你会想到什么？”作为导入，激起了学生的兴趣，并展开热烈的讨论。接下来，通过播放一段春节简介的视频，对春节的起源、习俗以及传统进行介绍，让拉脱维亚的朋友领略到春节背后悠久的历史文化内涵；对饺子、元宵等春节食品进行解说，揭示了春节饮食文化超越物质、文化，为美好期盼的象征意义。

除此之外，贾昆诺老师对中外新年的习俗进行了对比，使学生了解了中国人的传统心理和价值观念，从中发现了不同文化的相似之处，从而引起积极的互动；带领学生一起写“福”字，使学生了解“福”字寄托了人们对幸福生活的向往，对美好未来的祝愿的深刻内涵。贾昆诺老师风趣和耐心详细的讲解不时引得会心的笑声。

课程结束后，学生们争相为老师送上了新年祝福，并表示：“我很开心通过今天的课程学到了许多关于春节新的知识，同时也记住了很多生词。”“我真的很喜欢春节文化课，因为我学到了许多新的传统，我们也学习了新年祝贺和诗歌。对中国文化来说，这是一个巨大而重要的节日，我很高兴我们对它有了更多的了解。”“这很有趣，实际上我喜欢了解中国的节日，在文化课之后我学到了更多关于春节的知识，比如春节的历史和它的特色。最后祝老师新年快乐！”

此次的春节文化课程是华南师范大学及拉脱维亚大学孔子学院为里加工业大学和拉脱维亚汉语学习者送上的一份新春贺礼。在全球疫情尚未结束的大背景下，感谢孔子学院创造条件让师生在线上相聚，在欢声笑语中共同守望美好的牛年。