How to make Chinese cultures class more interesting?

To answer your question, to teach Chinese culture in a dynamic, fun and effective way to this type of young person aged 18-20, I offer my students the following basic activities.

Ice-breaking activities: catching peanuts with chopsticks, creating a competition by counting the number in 30 seconds. Suggest several little games to break the ice and introduce dynamics. After this phase, present a powerpoint on culture followed by a quiz.

Ask the students to prepare a group presentation on a Chinese cultural theme for the next lesson. Before the presentation, I ask the students to send me the powerpoint to check and correct any mistakes.

Another activity is for each student to prepare and sing a song in Chinese. You can also ask them to watch a drama and ask comprehension questions about it.

Use a manga for teaching culture.

Show a cultural film that presents an interesting aspect of the culture.

Finally, offer an initiation, such as caligraphy, cooking, taichi, a cultural visit, etc.

I hope you enjoy the preparation and the teaching.

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You can use the resource available in PDF section : 课堂游戏100例 1

Example of ice breaking games:
Honour: Boys pair up and link the first fingers of their right hands. They then start to pull apart. As soon as their fingers break apart, but not before, each boy calls "Honour". Whoever says it last sits down. His partner then finds another boy to play against, and the game continues until there is an overall winner.
Catching Seven Pieces: Originally played with small inch-square rice bags, this traditional Chinese game is similar to Jacks and Knucklebones and can be played with either, or even a collection of pebbles, if you don't want to make your own "pieces". You will need:

7 small inch-square bags filled with beans or rice. These are a fun project for kids to make themselves, and they will enjoy playing the game even more when they have their own "pieces" to play with. Instructions to make the little bags are below.

How to play:

Children sit or stand around a table, of sit on the ground. Take turns to play as follows:

Holds all seven pieces in one hand. Drop them onto the surface, trying to spread them out so that the pieces aren't touching - but don't spread them too far or the game will be difficult!

Pick one of the pieces up and toss it in the air, grabbing another piece from the surface with the same hand before catching the original piece before it falls back to the surface. Still holding two pieces, throw one up in the air, grab another from the table, and catch the air-bound piece again. Continue until you hold all seven in your hand.

Obviously the game gets harder the more pieces you hold in your hand. If at any time one of the pieces falls out of your hand, the air-bound piece falls back onto the surface, or any of the pieces not being grabbed are touched or moved, play passes to the next player.

When you get good at this level, try picking up 2 pieces at once, then 3 pieces, and so on - until you are throwing one piece up into the air and scooping all remaining 6 pieces into your hand before catching that first piece again.

Catch The Dragon's Tail: This traditional Chinese game is great fun for the playground. You will need a large group of children - at least 10, but the more the merrier! The kids can be any age. The children all form a line with their hands on the shoulders of the child in front. The first in line is the dragon's head, the last in line is the dragon's tail.

The dragon's head then tries to catch the tail by manoeuvring the line around so that he can tag the last player. All the players in the middle do their best to hinder the dragon's head. Don't let the line break!

When the head catches the tail, the tail player takes the front position and becomes the new dragon's head. All the other players move back one position.

For exemple, for the movie you can use: this movie "Shower" Titre original : "Xi zao" Realisator: Yang Zhang A young wealthy businessman's icy attitude toward his working-class background is about to thaw as he is forced to reconnect with his elderly father and mentally challenged younger brother, who together run a public bathhouse. After the movie, you can ask student to describe the movie, discuss about it and create a quizz ...

Another games to use for teaching is: Four Seasons Game
The Four Seasons game is a traditional Chinese game used to teach the names and order of the four seasons in a classroom or group setting. (You can use the game principle for teaching any other culture topic as well just use your own imagination)
Choose one child (or an adult) as a leader, to give directions and keep score. Divide the rest of the class or group into teams for each of the four seasons and sit them in a ring, in seasonal order (ie spring, summer, autumn, winter).

The leader starts by saying, “I am Spring. I am leaving.”

The children in the Summer team must immediately stand up and say, “I am Summer. I am coming.”

The leader watches to make sure that all the team members stand up promptly and correctly and make the right statement. If so, the team is awarded a point.

The leader would then continue, "I am Summer. I am leaving," and the Autumn team would stand up.

Variations:

* When the children can manage the seasons in order, the leader should start to jump between the seasons.

* When the children are consistently scoring good points, muddle the children up so that they are no longer sitting with their team members or in any particular order.

Hi, I would advise you to show a cultural film as a start, then after, ask some questions to check how much the students understand from the film. Finally, you can try some hands-on activities to strengthen the student's understanding of the story.

If the culture class is related to a festival. You know, almost every Chinese festival is related to a certain kind of food. Therefore, you can prepare some snacks for the class, and let the students taste them and give their opinions about the snacks/food. If possible, you can even prepare some festival snacks at the class together with your students. I think your students would love that. Good luck and have fun!

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