On April 14th, 2024 from 1:30 PM to 5:00 PM the Roslyn AYLUS branch assisted with teachers from the Chinese Cultural Association of Long Island.
AYLUS Roslyn branch assisted the teaching of the students at the Chinese School. We had tasks like copying down the meanings of vocabulary words in both English and writing the pinyin version of it. PInyin is the Romanized version of Mandarin which makes it easier for the students to understand Mandarin. Some of our other tasks were to accompany the students to the bathroom, help the students with their work, and copy papers that the teachers might need. It was a special day for the school because we had to go to the West Gym for the poetry competition. All the classes streamed into the gymnasium and the classes took their seats. Class by class, each class recited their poems after that the individual students would recite their poems. The young students’ quick grasp of Mandarin was apparent and was shown through their poems. Finally, when the competition was over, we had to go to out culture classes. I went to calligraphy, where I helped the student with their ink, giving them practice paper, cleaning up their messes, and helping them with their strokes. The class worked quietly and diligently writing down traditional Chinese proverbs. Soon after the class was over and the teacher’s assistants helped clean up the desks.
Volunteering at the Chinese School is always a pleasure and it is amazing to see how traditions are passed down from generation to generation. The ability to speak multiple languages is incredibly important and sought after. And the children’s ability to speak multiple languages at such a young age is impressive.
Members who participated: Hunter Chen (3.5 Hours), Simon Long (3.5 Hours), Natalie Tsui (3.5 Hours), Jasmine Wang (3.5 Hours), William Wei (3.5 hours), Matthew Zhong (3.5 hours)