Hamburg, Germany has a special transnational family: a German mother who has been connected to Chinese since childhood, a British father, and a pair of children who go to the Confucius Classroom at a Chinese language school every Saturday to learn Chinese. The siblings speak German and Chinese with their mother, and English with their father. In a multilingual environment, Chinese is not only a joy between mother and son, but also a part of family culture. This summer, the siblings stepped onto the stage of the "Chinese Bridge" Chinese competition, sincerely telling their stories of learning Chinese. They won the championship in the primary and secondary school groups of the German division and won awards in the global finals. This achievement is not only due to the budding interest nurtured by the family atmosphere, but also inseparable from the attentive cultivation of Confucius Classroom teachers. Family immersion: language comes to life. When I was a child, I saw beautiful 'fairies' in Chinese cartoons and TV dramas, thinking that I would also have black hair and black eyes when I grew up. However, my hair has always been brown and my eyes are still blue-green. ”German elementary school student Huang Xiaolei, who just celebrated her 11th birthday, told childhood anecdotes in fluent Chinese during an interview. From the age of four or five, she and her brother Huang Yongjie began studying Chinese at Chinese schools in the UK. Later, they entered the Confucius Classroom at Hanhua Chinese School in Hamburg, Germany, and studied history, musical instruments, singing and dancing with Chinese teachers. This Chinese romance can be traced back to the childhood experiences of their mother, Huang Xuewei. Hamburg is a port city, just like Tianjin. When I was a child, many Chinese people came here to do business. ”Huang Xuewei recalled, "My mother's secretary is a Taiwanese from China, and her husband is from Shanghai. When I was 6 years old, I went to Chinese school with their son." Unfortunately, due to the lack of Chinese environment at home, Huang Xuewei interrupted her Chinese learning in middle school. But she never forgets the unique charm of Chinese - the shapes and meanings of pictographic characters are related, such as the "rain" hidden in the character "snow", which is very beautiful. And the tone of Chinese characters has ups and downs like singing, although difficult to learn, it is very interesting. After becoming a mother, this regret became motivation. She bluntly said, "Learning another language is a good thing. AI can translate text, but the emotions and feelings in language cannot be translated, so we still have to learn it ourselves. Especially with the significant language differences between China and Germany, for example, there are many allusions in Chinese idioms. To better communicate with Chinese people, it is necessary to understand Chinese cultural history. ”In order to create a Chinese language environment for children and use standard Chinese pronunciation to "grind their ears", Huang Xuewei has brought in many Chinese film and television works, such as "Big Head Son, Small Head Dad" and "Hulu Wa" enlightenment animations. In recent years, the siblings have become obsessed with online works such as "Full time Master" and "You Are Beautiful When You Smile", and find the characters' perseverance in overcoming difficulties in the dramas cool. It is to make them feel that Chinese is useful and can be integrated into life, not just for homework, so that they can have more motivation to learn. ”When sharing her educational experience, Huang Xuewei mentioned that she made up her mind to learn Chinese well because the Chinese martial arts movies her mother rented looked cool but she couldn't understand them. Now, Huang Xuewei is following her children to "make up for classes" while creating a Chinese cultural atmosphere for them at home. During the Spring Festival, at my son's request, I went to a Chinese supermarket to purchase ingredients, cook hotpot, and prepare the first New Year's Eve dinner for the whole family; Follow online short videos to teach children how to draw bamboo; Making ice skin mooncakes with Chinese family and friends... She believes that the core of learning Chinese is to make the language "live", integrate into life, and connect with others. Huang Xuewei observed that there are more Chinese people studying and settling in Hamburg, more German schools offering Chinese courses, and the Chinese cultural activities organized by Confucius Institutes have changed from being only open to overseas Chinese to being open to citizens. I feel like the world has become smaller, and Chinese is no longer a distant language, "she said. Collaboration between Home and School: Achieving Dreams - "Chinese Bridge". Have you ever heard the singing sound of hotpot? Gudu Gudu - For me, this is not just the sound of Spring Festival, but more like 5000 years of Chinese culture softly telling me, and also like my love for Chinese, boiling in my heart. ”At the 18th "Chinese Bridge" World High School Chinese Competition held this year, 12-year-old Huang Yongjie won the German division championship and the Global Finals Excellent Eloquence Award with this lively expression. My younger sister also performed well. She volunteered to participate in the 5th "Chinese Bridge" World Elementary School Chinese Show and performed a "Terracotta Warrior Dance" after her speech. This dance is a personification of Chinese mirror holding figurines, depicting the scene of the figurines waking up in the middle of the night and going out to play. It is innocent and lively, which perfectly fits Huang Xiaolei's personality. In the end, she won the German regional championship and the Global Finals Outstanding Talent Award. At the beginning of this year, Huang Xiaolei wrote a wish for 2025: to improve her Chinese proficiency and participate in the "Chinese Bridge". Now everything has come true. The growth path of the siblings in Chinese language cannot be separated from the careful guidance and targeted preparation assistance of Chinese teachers. The dance and vocal teachers at Hanhua Chinese School guide the young contestants in polishing their talents, while the Chinese teachers help them polish their speeches, guide pronunciation and expression. However, the focus on pronunciation and intonation is mainly on daily life, relying on daily accumulation, "said Wang Jing, Huang Xiaolei's Chinese teacher and Hanhua Confucius Classroom Chinese teacher. Home school communication is an important part of teaching. When taking over, Wang Jing held a parent teacher conference specifically for the weekend shift, emphasizing that "the extent to which a child's Chinese language skills can be improved largely depends on the support and supervision of parents". After class, she always stays behind to communicate with parents and welcomes them to send messages at any time to inquire about any problems their children may encounter when learning Chinese. In order to promote learning through competitions and practice through practice, Teacher Wang encourages children to participate in various Chinese competitions and summer camp activities. Since 2023, a total of 7 primary and secondary school students from Hanhua Confucius Classroom have participated in the "Chinese Bridge" competition, and 6 have won awards in the German competition area. The most important thing is not the competition results, but the opportunity for children to meet like-minded Chinese learners around the world and understand that they are not alone on this path. ”Huang Xuewei said. This summer, she accompanied her child on the "Chinese Bridge" Chinese study tour to Beijing and Tianjin, experiencing and immersing themselves in Chinese language and culture. Goubuli steamed bun and Tianjin Fried Dough Twists are the two favorite Chinese food. They got together with Lele, a 10-year-old Chinese boy, and his family to make Goubuli steamed bun. Huang Yongjie recalled, "I had to knead 18 pleats on a baozi, but I could only knead a maximum of 7. Some of them were even molded into boxes." Huang Xiaolei's most memorable traditional cultural experience was using clay figurine materials to print leaves and engrave the character "yellow" on them in Tianjin Cultural Street. During the journey, the "Chinese Bridge" team also watched a special space documentary film "Blue Star Outside the Window" - which was filmed by Zhai Zhigang, Wang Yaping, and Ye Guangfu on the space station. When Huang Xuewei saw the clip of Wang Yaping recording "Tiangong Classroom", she was particularly surprised because she had previously found a video of "Tiangong Classroom" to use as science class content for her children. At this moment, she truly felt the connection between the film and life. I am very pleased to see two children who have been studying Chinese for seven or eight years, making many friends who have studied Chinese, obtaining the YCT (International Chinese Language Test) Level 2 certificate, and looking forward to participating in the 'Chinese Bridge' competition again - I can see that they are really willing to learn. ”Huang Xuewei said. This spontaneous love continues the decades long Chinese bond of this multinational family and will also continue to write new stories. Confucius Classroom: Learning from domestic textbooks, 54 year old Wang Qing's voice sounds full of youthful vitality. She is a native of Beijing who enjoys singing and children. She used to work in a bank in China. Five years ago, she came to Germany and found her passion for the second half of her life in the field of overseas Chinese education with a serious dedication to studying education. Now, she works as a Chinese teacher for fourth grade students. Her teaching can be described as "starting low and moving high" - facing significant challenges at the beginning, with the core difficulty stemming from the selection of textbooks. Wang Qing said, "We use whatever primary school students in Beijing use - the domestically compiled version of 'Chinese Language'. Unlike most overseas Chinese language institutions that use textbooks specifically for foreigners, the Hanhua Confucius Classroom, known for its rigorous teaching, has taken a different approach by choosing this set of content rich, highly extensible, 'able to speak brilliantly', but also the most difficult 'Chinese Language'. Foreigners' entry into Chinese language is hindered by two obstacles: the tone and writing of Chinese characters. During the first class dictation review, Teacher Wang almost cried - the children had too few words to write; Recitation homework is either "unable to submit" or stumbling to the point where it makes people "unable to listen". How can we make students willing to learn and open their mouths? Wang Qing racked his brains and exhausted all his tricks. The first magic weapon is tongue twisters. She brought in a four tone tongue twisters and led the students to read "Mom planting hemp, I releasing the horse, the horse eating hemp, Mom scolding the horse". Then, she gestured with her hands to explain "one tone flat, two tones rising, three tones turning, and four tones falling"... Gradually, the students distinguished between tones, nasal sounds before and after, and erhua sounds, and found some fun in Chinese learning. After class, they often practiced tongue twisters around their mouths. In order to help children learn Chinese character shapes and stroke order well, Wang Jing designed the "Write One More Character per Week" plan and rewarded students who scored perfect in dictation as "dictation teachers". At the end of the semester, children who used to be unable to write a word have made significant progress. The children in our class now love learning tongue twisters and ancient poetry. They already think it's easy to learn ancient poetry and often pester me when they will learn the next one. ”Teacher Wang told reporters. Teacher Wang has a pair of eyes that are good at discovering progress. She encouraged outstanding students to stand on the podium and receive praise and applause, using a sense of honor to inspire learning motivation. During the break, she asked German students to be her "little German teacher", aiming to teach them German learning skills and subtly transfer these methods to Chinese learning. Halfway through the journey of becoming a monk, one must devote oneself wholeheartedly. ”To enhance his teaching ability, Wang Jing returns to China every year to participate in training organized by the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office for overseas Chinese language teachers. She looks forward to leading more foreign students in the future to appreciate the more advanced and exquisite language and cultural atmosphere in the book "Chinese Language". (New Society)