Last Friday on January 24th, there was an attack on the British Museum’s IT systems by a disgruntled former employee caused a temporary closure and nearly spoilt the Mandarin course visit to the Silk Road Exhibition.
However, the trip still went ahead as soon as the museum opened, and the students still had a great time. They visited parts of the British Museum that were open – and then proceeded to a bubble tea cafe where Mandarin teacher Ms Chen taught them to order their drinks in Chinese.
From there, it was a short walk to Chinatown where Mandarin language signage was explored and learned, and Chinatown’s famous bakery received a very popular visit. Thanks to all pupils for coping with the disappointment about the Silk Road Exhibition and ensuring this was still a very enjoyable and educational outing for all.
Next Friday on February 7th, there would be a second Mandarin group to visit the British Museum as part of the Chinese New Year celebration. May the Year of the Snake bring us health, wealth and success!
Here are some of the students’ thoughts from the trip:
Sophie T: It was really interesting to see how much I could recognise and read when we went to Chinatown, I feel like I’ve learnt so much already (although I only started to learn Mandarin from the Autumn Term! I also really liked going to the bubble tea shop as it was interesting to use my language skills in a real life scenario, and the Boba was really delicious and high quality too!
Farrell F: I really enjoyed the trip. I liked the change that we didn’t do worksheets but instead learnt by looking around the British Museum and Chinatown area looking at the different words and their meanings. I also liked practising Mandarin by buying bubble tea, which was a fun way of practising the language.
Henry S: Although the trip did not go as planned, it was extremely interesting still to see different parts of the museum. Using our Mandarin skills to order bubble tea and reading signs in Chinatown was also a lot of fun.
