Anya is a bright and cheerful little girl whose family of four has recently returned to Singapore from overseas. At the start of the school year, Anya, who typically communicates in English, felt quite shy about speaking Mandarin in school.

After learning about Anya’s family background, her teacher often encouraged her to speak Mandarin more frequently and communicated with her in Mandarin regularly. Even during English conversations, the teacher would provide Mandarin translations and examples to help build Anya’s confidence in speaking Mandarin.

Anya, who loves learning, demonstrated patience in learning Mandarin. Supported by her parents’ efforts to communicate with her in both Chinese and English at home, it created a bilingual environment that facilitated Anya’s learning.

Over the course of a few months, Anya’s Mandarin speaking skill improved significantly. The teacher noticed that Anya could speak long sentences in Mandarin with only one or two English words mixed in.

During classes, the teachers teach Jing Si Aphorisms to the children. Every day before nap time at school, Tzu Chi volunteers would bring their musical instruments for a 15-minute teaching session on Jing Si Aphorisms.

By the end of the semester, Anya was able to recite the Jing Si Aphorisms in Mandarin fluently. The teacher was pleasantly surprised by her rapid improvement in Mandarin within a short period of time.