Re: Ellinikoi exetases...er... mikros nikophlasios?

In message <llvlh15r9br2j1agjsinjiuncst0hrii5a@xxxxxxx>, Linda Fox <linda.ff@xxxxxxxxxxxx> writes 
On Sun, 04 Sep 2005 13:10:11 GMT, chris mcmillan
<spam.tin@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

In message <df1o4l$15l$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Marjorie
Clarke <dontusethisaddess@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes


Mandarin is taught in some schools now. I'm sure Chris knows more about
this.

Indeed it is.  Have a friend whose daughter sat Mandarin GCSE (can't
remember what grade she got), but she's chosen not to do it at A levels.
Speaking it seems no problem: her dad speaks it extremely well having
learnt it in China in the 1970s, but I don't know whether she writes as
fluently as she speaks.  That would have been taught by her mother who I
don't know as well as her English dad.


But was this also being taught in a British school to British children
with no Chinese connections whatsoever and still getting them to GCSE?
Boggle. Impressive if it was.

Yes. Its a Lunnon school but I don't know which one. They went over to Beijing and Shanghai before GCSE, and Sonia had great fun showing her friends around Beijing where her grandmother lives. However, once she got to Shanghai, she was as 'green' as the rest of them, not speaking Shanghainese.

Sincerely Chris
--
chris mcmillan
.