We say “farewell,” “thank you” and “best wishes” to our 22 Mandarin Language Assistants who have helped in New Zealand schools this year.

The young Chinese graduates applied to Confucius Institute headquarters in Beijing to spend the year in New Zealand living with New Zealand families and helping teach Chinese in local schools.

Our group was organised by the Confucius Institute in Auckland and the New Zealand Ministry of Education to spend time in primary, intermediate and secondary schools in Auckland, Wellington and Dunedin, as well as some country areas.

They have now returned to China to continue their studies or career and we wish them well in the future.

Another group of Mandarin Language Assistants will start work in local schools in February.