Confucius Institute

“You’re Ambassadors! ” Welcome 2017 MLAs!

In 2017, 48 MLAs are going to 137 NZ schools for the year to support Chinese programmes in the Auckland and wider Auckland regions. At the welcome ceremony organized by Confucius Institute in Auckland on 10th Feb 2017, they were referred to as "Ambassadors" between China and New Zealand.

Auckland Mayor Phil Goff’s CNY Greetings in Mandarin

A short speech in Mandarin won fans for Auckland Mayor Phil Goff at a Chinese New Year celebration in Northcote on Auckland's North Shore.

Kiwi teens win international Chinese language competition

At the ninth international Chinese Bridge Competition for secondary school students around the world, held last month in Kunming, in southwest China, the New Zealand team, represented by Macleans College Elisa Moses and Joape Nagera of Rotorua Boy's High School, won the Oceania title and was ranked as one of the world's top five.

Award Winning Children’s Author Visits Confucius Institute

Famous Chinese contemporary children’s literature author and winner of the 2016 Hans Christian Andersen award, Wenxuan Cao, visited Confucius Institute in August.

First MLA professional development workshop a success

Effective teaching methods, as well as the experiences and challenges that come with being a Mandarin Language Assistant, were shared at a national MLA training workshop held at Auckland’s Confucius Institute in July.

Mandarin speaking contest gets out of hand

During the final semester of his Bachelor of Arts in Chinese last year, Tom Nicholls (Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Maru) entered a Mandarin speaking contest. After a month of preparation, pronunciation practice, late afternoons and cups of Oolong Tea in the Asian Studies office, he took part in the Chinese Bridge Speech Competition for University Students… and won.

Takapuna Normal Intermediate go Chinese for a day

Takapuna Normal Intermediate students enjoyed a Chinese Cultural day in which almost 600 participated.

Schools Face looming Chinese language teacher shortage

Laura Walters article in Stuff sets out the non-preparedness of secondary schools to cope with students who want to learn Mandarin at that level.

Learning Mandarin set to be the job ticket of the future

Speakers from the tourism, trade and finance sectors who were represented at the New Zealand Secondary Schools Chinese Language Conference last Tuesday 13 October, talked about the importance of Chinese language speakers in their industry.

Superdiversity: Children lead the way as cultures combine

Kirsty Johnston, education reporter writes in her NZ Herald article that the weight of New Zealand’s superdiverse future rests heavily on our schools but cultural learning needs more than just lip service.

Learning Mandarin set to be the job ticket of the future

School principals are saying those who learn Mandarin now will reap the rewards in the future from the world's most-spoken language.

Auckland school students enjoy Chinese performances

Auckland school students at Holy Cross, Glenfield Intermediate, Takapuna Intermediate and Meadowbank schools were treated to Chinese songs, dances and traditional instrumental performances.