Not too long ago, January 1^st (New Year’s Day = 元旦 = yuándàn) was thought of as a “foreigner” holiday in China. Now, in the new China, Chinese people pour into the streets, music blares, and fireworks light up the skies just like the Western world. Shanghai, the most populous city in China, felt like New York City, Paris, Madrid, or London on December 31^st as the clock neared midnight.

Anita Dai, an easyMandarin language instructor from the Chinese city of Kaifeng in Henan province, went to Shanghai’s Longhua Temple (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longhua_Temple ) for her first ever New Years Eve celebration. Up until midnight at this Buddhist temple, prayers were said and cloth/candle hot air balloons were lit and rose into the air; then, at midnight, came the blasts of fireworks. She said it was “hen you yisi!” (“very interesting!”), “hen duo ren!” (“so many people!”).

Dan Whitaker, an American student and Director of Sponsorship Sales for the USA Pavilion of the 2010 Shanghai World Expo, spent his second New Years in Shanghai with his wife and 4 year old daughter. They went out for dumplings, then for a stroll on the famous Nanjing West Road where many of Shanghai’s top shopping destinations were still decked out in Christmas decorations and lights that would rival any international city. “This New Years was a lot fun because we got to spend time as a family in the most exciting city on Earth.”

On Saturday, October 31^st, easyMandarin and easyEnglish held a big costume party to celebrate Halloween at our Wanhangdu Lu campus in Shanghai. Dumpling-making lessons were given and fun games were played. The students studying Mandarin took advantage of the opportunity to practice the language with the Chinese students from easyEnglish.

Click link below to see pictures from the exciting event:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/easymandarin/sets/72157622669468321/

Located near Jing’an Temple at 397 Wanhangdu Lu (near Wuning Lu), easyMandarin has taken over and thoroughly renovated an entire building with 3 floors, a roof deck, and front yard to create an ideal learning environment.  The new campus boasts 8 fresh classrooms, a lounge area complete with flat screen TV for video lessons and other activities, an outside patio and garden, and more.

The new sister English school, easyEnglish, will bring the same high-quality language training to the Chinese people that easyMandarin has offered for many years to foreigners. easyEnglish will no doubt complement easyMandarin as we create the ideal place for Chinese and non-Chinese people to mix and understand eachother’s language and culture.

]]> http://www.easymandarin.cn/easymandarin-celebrates-opening-of-jointly-shared-campus-with-new-sister-school-easyenglish/feed/ http://www.easymandarin.cn/total-solar-eclipse-in-shanghai-students-react/ http://www.easymandarin.cn/total-solar-eclipse-in-shanghai-students-react/#comments Wed, 22 Jul 2009 04:14:36 +0000 easyMandarin http://www.easymandarin.cn/?p=1543 easyMandarin students share their experiences of the July 22nd total solar eclipse.

The solar eclipse of July 22, 2009, is the longest total solar eclipse of the 21st century, lasting at most 6 minutes, 39 seconds (source: Wikipedia).  Luckily, Shanghai was at the center of the path where “totality” was visible, meaning the entire sun was blocked by the moon and the city went completely dark!  This extraordinary event occurred at approximately 9:35am in Shanghai.

Pablo Santos, a student from Spain, just arrived at the school for his morning intensive course when the eclipse started.  “It was amazing!  It got so dark, like it was nighttime.”

Joshua Barnes, an American student, went to Shanghai’s Century Park to watch the eclipse and he really enjoyed it.  “I thought it was cool.  It was eerie.”

Lily Lee, campus supervisor at easyMandarin, thought the experience was “hen bucuo, hen bucuo”.  (Translation - “very good, very good!”)

According to Liann Zhang, Director of easyMandarin Chinese Language School in Shanghai, “the goal of re-designing our website is to offer students and potential clients more knowledge and insight into what our Mandarin school and exciting city has to offer.  The website also aims at making this information quickly accessible with easy straightforward navigation.”

With an emphasis on user-friendliness and integration with popular online social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, etc., the fresh easyMandarin website has come to life  on June 8, 2009.