🎓 我畢業!!! Graduation!!! 🎓

我畢業了! 將近三個月的中文課終於在上星期五完成。
I've graduated at last! Last Friday I finished a Chinese language course which I've been doing for nearly three months.

這免費課程由台中國立教育大學為新住民主辦。教師是在研究所的碩士學生，所以我們是很合適的練習對象，可以說是雙贏局面。
This is a free course run by the National Taichung University of Education for immigrants. The teachers are studying for their masters so we are the perfect candidates to help them complete their degrees, that's what I call a win win situation.

雖然老師還未成為正式的老師，但他們教得很認真。每次上課都準備十足，無論是教室裡或是辦課外活動都很用心，盡量找機會幫我們學習中文。
Although the teachers are not fully qualified yet, they take the classes very seriously and does an awful lot of preparation everytime including out of classroom activities to help us improve our Chinese.

台灣夜市很有名不用多說，其中一次的課外活動，我們就是去台中的旱溪夜市哩。既然是課外活動，當然不只是逛夜市，吃零食那麼簡單，老師安排過關任務給我們! 你不要以為我正在買小吃(雖然真的是!)，其實我手上拿著的是任務卡，我在闖關噢！
For example, Taiwan night markets are very famous, and one evening we went to Hanxi night market in Taichung. We weren't just hanging around the market eating all evening, but had to complete some task set by the teacher. Here's me completing my task ~ yes I know I'm buying something to eat, but it's all part of the tasks, see the big challenge sheets I'm holding!

經過一個晚上，大家都玩到盡興而歸，有女同學更在攤檔贏了大絨毛娃娃。
And here's us at the end of the evening, we all had a great time and a couple of the girls won big cuddly toys from the stalls as well.

另外一晚老師帶我們去玩台灣很流行的桌遊，我是第一次去。店裡有很多桌上遊戲，可以請主持人推薦和教你玩。老師選了幾個可以讓我們練習講和聽中文的遊戲，很久沒試過玩桌遊，還玩得那麼開心。
Another evening we went out for a board games night. These places are very popular in Taiwan and its the first time I've been. The shop has lots and lots of board games and the owners can recommend and teach you how to play the games if you want to try something new. Our teacher choose some games where we had to use our verbal and listening skills. It's been a while since I've had so much fun playing games.

我參加的是高級班，所以同學的中文都有一定的程度。老師發的其中一項功課是繪本說故事，繪本是她自己手工做，故事由我們自由發揮，我選擇介紹英國家鄉的城市。平時寫帖子都是用電腦或手機，很久沒寫那麼多字(手寫字實在太醜)，所以我有小小作弊加插繪圖和照片，幸好老師也接受。
I joined the advanced class so we all had a decent level of Chinese. One piece of homework was to write an article in this notebook which was handmade by the teacher. I choose to write about my hometown in England. I cheated a little bit by filling it with drawings and photos, but here you can see my ugly handwriting. I think typing on my PC and mobile phone is much easier!

上星期五終於聯同其他五班的同學一起參加成果展。那晚很熱鬧，有不少人帶同家人一起出席，而學校也準備派對食物招待我們。
Last Friday we finally had our completion ceremony together with all the other five classes. There was a lively turnout with free food and drink, and many people bought their family along to celebrate as well.

當晚每一班同學都要上台表演，低班和中級班一般都是唱歌或表演短劇。我們是高級班當然要向其他同學作出好榜樣，所以演出三個環節，包括即興表演，短劇和唱歌。但大家在台上還是有點害羞!
Each class had to perform on stage and the beginners and intermediate classes either sang or did a short play. Since we're the advanced class, we had to lead by example and did two short plays and then finished off with a song. Here's us all singing embarrassingly on stage!

同班上有來自德國，香港，菲律賓，印尼，越南和韓國的同學一起完成課程。一起過了兩個多月，又學又玩非常開心。拿過證書，一定要跟老師來一張大合照!
My classmates who completed the course with me came from Germany, Hong Kong, Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam and Korea. After nearly three months, we not only improved our Chinese but also had some great fun together. After we got our certificates of course we had to grab our teacher and round off the evening with a group photo!