Student Welfare Officer, Julie Bibby, said, “We really appreciate the hard work of Teresa and the Citizenship students and are delighted so many people joined in with our celebration. I certainly enjoyed finding out about how the Chinese celebrate New Year. We are also very grateful to the Tang Court Restaurant in Ballasalla who generously donated the delicious food we all enjoyed.”
On Tuesday, 300 students and staff at the Isle of Man College celebrated the start of the Chinese year of the dragon, the character of which is said to be adventurous, enthusiastic and energetic. The celebrations were organised by Chinese, Thai, Chilean and Moldovan students and co-ordinated by Teresa Crane, a former hairdressing student who originates from Hong Kong.
Teresa explained, “Through our annual Chinese new year celebration at the College we can communicate and interact with students from around the world. Each year we have more cultures involved and we think it is very valuable to learn about other people’s cultures through activities like this.”
Participants sampled Chinese food including stir fried noodles, egg fried rice, spring rolls and deep fried wanton donated by the Tang Court restaurant of Ballasalla. Also available were three types of Chinese tea. Donations to the College’s student hardship fund were invited and £50 was raised.
The chopsticks game, overseen by Sin Jian, tested the speed at which competitors could place ten kidney beans into a bowl using chopsticks. One participant described it as, “Frustrating but really good fun. Sin Jian also helped me learn how to use chopsticks properly”.
Tanya from Russia, Li from China and Sopee from Thailand were on hand to translate students’ English names into their native languages. They were then invited to write their names in Chinese onto a cloth. Teresa explained, “In China hosts of new year celebrations invite their guests to sign their names as a welcoming gesture. Guests often also write messages of good will and these are then kept”. Red envelopes containing gold chocolate coins were given out as symbols of accumulating good fortune for the forthcoming year.
Peter Lockett, ESOL (1) lecturer, added,“The majority of students involved in the organisation of Chinese New Year attend our Citizenship course. The New Year event provides an opportunity for them to practise their English and interact with the community while providing students from the Isle of Man and other parts of the world with an opportunity to find out more about Chinese culture.
Five children from Sandcastles Nursery, who have spent the last few weeks making Chinese dragon puppets, joined the celebration. Marghaid Graham, studying Health and Social Care, escorted the children round the event. She said, “The children very much enjoyed seeing the colourful lanterns, decorations and Chinese clothes. Everyone made a big fuss of them and made them very welcome and they went away with their names written in several languages which was really exciting for them.”
