From: NWCS Principal Date: 2/21/2014 10:03 PM

Hello Everyone,

Welcome back! I hope everyone had a wonderful winter break and is now ready to return to continue learning Chinese!

Tomorrow is Week 1 of the Spring semester. We will meet for 14 weeks (Saturdays). If you have any questions about the school calendar, please visit it on our school website.

Over the winter break, I know many teachers have returned home to Taiwan, China, and other States in the US to celebrate the Chinese New Year with their families. My family said a fond farewell to the year of the Snake and welcomed the year of the Horse with much good food and with many good friends. We hope the year of the Horse will be even better than the previous year … peace and health to all of our families and friends!

I asked my twins if they know how to write the word “HORSE”. They did. (Whew! Thank goodness.) They also knew how to write the word “YEAR” so I told them that they know how to write the Year of the Horse! (HORSE YEAR) Yes, I take any opportunity to compliment them in an attempt to continue to motivate them …

I always remembered when my twins learned the word 馬 horse. One of the phrases was 馬 (horse) 上 (up/top) which together means “immediately”. So one day I was reviewing their test results. One part was to translate the Chinese sentences to English. 媽媽馬上來 (Mom came by immediately) … and I looked at the answer that my twins provided … I almost fell out of my chair … they both wrote “My mom came home sitting on top of a horse”. I screamed at them “we studied this, I told you many times it means immediately, it means quickly … what do you mean, I am sitting on top of a horse ….” One of them said “well … if you think about it, mommy, if you come home by a horse, you will come quickly and immediately.” Ugh …. I guess we cannot quit Chinese School yet.

See you tomorrow! Classes start at 9am sharp. Please be on time … by car or by horse.

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李宜蓉 Eileen Y. Lee
北威校長 NWCS Principal, 2009-2014
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GO NWCS!!!! Visit www.nwcsny.org
or email LearnChinese@nwcsny.org