While every student at Geo Milev takes 5 years of English, students also learn a second language starting in the 9th grade. Each class learns a different second language, including Russian, German, and Chinese. For example, I am a member of class 9″a”, and we learn Chinese as our second language. Through a program called Confucius, Geo Milev has a few native Chinese teachers who teach the language. Based on personal experience, I believe that having a native speaker as your language teacher improves students’ learning and their ability to pick up and understand the language.
For this piece, I interviewed one of Geo Milev’s Chinese teachers, Ms Chen Chan. As a Chinese person herself, I interviewed her about her experience in Bulgaria.
She decided to live in Bulgaria because her friend visited and recommended it to her. She communicates quite well with Bulgarians, too. As long as they know English, she can communicate just fine with them. However, she also knows a bit of Bulgarian. And for a fun fact, her first Bulgarian word was “тихо,” which means “quiet”. She has also been teaching Chinese for 8 years or so, and I must say, I am quite impressed!
Stela Nencheva – 9A