Students Ellie McLoughlin, Masem Ali and Jake Murray-McGuirk at Kishoge Community College in Dublin who sat the first Mandarin Chinese Leaving Cert higher level exam. Photograph: Nick BradshawAs he left the exam hall after sitting the first ever Leaving Cert Chinese exam on Monday afternoon, Jake Murray McGuirk was in an upbeat mood.
Students, however, say the language has relatively simple grammar: there is no verb conjugation, so there’s no need to memorise verb tenses or gender and number distinctions.The move to introduce Mandarin Chinese to the Leaving Cert is part of a wider strategy that began several years ago to expand the choice of foreign languages in schools at a time when trade links are growing.
“I was nervous,” said Ellie McLoughlin from Clondalkin, “but I think I did well is the oral and aural [worth 60 per cent], which took off some of the pressure”. “There has been interest in it all the way along . . . some of our students went to China on scholarships and are now studying Chinese at university.”
I find it hard to believe it would be easier than Irish given that a completely different writing system is used for starters? Learning all those characters and nuances of meaning can't be that easy?
同学们加油哦👍👏
Easier than learning a language that's on every sign, available on TV and radio, is spoken by thousands and even shapes the way English is spoken in Ireland gaeilge🤷♀️
Maybe if the Irish language wasn’t kicked out of us back in the past it would be easier for us to speak today 🤷♂️now who do we blame for that ?🤔🤐
cc Al_toMyFriends