The partners worked together to devise a project that would enhance the teaching and learning of Chinese in the S1 curriculum. As pupils were just beginning their studies in Chinese, it seemed appropriate to use the project to introduce and practice personal language.
The project was launched by the Human Resources Assistant and the Design and Sales Director, who visited the school to speak to all S1 classes.
The young people were given an insight into the textile industry and the company as well as the range of employment opportunities available. The staff spoke about the value of learning languages for the world of work. They emphasised that not only do languages help you to communicate with people from other countries, but the skills you develop when learning a language can be used in a wide range of jobs and industries. They also spoke about the importance of having the right attitude towards work by being positive, resilient and willing to learn. Pupils were given the opportunity to admire and try on some of the luxurious scarves and shawls that had the staff had brought with them.
The pupils responded very positively and were extremely enthusiastic about the visitors.
Help cards
The pupils were then tasked with creating help cards for the sales team at Alex Begg to use when they visit China on business. Pupils worked with their teacher to identify useful vocabulary for the staff to help them to introduce themselves and start to build relationships with colleagues in China. They presented the vocabulary, meaning and pronunciation on the help cards, and the best cards were chosen by the staff at Alex Begg.
“Thank you so much to all students who have submitted their project work to us. We have had fun trying to pronounce some of the sayings. It was difficult to pick one out-right winner so we picked three.” (Human Resources Assistant, Alex Begg)
The winning groups were treated to a tour of the company where they saw at first-hand how the beautiful scarves and shawls are produced.
“I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to Beggs. I learned the detailed steps in creating a scarf and I was amazed by the time and effort Beggs take in making a top quality scarf. The tour was great and extremely interesting” (S1 pupil)
我非常喜欢去BEEG的这次参观，我学到了制作围巾的详尽的工序，同时也被BEGG 公司制作高质量围巾的努力所震惊。这次旅行非常好，也非常的有趣. (Chinese translation)
