TTU Chinese Language and Area Studies program partnered with the Chinese Language Program at Ramirez Elementary School at the start of the Fall 2021 academic semester. TTU Chinese language program will support the Chinese language teaching and culture promotion at Ramirez. Ramirez will offer teaching opportunities for the students from the CHIN4300 Chinese Language and Culture Teaching Practicum as an internship. The course is taught by Dr. Yanlin Wang, the director of the Chinese Language program, and this fall is the first time it will be offered in the history of TTU. In partnership with Ramirez, students from CHIN4300 organized the 2021 Mid-Autumn Festival to be held on Sept. 21st at Ramirez, with aims to introduce the traditions of the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival, Chinese language, and culture. The expectations were to promote the Chinese culture, increase the cultural diversity of the Ramirez campus, and support the Chinese program at Ramirez Elementary.
The event was successfully held on Sept. 21st and was opened to the entire campus community at Ramirez. TTU students from CHIN4300 and 14 volunteers from the TTU Chinese language program set up 10 activity stations to introduce the Chinese traditional festival as well as the Chinese language and culture. The activities included Chinese tattoos, Chinese traditional painting, Chinese calligraphy, Chinese language, Chinese chopstick game, Chinese characters matching game, making Chinese lanterns, eating Chinese mooncakes, watching the video of the festival, pin the tail of the bunny, etc. Around 400 k-12 students and families from Ramirez and other LISD schools participated in the event.