About this event:

Today we had another great lesson in Chinese calligraphy in which the children practiced writing fish ” yu”. We followed the same format in which Ms. Dong reviewed the materials to be used and the step by step process in using the bamboo brush and ink stone to write the symbol for fish on rice paper. The pretty rice paper we used today was thicker and textured. We discussed the language with the children. We learned that this form of writing is very challenging for Chinese children and they spend many hours practicing and memorizing the individual symbols the equivalent to words in the English language. Ms. Dong explained that by the time Chinese children are in kindergarten they are expected to know how to write 200 symbols and know their meaning. Ms. Dong also explained that in order to read the newspaper one must know up to 4,000 different symbols!