Karate culture

By Lia Bichel
STUDENTS at Casey Central Secondary College are immersing themselves in Chinese culture.
Health and wellbeing teacher Belinda Roff said most of the students were learning Mandarin as well as the Chinese martial arts Gong Fu.
“It is the first time they will learn a character language,” she said. “Students have shown great motivation and interest in learning the subject.”
Students learnt more about Chinese studies when they had a visit from 23-year-old David O’Loughlin, a scholar of the Chinese language, during International Education Week.
“David was invited to talk about his experiences in Chinese studies,” Ms Roff said.
“He started studying Chinese at the age of 12, the same age of the students at CCSC. He has previously won first place in a Chinese speaking competition in Melbourne.”
Ms Roff said learning Gong Fu had had positive effects on the students’ studies and their attitude.
“The students have spent a very short period of time to learn and practise this art,” she said. “This practice has had positive effects on the learning attitude of the students.
“The students even used the strategies learnt from Gong Fu to put towards their character hand-writing.
“Each stroke, what they mean and how they put them together to structure a character, it all starts to make sense to them through this martial art learning experience.”