Welcome to Queen’s

A snapshot from Queen’s University homepage

With new students’ arrival and returning students back to Queen’s, the campus is full of welcomes and smiles – although social distance should still be maintained. The first charted airplane from Beijing to Belfast in ready on its way, due to departure in the evening on the 18th Sept. Let’s wish them a smooth and pleasant journey!

How to say ‘welcome’ in Chinese?

Photo taken at the Belfast City Airport. The welcome board displays multilingual expressions of ‘Welcome’ messages. However, some messages, including Chinese, are hardly visible due to background colour. Image@ Liang Wang.

So, to say ‘welcome’ in Chinese, one would at least say the word ‘欢迎’ twice to demonstrate a real welcoming atmosphere, plus a smiling face, and perhaps shaking hands in formal and business contexts. One seldom hugs or kisses to welcome people in the Chinese culture.

How to say ‘Welcome to Queen’s University Belfast!’, then?

The gate and The Lanyon Building of Queen’s University Belfast. Image@QUB

Now that you know how to say ‘welcome’ – 欢迎, the order of the message is exactly the same as in English in this expression. Let’s learn a few more vocabulary, including Queen’s in Chinese.

  • 来 (lái) – to come
  • 女王 (nǚwáng) – queen
  • 大学 (dàxué) – university
  • 贝尔法斯特 (Bèi’ěrfǎsītè) – Belfast

Queen’s University Belfast (Queen’s in a known context) has its Chinese equivalence, which is called 贝尔法斯特女王大学. It can be further shortened as 女王大学 in the local context. Therefore, put together, the whole expression can be 欢迎来(贝尔法斯特)女王大学!

Happy Chinese Teachers’ Day

祝教师节快乐!(Zhù Jiàoshījié kuàilè) Happy Teachers’ Day!

10th September is the Teachers’ Day in China. Let’s take this opportunity to wish all the teachers and would-be teachers a very special (no holiday, nor extra payment) and happy (only among ourselves) day!

On this day in China meetings and ceremonial events are often held to award star teachers who are considered role models and have made significant contributions to education at different levels. Pupils and students often give flowers and cards to their mentors to thank them for their influence on many young hearts and minds.

Image: The Lanyon Building, Queen’s University Belfast

Language tips:

  • 祝 (zhù) – to wish, to celebrate
  • 教师 (jiàoshī) – teacher
  • 节 (jié) – festival
  • 教师节 – Teachers’ Day
  • 快乐 (kuàilè) – happy

How would you celebrate Teachers’ Day in your culture? Share with us if you have any stories by writing in the comment box below.

LC course registration open

The new semester language courses are open for registration now

LANGUAGE CENTRE PROGRAMME

AUTUMN 2020

Registration opens on Monday 7 September at 00:30 and close promptly at 17:00 on Thursday 8 October. Classes are expected to be extremely popular and usually fill up quickly, so early registration is strongly recommended.

  • Mandarin Chinese Level 1A
  • Mandarin Chinese Level 1B
  • Mandarin Chinese Level 2
  • Mandarin Chinese Level 3
  • Mandarin Chinese Level 4

I just want to thank you, Yu and all the Language Centre team for this course and all the resources over the past few weeks. The free and open access has been fantastic and this Mandarin course has been a great starter for me! 

I will certainly keep my eye on Language Centre updates, and hope that I may return to the next course in the future! In the meantime, I look forward to consolidating the Mandarin taught in this course … 

Many thanks again, and please pass my thanks on to Yu for her great teaching, 谢谢! 

Sophia (from Leeds)