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The following is issued on behalf of the Standing Committee on Language Education and Research (SCOLAR):
The Standing Committee on Language Education and Research (SCOLAR) organises eight school and community activities this year to promote ¡§lively learning and use of Putonghua¡¨.
Speaking at the launching ceremony of SCOLAR¡¦s Promotion of Putonghua Activities 2009, SCOLAR member Mr Hui Sau-yan described these activities as ¡§providing an environment to learn and use Putonghua outside the textbook¡¨.
The activities include singing, public speaking, debating, radio drama and stage drama. To encourage more participation, SCOLAR appointed artiste Alex Fong as the ¡§Ambassador for Promotion of Putonghua 2009¡¨ to help in the publicity and to spread the message of ¡§lively learning and use of Putonghua¡¨ to the community.
SCOLAR has been organising large-scale activities for students and the community since 2002 to promote Putonghua. This year¡¦s school-based activities include: the ¡§Putonghua Radio Drama Training and Competition¡¨ and the ¡§Inter-Varsity Putonghua Debating Competition for Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau¡¨ co-organised with RTHK; the ¡§Putonghua Singing Competition for Primary and Secondary Schools¡¨ with the Hong Kong Professional Teachers¡¦ Union; the ¡§Putonghua Public Speaking Competition for Primary and Secondary Schools¡¨ with the Cultural and Educational Association of the New Towns; the ¡§Putonghua Training Programme for Student Tourism Ambassadors¡¨ with the Hong Kong Community College of Hong Kong Polytechnic University; and the ¡§School-based Putonghua Drama Training Programme¡¨ with Prospects Theatre.
For the wider community, SCOLAR will co-organise the ¡§Putonghua Broadcaster Competition¡¨ (for public and secondary school students) with RTHK. A radio programme introducing the Putonghua pronunciation of some terms commonly found in economic news will also be broadcast on Metro Radio. The series of activities will be wrapped up with a finale show which will bring this year¡¦s promotion to its climax.
For more details of the promotion of Putonghua activities in 2009, please visit SCOLAR website (http://www.language-education.com).
Established in 1996, SCOLAR advises the Government on language education issues and on the use of the Language Fund.
Ends/Sunday, March 15, 2009
Issued at HKT 16:13
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