Welcome to the first month of school! Our students have already started a very exciting school year as they have learned about our school language programs and begun to experience the rich cultural activities here!

Two new teachers joined our staff this school year. Phoebe Wang and Chunlin Xie. Ms. Wang holds a Master degree in Education; Ms. Xie graduated from Nanking University (China) majored in Chinese. Both have had years of teaching experience. We continue to offer Chinese Brush Painting class this year and we have newly started an adult Cantonese Conversational class this year.

You or your students should have received the September Teaching plan. If you have any questions, please talk to your student's teacher. Also please make sure that your child(ren) do homework at home and complete assignments on time. Chinese learning should not be just a "Saturday" thing, daily practice is also important.

Last year over 250 people attended the dinner. Our students will present Chinese poems, songs and crafts to the audience. I would like to personally encourage you to join in this fundraising dinner held exclusively for our school. As you may already know, the food at Wong's King Restaurant is great! Wong's King Restaurant, 8733 SE Division St, Portland, Oregon 97266, 503-788-8883. Cost: $30 per seat; $15 of the $30 is taxable. Please let me know how many tickets you can purchase by 9/30/08. Thank you in advance for your support!!

Teachers and students will celebrate this Chinese traditional holiday (the second largest holiday in China) at school. Classes will share stories, songs and crafts about this traditional Chinese festival. If we are lucky, our school board members may serve moon cakes in each room.

In early June, 25 students from our school took part in the Mock-up HSK Test (The Chinese Proficiency Test) at Portland State University. Most of the students took both Level 1 and level 2 tests. Eight of our students scored 100% in both listening and reading. All students did better in listening than in reading. The youngest student from our school was 4 years old! The oldest student from our school was over 50 years old! The latest HSK test is to be held on October 18, 2009 ( Sunday) at the Confucius Institute, PSU campus at 9:00am. This time you will need to pay for the test. If you are interested, please let me know and I will forward the information to you.

The Confucius Institute, Portland State University will hold the 2009 Chinese Speech & Composition Contests on 10/11/09. If you are interested, please directly contact PSU.