Jennifer Mao regularly encourages students to try something unfamiliar. Recently, her students helped her do the same.
The St. Michaels University School Senior School Mandarin teacher facilitated her first provincial workshop on October 23, sharing an approach to language learning built around the traditional Chinese game of Mahjong.
“The idea grew out of my work with students, who encouraged me to step outside my comfort zone and try something new,” Mao said. “That encouragement eventually led me to develop this workshop and take the idea beyond my own classroom.”
Presented at the BC Association of Teachers of Modern Languages (BCATML) conference at North Surrey Secondary School, her workshop invited fellow educators to explore how playing a game can bring language and culture together.
Using authentic Mahjong tiles and simplified rules, participants explored how gameplay creates meaningful reasons to communicate. Students practise making requests, explaining choices and responding to one another, taking greater ownership of the learning while the teacher guides and supports them.
“The goal is to help teachers see culture as something students can experience and engage with, rather than simply learn about,” Mao said.
Sharing Learning Beyond the Classroom
Her approach draws on 12 years of teaching Mandarin and Chinese language and culture at SMUS, connecting language development with activities that help students build confidence and cultural understanding.
Mao’s contribution to the conference extended beyond her workshop. As a BCATML board member and language representative, she is currently the board’s only representative from an independent school and its only representative from Vancouver Island.
She also served as presenter coordinator, working alongside the conference chair to organize presenters and sessions, and chaired an informal Mandarin Language Chat for teachers to exchange ideas and experiences.
For Mao, who expressed gratitude for SMUS’s support, the conference offered an opportunity to learn alongside colleagues while contributing her own experience.
“It was especially meaningful to move from helping organize the conference and bringing educators together to stepping forward as a presenter myself,” she said.
Her presentation closed with a question that reflected her own willingness to try something new: “How do you know if you did not try?”
