Year 7 Scholars enjoyed a lecture led by Sixth Formers Ben and Bijan about the evolution of the Mandarin language this week. They were shown how the written characters were first changed in order to improve the speed of writing and then under the influence of Mao Zedong the introduction of Pin Yin.
Using a variety of examples the students were asked to try and interpret characters, see links between them and think about similarities and differences with other languages. In the spirit of the Eltham College Scholarship Programme which is always seeking links, Mr Cavendish referred back to the last lesson on philosophy when the students had begun to think about language as representation.
