Meet Multilingual Student Dora Zheng

Written by: Andrea Griego, Student Support & Wellbeing Coordinator

Dora Zheng in Year 5C is new to YCIS Shanghai but not new to YCIS. Dora attended Kindergarten at YCIS Hong Kong before moving to Ningbo and finally making her way to our YCIS campus. Dora has the special talent of speaking many languages. Dora said that, “from a baby I learned Chinese and English, and mostly speak Chinese at home.” Dora also said that her learning of other languages began just over five years ago when she lived in Ningbo. “My mother hired teachers from the university and I started to learn Spanish and French.” Dora is quite fluent in both of these languages, so she and her mother decided that she should continue learning more languages. Arabic and Russian followed and currently, she is learning German.

In total, Dora speaks seven languages and she says that she is planning to visit Spain and France over the Christmas break because, “it is a good way to practice” her language skills. She says that language learning is fun and she loves to spend her free time doing this. When asked why she thinks it is important to learn so many languages, Dora said, “When I grow up, I want to have a business and talk with people from all over the world. I want to be able to talk with them without a translator.” Dora also enjoys playing the piano, swimming, riding her bike, running and climbing. If you know German, Russian or Arabic, and see Dora on campus, please be sure to say hello to Dora as she would love any opportunity to practice these languages.