On the evening of March 4, the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Winter Paralympic Games warmed up, a Chinese-German bilingual song "Riding on the Wings of Song" echoed in the bird's nest, and 13 innocent children held hands, gently shaking with the music, and the natural singing touched everyone. The children, from the Beijing School for the Blind, have an average age of about 10 years old, and the youngest is only 6 years old, which is also their first exposure to German, except for their first appearance on the international stage.
Since the end of December 2021, four teachers from the school for the blind have led 13 students of the choir to practice vocal music on their own. "We didn't get the repertoire yet, and the training took up time after school or the weekend break, but the kids were happy." Ru Tianzi, the leading teacher, said that in mid-January, the director team sent a performance repertoire to the school, and in the warm-up session of the opening ceremony, they wanted to sing two songs, "Let's Swing the Oars" and "Ride on the Wings of Singing", hearing the song title, the children of the choir were happy, patting their chests and saying: "We will all sing these songs!" ”
What the children did not expect was that in the two songs, "Riding the Wings of Song" would be performed in both Chinese and German. Unlike able-bodied people who learn to sing by reading musical scores, because of visual impairment, these children memorize words and memorize melodies by listening to them over and over again, and German, which they have never been exposed to, has become a big challenge. To this end, the choir's teachers filled the score with different color pens in German and English pronunciation of various words, "breaking the whole song 'broken and crushed', they first learned thoroughly, and then recorded it as an audio to send to the parents, so that the children could listen and practice." Ru Tianzi said that thanks to the advantage of hearing, the children basically smoothed down the German lyrics in just one week, "the next step is to take them to cut word by word, some small tongue curls, and the children learn quickly." ”
With zero knowledge of German, how can you learn so quickly? It turned out that the children had found a trick to use harmonics to give the words a "story picture". Zhou Guanqi, a first-year junior high school student, shared his experience: "Like there is a word in the lyrics that means 'fairy tale', it is pronounced like '咩身', I will imagine that in the fairy tale world, the lamb is barking, and its body is soft and spongy." ”
Practice "biting words" over and over again, with melodies, plus actions... After two months of training, the children not only learned to speak authentic German, but also learned how to convey feelings with expressions and movements. "When they first start singing, they unconsciously bow their heads." Ru Tianzi said that children with visual impairments will be slightly deficient in physical expression, and in order to overcome this problem, children will secretly work hard every time they finish training, leaning against the wall and practicing smiling with a book on their heads. "The teacher would gently hold my face and help me find the feeling of smiling confidently." Fourth-grader Ding Xurong said.
"The jade lotus is waiting there, waiting for her little sister, Violet smiles and whispers, looking up at the bright stars, and the roses quietly talk about her fragrant mood..." On the evening of the 4th, the children were full of energy and painted a colorful and poetic picture to the world with their songs. Ru Tianzi, who accompanied the children on the stage, burst into tears of excitement, "They were originally flowers that were carefully cared for in the greenhouse," she said, during this time, the daily training of wearing stars and wearing the moon tested the children's will and physical strength, and they constantly challenged and broke through themselves, "May they ride on the wings of this song and go to a wider world." ”
Source Beijing Daily Client | Reporter Li Qiyao
Edited by Wang Qiong
Process Editor Wu Yue