All of the students eat lunch in their homeroom classroom on days they are in school. The food is delivered near the classrooms and the students are responsible for bringing it to their class as well as cleaning up and bringing all the dishware back to the cafeteria. They bring their own bowls and utensils for lunch and have time after lunch to clean their dishes and brush their teeth. Tom said his favorite food is Cantonese congee and Elly said hers is candy!
Most students replied that they speak Mandarin Chinese at school. You can say "hello" by saying 你好 (ni hao). Star also mentioned that people say 嗨! Which is pronounced the same as "hi" in English and is a little more casual than 你好. Some students also mentioned that they speak English and Taiwanese because they learn both of these languages in class.
It is much less common for students to have the same name here than in the U.S. because names can be a combination of many, many different characters. Names in Chinese begin with the last name. Almost everybody has a one-character last name they share with their parents. Rarely, people will have a two-character last name. Next, first names are most commonly made up of two characters that are adjectives. The characters have positive meanings like strong, wise or beautiful. Just like how some English names are meant for a boy or a girl, certain characters might only appear in a boy's name or a girl's name.
