A Grade 11 learner of Curro Waterfall still has her head in the clouds after being chosen to interview a group of Chinese astronauts who are currently in space.
The live interview took place on September 6 at the Chinese Embassy in Pretoria.
Dhiasha Naidoo was selected by the Confucius Classroom at the Chinese Culture and International Education Exchange Centre to participate in a discussion on heaven and earth.
She and her Mandarin club classmates submitted questions and videos for the Chinese astronauts (Taikonauts) in July.
Dhiasha joined the Mandarin club when she was in Grade 9 and wanted to learn the language because she felt it would help her when applying to universities.
She said as one of the school’s top academic achievers she was selected as a prefect for 2023.
“I have been doing Mandarin for the past three years and was chosen by our head of high school to represent our school. I felt nervous but also grateful for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Seeing all the learners from the other countries asking their questions, I felt honoured to be the one learner from South Africa who got to speak to Taikonauts,” said Dhiasha.
Some of her questions to the astronauts included how long it took them to reach space from earth, if they ever get sick in space and how they coped with being apart from their loved ones.
“I would love to study microbiology and later specialise in genetics, to inspire youth in my field of work one day.”
Curro’s head of high school Camilla Pretorius said it was wonderful to see their learners being given this chance. “It goes to show how important non-curricular learning is to the development of a learner. After all, not everyone can say they have spoken to an astronaut, let alone one live from space and I hope this experience fuels a much-needed desire for our learners to continue exploring domestic space travel,” said Pretorius.
Dhiasha was the only South African learner asking questions with other queries coming from youth in Algeria, Egypt, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Senegal and Somalia.
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