April 16 – Syndiely and Isobel blog

High School visit

This Friday we took a trip to the county seat to visit the No 2. High school in the county! We each got to shadow a Chinese student for the morning. Together we went to three classes and got to experience a day in the life of a Chinese High Schooler. This school was different from the typical American high school; it was an art school. For our first class, Isobel went to Chinese language and Syndiely went to Government & Politics. Chinese Language was similar to an English class in America. The class was reading some difficult Ancient Chinese texts and analyzing them. In the Government & Politics class, students were working through some interesting problems about businesses and sharing. It was difficult for Syndiely to understand, but the student she was shadowing was really kind and took time to explain the problem to her. On the contrary, Isobel’s student would periodically look over at her and say “you don’t understand? Me neither!”

After first period, things took a turn. Since this is an art school, many students choose to focus or “major” in some sort of art. Although neither of our students were dancers, we still got the chance to experience a dance class. These students primarily dance every day and prepare for a dance-centered gaokao. In each class, we learned a dance full of traditional Chinese moves. After our lesson, many of the students performed for us. They showcased many different styles of dance with passion.

Our final class of the morning was music! Similar to the dance students, there are also students who focus on specific musical instruments. Isobel’s partner was a singer who had been studying singing for two years.  Syndiely’s partner was a pianist whose favorite composer was Mozart. In Isobel’s class, they learned a traditional Chinese song. We observed that the way that they write music is very different from how we do in the U.S. In Syndiely’s class, we learned a song using the Solfege scale (Do-Re-Mi). I found it interesting because instead of writing Do, Re, or Mi, they used numbers, one through eight, to represent the different notes.

We ended the day by eating lunch and spending time with our students. It was a fun experience, and we will miss our new friends dearly. Luckily, we got many of their WeChats information, and we look forward to communicating with them from back home!