April 7, Isobel's blog

A Warm Welcome

Today we went to visit the local middle school. In China, middle school is a little bit different since it has students from grades 7 through 9, but overall it felt very similar to my own experience in America. What struck me the most though was how welcomed I felt into every single one of their classes. Each teacher had prepared a special lesson for us: traditional paper cutting (art), the history of porcelain and china (Chinese language), using chopsticks (history), and more. In addition to changing their planned lessons, many teachers added English captions to their slideshows, so that we would be able to follow along with the students.

The reception went beyond just accommodating us though. It truly felt like they wanted us to have the best experience possible, and the community went above and beyond what I would’ve expected from a school in America. For example, during first period we were making paper fish – a supposedly easy task – and I somehow messed mine up. A teacher came up to try and help me fix it, but it was beyond saving. Honestly,  I was perfectly content to just move on with my day and ugly fish, but a couple minutes later I felt a tap on my shoulder, and he had made me a new one without me even asking.

Later, in physics class, we were using breadboards to create electric circuits. I’d completely forgotten how they worked and was planning on watching my partner put his together, but he really wanted me to truly understand what was happening. Although my Chinese was lacking and communication was a little difficult, he made sure to explain every step and would ask me which ones I wanted to build – and then help when I got confused.

These are all little things, but over the course of the day (and this trip) they’ve all added up and made a really big impact on me. I wasn’t expecting to be welcomed so warmly and am so grateful for all the time and effort this community has put in to ensure that we have a positive experience in their town. While people are also kind in Seattle, I don’t think that a group visiting our city would be received in the same manner, and that was just one of the largest cultural differences I’ve noticed over this past week.










 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Some photos!

Image
 The group after check in at the airport The students during their layover working on their group expectations, like community expectations, for their time traveling together  The group after arriving in Guangzhou
Read more

Hannah, Nara blog, April 14

Image
China GSL in A to Z A  whole lot of rain in torrential downpours, trapping us inside for an hour B irthday cake and platters of fruit for Debby’s 62nd birthday C huang men (literally “entering doors”), meaning visiting from house to house in a casual manner --- Nara’s favorite pastime D ance class Mongolian style at the high school E verything Too Small for Hannah to find shoes in China F orty pushups in front of the Chinese high school class (Nara’s new record) G oing on our midtrip, where we spent time relaxing and reflecting, learning to cook local dishes, and touring a Hakka roundhouse H igh school visit on Friday where we each shadowed a junior student as they attended their classes of the day --- Hannah went to government, dancing, and singing class I ntent on filling your teacup and keeping your plates piled with food J ie Xiang Lao (old fortune) Hotpot as a group on Friday night K uai zi (chopstick) speed competition at the middle school, where we comp...
Read more

Leader blog, April 16 Cheyenne, Debby, Gabe, and our in-country partner, Roy

Image
As we approach the end of our three weeks in our village, we would like to share our perspective as leaders of GSL China.  First, we have witnessed tremendous growth in our students’ confidence and ability with speaking Chinese. Individual students have celebrated and shared with us how happy they have felt realizing that they are able to communicate with locals and their host families in Chinese. There were many baby steps at the beginning – being able to understand what a host parent was asking at the breakfast table, learning how to ask for less food please!, shopping entirely in Chinese and figuring out how to ask if a store has a certain shoe size, etc.  As the trip progressed, we heard about more in-depth conversations that were happening on a daily basis.  For example, students learned from their host siblings about the pressures of the high school exam and entering the competitive job market. We have also seen more laughter and joy from the kids as they recount st...
Read more