Monday, August 29, 2011

Educational Exchange at Nanjing Foreign Language Academy

In a lot of ways, our week in Nanjing was the most transformative and engaging part of the trip--and not just because the teachers got a break from the students! =) During this week, our Marble Hill students stayed with a Chinese host family, allowing them to interact with Chinese life in a way that tourists never really can. Sending them off to their families for the weekend as a little bit like saying goodbye to our kids, though! How weird not to see them for two days...

Our first morning reunited was fun--it basically entailed the kids comparing notes on what each house had and what they'd eaten for breakfast, and they quickly realized that there's just as much variety among Chinese households as there is among American. After fueling up in the school cafeteria, they were off to classes to see what Chinese school is really like. Let's just say we heard a lot of "the teachers talk the whole time!", "they have way too much homework", and "can we have 10-minute cookie breaks, too?"

Eventually, we settled into a routine of attending the cultural classes Nanjing Academy prepared for us: Wushu (martial arts), calligraphy, pottery, bamboo dance, and ping pong! We pretty much discovered that Keyla has a secret Chinese gene and is good at everything.







Of course, we couldn't miss the sightseeing spots in Nanjing either. We hit up...

 Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall (where the father of China himself is buried)


 The Nanjing Massacre Museum 
(commemorating the suffering caused by the Japanese attack on Nanjing in 1937)

 Confucius Temple Area 
(there is a temple there, but really, it just seemed like the place to shop and hang out)

We also had our bonding moments with the group, including hot pot, karaoke, and some kind of traditional Nanjing style small dish meal (there were 16 tiny bowls for each of us), during which Tim and Michael raced to see who could eat the most duck blood pudding.





It's amazing to see that teenagers from such different cultures can bond so quickly! I guess young people share certain qualities and concerns the world round. Throughout our whole experience, Ms Lo and I remained very impressed with our own students' curiosity, patience, and maturity in each new encounter with Chinese culture. They were as adventurous as we could hope them to be and fearless in trying such new things as frog legs and fish eyes. They really understood why we encouraged them to mingle with the Chinese students instead of forming their own little American clique and displayed impressive leadership in doing so. Go Marble Hillians! As for us teachers, this was a rare and wonderful opportunity to see our students grow right before our eyes.

Ms. M








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