Kung Fu and Chinese Culture

(Andrew)

It has taken me a while to fully grasp the immense culture that China presents. Prior to my participation in the China Exchange, I had always thought America’s two hundred thirty five year old history had been unique. And, that America, a nation that heavily influences those developing, could pride itself on its rich culture. This was assumed after many years of US history lessons of course, and obviously I had been wrong. The fascinating five thousand year old Chinese culture extends its roots so deep into the man’s history that I have often caught myself wondering throughout this trip why people don’t learn more about it.

Senior Privileges

(Allen)

Back again in Hangzhou, hellooooo rain and also hello new host family. Everything with my new host family is going along fine, except for one catastrophic downfall—stairs. They live on the top floor of a six-story apartment complex with no elevator, so making it down every morning is a downhill roller coaster and conversely climbing back up every evening is like comparable to scaling Mt. Everest, just kidding. All jokes aside, my new host family is pretty awesome; they even have an adorable dog, Dudu, that looks like a bear cub. When I first walked into the apartment, Dudu barked relentlessly at the presence of a stranger, but after ten minutes he was getting all cozy in my lap and on my arm. It’s definitely taken some time, but after a week, Dudu considers me a part of the family.

English Corner at Hanggao

(Mel)

One of the best parts of this trip is without a doubt our daily English Corner sessions. I’m sure they’ve already been mentioned in the blog but just in case you’re reading this and don’t know English Corner is a 30 minute block of time during the lunch break every day when we hang out in a room of the school and any kids who want to practice their english or learn about American culture can come to chat with us. In past years English Corner has been held outside but since we’ve only had 3 or so sunny days the whole time we’ve been in Hangzhou we’ve been inside for it but we’ve taken advantage of having a classroom by writing a few American slang words (with definitions) on the board every day. At first we weren’t sure if the kids would like it but most of the kids check out the slang words of the day first thing when they get to English Corner.

School in America?

(Emily)

Students who wish to go to school in America really have to take the initiative--its a lot of extra work. They must teach themselves the TOEFL and SAT vocabulary (although most get tutors). Also, the SAT is not administered in mainland China, so students must fly to Hong Kong multiple times. Our translator friends tell us that when they took their SAT’s they were surrounded by other mainland students at the airport, at hotels, and at the shopping malls. The test taking center they were at held 3000 people--and there were only five bathrooms, and they had only five minute breaks to use them. Not as much fun as our SAT’s, in short. Most students just take the GaoKao though--I think our perspective is a bit skewed because our guides and many of the kids we meet at English corner have more to do with us precisely because they want to practice their English.

Exploring the Creative World of American Film…Chinese style!

(Joseph)

Last week I embarked on a somewhat challenging and intimidating task: teaching the famous American film Citizen Kane to junior-level Chinese students with no experience studying film at all…and all this in less than 45 minutes. Of course, I did not really teach as much of the film as I would have liked, but we covered an amazing amount of film in our limited time.