Education

Growing up and heading home

By Wang Wei (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-08-24 08:11

Students of China Study Link take a photo with newfound foreign friends at Times Square, New York. PHOTOS PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY

Beijing kids return after three weeks with friends, families and fish in US

Although disliking the title "little princess", Zhang Danning, 13, used to fit this category perfectly. An only child she always enjoyed the full attention of her parents and grandparents.

But the second-year student from Jingshan middle school now confidently declares that she has outgrown this label after participating in an exchange program to the United States where she lived with a local family and did her own dishes and laundry and made her bed every day by herself. Things she rarely did at home.

Trip Edwards works on vocalizing expressions with a pair of Beijing kids.

 

Together with nine other youngsters, aged between eight and 14, Zhang spent an unforgettable 21 days in Mechanicville, New York State, home to approximately 5,200 people living in an area of slightly over two square kilometers.

The children paired with American children in a host family and did a series of language and cultural activities, including language classes, team building exercises and sports. The group also took a number of day trips to Lake George, Saratoga, a few local museums and New York City.

"Unlike the majority of summer camps in China, which normally feature sightseeing in tourist cities or intensified studies, this trip is more educational," said American Kevin Ferrone, co-founder of China Study Link, which organized the trip.

Established by Ferrone, his Chinese wife Amy Wang and Trip Edwards in Beijing, China Study Link aims to promote intercultural experience among the teenagers of different countries.

"Children have a better understanding of American culture through living with locals in a small town where more than 90 percent of Americans actually live," Ferrone told METRO.

Summer camp has always been regarded as a lucrative market in China, but very few fulfill the objective of providing children a different, creative and educational holiday, according to an educational expert.

"Many summer camps are merely the extension of school classes or a tourist group plus a few English classes. They aren't worth the expensive price," said Wang Haiyan, vice-president of the Institute of Basic Education Development and Research.

The Ministry of Education issued an urgent notice on Aug 6, stipulating that educational authorities in different cities should strengthen the supervision of summer camps and make sure that the activities provided nurture the students' sense of responsibility and creativity in a fun environment.

Trip Edwards said China Study Link provides a remedy to such study tours that offer little value to students by providing interaction with a local community in the host country.

Some of the study tours to foreign countries are organized by people who have little knowledge about the host country. Few packages includes staying with host family for a period of time, he said.

Participants who took the study tour to Mechanicville learnt communication skills and the value of friendship, which is indispensable quality for a global citizen, he explained.

"Children learn language and culture better by living with a host family," he added.

Clockwise from top left: Co-founder Kevin Ferrone plays a game with students that they learned in the US; two Chinese students stand with an American girl as they make a class presentation at Mechanicville Elementary School; taking it easy in a fast food restaurant.

 

Liu Haofeng, 13, Zhang Danning's schoolmate, said he built a strong bond with his host family in what he described as a "rewarding and meaningful trip".

He said his host father is a bus driver who taught him fishing and how to make delicious fried chicken.

"We went fishing every weekend at the lake near the house. My host father is very good at fishing and always caught fish," he said.

Liu is very proud that he taught his US counterparts how to write his name in Chinese. They still keep in contact through e-mails. "I really miss them a lot. Although we won't see each other often, we will be friends forever," he said.

"After living with a local family, I feel the US is different from what I see on movies and TV where it is a busy metropolis and people are indifferent toward each other," he said. "Family members treasure the parent-child relationship and friendship a lot."

He made up his mind at the end of the trip that he would study hard, so that when he is admitted by a US university in the future he can pay a visit to his host family.

China Daily

(China Daily 08/24/2010)