LREI hosted 35 students from China on October 13-14, bringing the China exchange experience full circle for many LREI Mandarin students who visited the Chinese students at their school, the High School Affiliated with Shanghai University, over spring break in March 2015.

The visit was an opportunity for LREI Mandarin students to test their language skills with native speakers and was an immersive cultural experience for the Chinese students. After touring campus and experiencing morning assembly, the Chinese students spent the majority of their time in LREI classes, including physics, biology, chemistry, history and foreign language classes, as well as X-Block courses, including jazz ensemble, feminism, robotics, moc/docs, Model UN, musical discovery, anime and manga, and urban agriculture.

For many of the Chinese students, it was their first time in America. “Our students liked the arrangements of the classes. It’s quite different than what we have in China. The interactive activities between the teachers and the students were amazing to see. That’s what impressed us a lot.” said Zhou Xiao Lan, the vice principal of the High School Affiliated with Shanghai University who joined the students on the trip.

Chinese students noted the differences in curriculum and the smaller class size. “Here I liked that you have arts classes,” said Xu Jiayi, a 16-year-old student from Shanghai. “I draw and paint at home and I liked attending the studio art class here.”

LREI Mandarin students were eager for their turn to host, after many kept in touch following their trip to Shanghai. The two-way exchange boosts confidence in language ability and international social skills according to LREI Mandarin teachers Alicia Wang and Catherine Zhong.

“It was exciting for me because I kept in contact with the students I met on my China visit,” said Tiara S., an eleventh grader. She bonded with the Chinese students over some of their shared interests such as Japanese cartoons, Korean pop music and video games. The friendship comes with challenges, however. “It was hard to be the best host because of the language barrier,” Tiara said. “It only encourages me to study Mandarin more seriously and concentrate on my studies.”

For Ben M. and Lauren D., also eleventh graders who visited Shanghai over spring break, communicating with the visitors brought new understanding to classes beyond Mandarin. “The lens through which we view things here is really different,” Ben said. “Some of the Chinese students I spoke to said they don’t talk about their government or policies or issues in school, so it must be strange that we are constantly doing that in school.” Lauren noted a moment in her feminism class when the Chinese students were asked to think about what it means to be a boy or a girl in China. “It was clear they hadn’t ever been asked something like that,” she said.

Moments like these in which students analyze their own experiences and question how they compare globally are what visits like this are all about. “This is an early step to prepare our students to becoming global citizens,” Alicia said. “Through the two-way exchange our students learn that every step in not comfortable, and might be awkward, but through it you make your comfort zone larger and larger.”

LREI Mandarin students also led the visitors on a neighborhood walk around Greenwich Village. Miky, a 17-year-old student from Shanghai, enjoyed experiencing New York with guides her own age. “I liked the style of the streets here. I feel very free and safe,” she said, noting the shops and restaurants she saw during the tour. “The people in New York City that I met are very kind and warm hearted.”

After New York, the Chinese students visited Boston and Philadelphia, for a total of nine days in the United States. Through these face-to-face meetings and by using the Internet, our goal is to continue to develop the collaboration between students and teachers at LREI and the High School Affiliated with Shanghai University.