留学生文化使者进南山校园

    Anna Zhao

    anna.whizh@yahoo.com

    The second group of 59 overseas students from the College of International Exchange of Shenzhen University wrapped up their mission as cultural ambassadors for public primary and middle schools in Nanshan District on January 9 with an award ceremony held at Nanshan Foreign Languages School.

    The project was an initiative to introduce quality education resources to Nanshan schools to promote internationalized education through joint efforts by the district’s education bureau and Shenzhen University.

    In April 2014, 19 overseas students from the university visited six schools to pilot the project in the district.

    In the past year, 350 exchange events were carried out by overseas students from different cultural backgrounds such as Thailand, Japan, South Korea, Brazil, Sweden, Zimbabwe, and the United States.

    The ceremony also featured a talent show by the overseas students who performed a Korean dance, did Chinese calligraphy, played a guzheng, recited poetry and sang Chinese songs.

    Liu Genping, director of the Nanshan District Education Bureau, said that the cultural exchange was a win-win project for both Nanshan students and overseas students. “We hope that education resources such as the ‘Cultural Ambassadors on Campus’ event can sow seeds in local schools and contribute to internationalized education in Nanshan and other areas of the city,” Liu said.

    Carlos Navarro from Spain said he was grateful for the opportunity to share his culture with people from a different cultural background, especially children who are curious about different places and things. During each exchange session of almost two hours, Navarro taught Chinese children about Spanish culture, history and traditions and played ping-pong with the children and their teachers.

    “They (the kids) asked a lot of questions, which surprised me because they knew more about my culture than I expected,” Navarro said.

    Samantha Gweshe from Zimbabwe said the experience was interesting for her and for the students. She presented to students a PowerPoint presentation about Zimbabwe’s food, clothes, dances and songs. “I asked a student to show me how to do a Zimbabwe dance to Chinese songs. I talked about weddings, how people get married in our county and differences between Zimbabwe and China. It was all very helpful information,” Gweshe said.

    Even during lunchtime, she talked to the children about her classes and students asked her about being in China. She said she had learned many thing, such as how to talk to children and explain many things in Chinese.

    “It makes me feel good because I can use Chinese and they can understand me — it’s very encouraging for me because when I first came to China I could hardly say “nihao,” but now I can present information about my country in Chinese and Chinese people can understand. It motivates me to speak and talk more,” Gweshe said.