Year 10 students who recently returned from the 2019 China Language and Culture tour presented on their experiences and learnings recently.
Many of the students gave presentations on aspects of Chinese culture that they had researched while on the trip. Ms Fangfang Qiu’s group, Sean Ooi (Year 10), Nick Cavill (Year 10), Rayden Wang (Year 10) and Stefan Kudra (Year 10) gave a lengthy presentation on Transport in China, and China’s historical sites. The presentation also included their experiences on horses, bikes, scooters, buses, and even taboggan rides from the Great Wall of China.
We then enjoyed scintillating descriptions of the Great Wall itself, Tianamen Square and the Forbidden City, the Terracotta Warriors of Xi’an, the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, the Jade Dragon Snow mountain and many other significant cultural sites, beautiful gardens and wilderness areas that we visited in Beijing, Xi’an, Kunming, Lijiang, and Shanghai. Time was taken for a question and answer session which was almost as entertaining as the presentation itself.
Ms Qiu then showed a video she had composed from all pictures and video clips we had collected during the tour, while all had time to enjoy some tasty food and chat.
Mr Chris Smyth’s group; Michael Slavotinek (Year 10), Leon Xie (Year 10) and Ben Brierley (Year 10) then followed with presentations on the food we experienced across many different cultural regions of China (it was all delicious). We then heard about School Life in a Chinese school based on the boys five days with student billets attending Shixi High in the centre of Shanghai. Again, a question and answer session was very illuminating with Ben providing Chinese sweets.
Parents were very interested in the exercise sessions held every morning for 15 minutes for all students before school began, and also in the name and shame notices issued publicly for any students guilty of misdemeanours. The boys spoke of the classes they attended, all in Chinese, comparing them and the student culture with their own experience.
We finished the evening with an excellent video presentation by Stefan Kudra (Year 10) showing some highlights of the tour. It was a great night to celebrate the success of the 2019 China Tour.
Chris Smyth
Senior School Teacher
