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December, 1997
Dear Westport Colleagues:
As a China-America exchange teacher, I have been in Westport, Connecticut
for nearly four months. I am so lucky to have the chance to be in
such a lovely and beautiful city with so many friendly and warmhearted
people. Mei and I received a warm welcome and attended a banquet
and several parties. Everything has been arranged so well for us
and everybody around us is so kind that I am feeling just like being
at home. All the teachers in Staples High School, the people in
the Town Hall, the people of the Sister City Association and the
host we live with show so much concern. They are always ready to
offer their help to us both in our work and in our everyday life.
We have been teaching a class of Chinese language and Chinese culture
to Junior and Senior students in Staples High School. I feel lucky
that the students in our class are very good, they are always well
behaved and they have a positive attitude towards the course. They
show great interest in what we are discussing: Chinese history,
geography, schools, education, sports, folk arts, etc. When the
students had a chance to practice Chinese calligraphy with Chinese
brushes, they felt very happy and proud of their accomplishment.
And we also tried a Yangzhou cooking class in the Staples Culinary
Art kitchen preparing and eating together Yangzhou Fried Rice. We
are planning to have a dumpling cooking class soon. I am glad the
American students like Chinese food very much.
I have also been asked to give an evening class for adults once
a week, sharing with them our Yangzhou cuisine which made me become
an instant chef. I felt so glad when my students said that what
I had cooked tasted even better than the food in the Chinese restaurants.
We are asked by the Board of Education to meet all the 4th graders
in the three elementary schools and 5th graders in the two middle
schools in Westport during our stay here. Therefore, besides the
work in Staples, I am going to the other schools to give presentations
about China for one of two hours every day. Though I am really busy,
I'd like to say that I enjoy the work and I love the kids. The work
is interesting and meaningful. I have the feeling that most of the
American children know very little abut China. When such questions
- Do the Chinese boys wear long braids? Do the Chinese students
have homework as we do? - were raised, I strongly feel that it is
very necessary for America's young generation to know more about
China. Fortunately, the American people are now aware of that. One
fifth of the world's population speaks Chinese, and China is becoming
stronger and stronger and more important in the world. Therefore,
I am sure that more and more American school children will take
Chinese as their second language as they do today with French and
Spanish.
My four months' experience in Westport, America is wonderful and
memorable. The people here are wonderful, the job here is meaningful
and the scenery here is beautiful. In my opinion, Westport is like
a pretty garden with beautiful, colorful foliage in fall and white
snow-covered scenery in winter. I can't help taking pictures and
I have used up several rolls of film.
I have experienced several American festivals. Halloween is the
most exciting and important day for the kids for they can get a
lot of fun and candies by going "Trick or Treat" from
door to door. Thanksgiving Day, which is the fourth Thursday in
November, is the most important day for American families and friends.
It is, I think, somewhat like the Mid-Autumn Day in China, when
the whole family gets together to celebrate the autumn harvest,
eating the moon cakes (instead of the turkeys here) and many other
delicious dishes, admiring the round and bright moon in the sky
(we have no pilgrims story and history). As for the coming Christmas,
maybe the biggest festival here, we in China, have the Spring Festival
as the most important festival of the year. Spring Festival is the
New Year's day for Chinese people according to the Chinese lunar
calendar.
On a professional level as a teacher for the first time in America,
I find students here are generally good. They have good manners
and respect their teacher. I was, however, a little surprised in
the beginning, when I saw a boy student and a girl student hug each
warmly and even kiss each other in the school's hallway, while some
other students and teachers regard this as normal. This kind of
gesture can never be seen in China. Students at this age in China
are required to put all their effort and heart into their studies.
The teachers I am now working with are really great, hardworking
and responsible. They are busy working all day, teaching one class
after another (usually four or five periods a day) and correcting
their students' papers in their free periods. I also appreciate
their teaching methods of making their students more involved and
active. In China now, education of quality and ability is also advocated
and required but I think the American approach to accomplish this
is better. No doubt, I can learn a lot. I will put what I have learned
here into practice when I am back in China. I do feel so lucky to
have been chosen for such a wonderful experience. I hope the exchange
program will go on smoothly so that there will be more teachers
from sister cities just as lucky as I.
As the famous editor of the Westport News, Woody Klein once said,
"The only way our two nations can learn to co-exist, is if
the people of both nations establish a meaningful rapport. The current
teacher exchange is one small step and, if it is repeated in towns
and cities across the country one giant step towards maintaining
and nurturing peace and prosperity in and between both nations".
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