One of my favorite parts of traveling abroad is visiting local schools.  I did this while in India and I was able to do it in China as well.  It is very interesting to see how schools are run in different countries, how the building is set up, what the students learn, and how the kids play!

China recently increased its funding in schools so this local Xining elementary school is a great example of what increased funding can do!

As we arrived, the 1,000+ kids were getting ready to do their morning exercises.  I will probably never see this many children under the age of 12 so well organized.

We even joined in with the exercises!

We were split up into smaller groups and had the opportunity to talk to the kids in their English class.  Two of my classmates, Erica and Drew, and I went to the 4th grade class.  The kids were ridiculously cute.  We spoke to them in English and Chinese which they enjoyed a lot. Once we found out they didn’t have English names, we gave all 40 of them good ol’ American names like Bobby, Sally, Tom, and Janet.  We had a blast!

We then visited an auditorium that had multiple classes.  Their English was not good so we had to speak all in Chinese.  One kid asked about American money so I passed around a 1, 5, and 10 dollar bill.  I’ve never heard more ohhhhhh and ahhhhhh’s in my life!

We did have one interesting cultural gaffe.  One of the kids was…well, chubby.  He was very chubby.  Another student raised his hand to ask a question.  He pointed at this chubby kid and asked us if we had fat children like him in America.  The chubby kid voluntarily stood up to show us and was laughing.  Drew, Erica and I had no idea what to say.  How was this a question? We all felt very uncomfortable said 对 (which means yes) and moved on to another question. 

We talked to our program director about it later because we didn’t know if our response was okay or not.  She said that talking about a person’s height and weight like that is not offensive in China.  They are not as politically correct as Americans try to be.  Although I felt bad that another student pointed out that student’s chubbiness, the chubbier kid didn’t mind.  He was used to it, hence him laughing and showing us when we didn’t respond at first.  Talking with kids is always an eye opener when learning about another culture because they can help you understand their culture better than any adult.

All the kids!

We played with them at recess.  Someone in my program got the bright idea to give out their “autograph” to the kids.  Suddenly, we were swarmed with kids sticking pens and their English textbooks in our face hoping for us to sign it.

They were still pretty cute and some of the kids cried when we left.  Hope I can go back one day to see how they are doing!