A tale of two cultures – Sacred Heart students visit Beijing
Convent of the Sacred Heart Upper School students and Beijing Jianhua Experimental School high school students bond over their cultures and languages. Courtesy of Mrs. Joanne Wu-Havemeyer.
Twenty Convent of the Sacred Heart Upper School students immersed themselves in the Chinese culture and language during a two-week language study trip to Beijing, China, March 15 through March 27. Participants were not only able to explore a culture vastly different from their own, but also were able to interact with students who attend a school outside of the Sacred Heart network.
Upper School students in Chinese courses ranging from Chinese I to AP Chinese availed themselves of the opportunity to embark on the trip.
During the students’ fourth day in Beijing, March 19, they visited the Beijing Jianhua Experimental School, a private co-educational school founded in 1993 for Chinese students in grades kindergarten through twelfth grade.
The Sacred Heart Upper School students who visited the Beijing Jianhua Experimental School had the chance to walk around the school’s campus, talk to Beijing students about their lives in China, and eat in the school’s cafeteria.
The Beijing Jianhua Experimental School, unlike many schools that Sacred Heart students have visited in the past as part of the school’s exchange program, is not part of the Sacred Heart network. However, students saw this as an opportunity to learn about and experience a community immensely different than their own.
Courtesy of Mrs. Joanne Wu-Havemeyer.
Despite cultural differences between the Beijing Jianhua Experimental School students and the Sacred Heart students, they were able to form a strong bond and learn from each other about their home countries.
“They were really sweet and very interested in U.S. culture,” junior and Chinese IV Honors student Grace Campbell said. “They were very interested in U.S. movies and our life here in America.”
Freshman and Chinese II student Rachel Bellissimo agrees that the Beijing students had a great interest in many aspects of United States culture.
“I spent my mornings with a girl named Jennifer and a boy named Victor,” Rachel said. “They were both very talkative as well as curious. They wanted to know a lot about what things, especially academics, were like in the US.”
She also noticed that the Beijing Jianhua Experimental School emphasized the skill of speaking English.
“This seems to be important to both schools, as it is necessary to learn how to communicate with people of different cultures and could be helpful in the near future,” Rachel said.
Mrs. Joanne Wu-Havemeyer, Upper School Chinese Teacher, hopes that the visit helped the Sacred Heart students taking Chinese to enrich their knowledge and awareness of China and the world. She also hopes that the students of both schools can establish a pen-pal program in the future to further enhance the students’ writing and understanding of each other’s languages and cultures.
“Both schools would like their students to be global citizens,” Mrs. Wu-Havemeyer said. “They can have a better understanding about the similarity and differences between the two schools. I hope this experience may inspire their further higher education in the US.”
– Izzy Sio, Staff Writer
Victoria Allen (School Archivist) • Apr 2, 2015 at 11:12 am
What an interesting and informative article! I really enjoyed reading it. Thank you.
Kathy Sio • Apr 2, 2015 at 9:51 am
This was a wonderful study trip – I am sure each participant took home some very valuable insight!