CRI听力:Underprivileged American Students Travel to Learn Chinese Culture

Reporter: John Zavalney is a science teacher with the Foshay Learning Center in South Los Angels.

John was the chaperoon of his 11 students while in China. When they arrived in Beijing and were guided into the majestic Forbidden City, they became excited immediately.

"Most the students really enjoy Forbidden City, the history. In our country, if something is 200 years old, that's very old. But here, when we're talking centuries old, just that is a whole new concept for our students to understand. So I think that was very powerful. Watching them just "oh my god", "oh my too much, too much". So for me, the best thing for me is watching my students experience this new world for the first time."

Except tours to historical sites, like the Forbidden City which served as the imperial palace for nearly 500 years from the Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty, the American students also went on a special Hutong tour. During the tour, they visited a local family to learn how to cook Chinese dumplings.

This seemed the most interesting part for Amber Johnston, a 12th-grader in the Foshay Learning Center.

"I think I'm really looking forward to entering a really Chinese-cultural household and to see what kind of furniture they live in, and how they really live their everyday lives. I'm also interested in learning their recipe for the meal that they're gonna cook. I've heard about it (dumplings) and I've also seen it in many TV shows, and they look very interesting. So I would love to really know how it's made and why it's so important in the culture."

The "Learning AFAR program" has strict criteria in selecting students for this opportunity.

Applicants are required to demonstrate financial need, academic achievement and leadership potential, as well as lack of previous travel experiences to earn a place in the program.

When another visiting student Richard Gomez was learning Taichi from a teacher in Beijing, he still had a hard time believing all this was real, as he had never traveled outside of the US.

"Today, this is my first time trying Taichi. So we had a Taichi master today coming and teaches us some basic steps for Taichi. It was really interesting. It was a little hard to follow at first but after a while, you got the hang of it and just go with the flow. I chose China because I know it has a lot of history behind it. It's a really powerful history. We've learnt a lot about it at school and I'm also interested in coming. It's just really far away. I've never really travelled far other than, I guess, within the United States. It was a big step just coming to China, and this is a different environment and different synergy within the village."

After Beijing, the students would also visit four other iconic cities - Shanghai, Nanjing, Suzhou and Hangzhou.

John Zavalney accredited their trip to a non-profit organization called No Barriers, which raises money for the program to allow students this travel opportunity that they could not afford otherwise.

ChinaTour.com, a San Francisco based travel agency that focuses on trips to China, was the sponsor of this year's China project, which covered the majority of the students' travel expenses.

Both sponsors wanted to ensure that this 10-day expedition to China was not just for fun but also provided students with life-long memories.

John Zavalney explained:

"They make sure that our students are getting much more than just going on vacation and looking. We're learning about the culture, about society, about the history. And our school is international baccalaureate, so IB schools can focus on the world view. And for my students from south LA who live in a very poor neighborhood, they never get to travel. So this opportunity is a great opportunity for them to see the world outside their neighborhood which they usually don't get to see. So for me, that's what I hope my students get to do is to get a bigger view of the world that understand the other cultures, and be able to respect, and embrace other cultures instead of being afraid of them."

Casey Kohn was the leader for this trip from No Barriers USA. She helped to coordinate the activities in collaboration with a local Chinese tour guide.

Casey Kohn said her responsibilities also included making sure the teachers' expectations for this trip were met.

"So I think they will benefit from visiting China specifically, because China is a very important place in the world. And the relationship between the United States and China continues to grow stronger. So it will be important for them in their futures to understand different cultures in China as well as know a little bit of the mandarin, the Chinese language so that they can be world citizens. We really want them to understand that they are connected to the entire world. They are not just connected to where they are from in the United States."

Rich and colorful educational and cultural exchange activities included a visit to the Great Wall, one of the greatest man-made wonders of the world.

During their stay in Suzhou, they were taken to the Lingering Garden, which is recognized with other classical Suzhou gardens as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Their stay in Shanghai enabled them to travel from the Shanghai Old Street and the Bund to a local nursing home and a China Welfare Institute, where they saw how the disadvantaged receive assistance from the society.

For the American students, such a journey was nevertheless very short since they flew back to the US last weekend, but the uNPRecedented eye-opening experiences which took place this summer in China would stay for a long time in their young minds, or perhaps even a lifetime.

For Studio Plus, I'm XU Fei.