A foreign city of lights, cameras and action welcomes a group of 13 Chinese exchange students, who are excited to embark on an adventure throughout California. Juniors Filex Chen, Hervey Lu, Susan Sun, Krad Wang, Jimmy Xu, and Sophomores Xinfue Fu, Ryan Huang, Luffy Lu, Peter Lu, Sakura Lu, Tony Sheng, Jerry Xia and Cindy Xu arrived in Los Angeles from Shanghai Jinshan High School on Feb. 1.
These students, also including Physics teacher Mr. Weixing Jiang, are staying in California for 13 days and attending classes at the high school for three days. The Shanghai Brisbane Education Training Centre selected the students after they registered for the educational opportunity. Their exchange partners were selected from the AP Chinese classes and assigned one student each. C. Xu was Senior Anna Ger’s partner.
The students visited the Getty Villa, San Francisco, San Diego and Disneyland. The group of students also visited Hollywood for the first time and got to see the glitz and glamour of the movie industry.
“Hollywood was really big,” C. Xu said. “Some characters talked to me and I liked the fun experience.”
The students have gotten a glimpse of California life with their stay in Temple City, and compared American and Chinese lifestyles. Senior Justin Mak helped Sheng adjust to the different, yet similar personalities of the people.
“People are very warm-spirited,” Sheng said. “I think it’s pretty good.”
The exchange students left the high school on Feb. 6 and returned to their hotel. Ger enjoyed her time with her exchange partner, eating lunch with her and attending classes.
“I’ve never had to take someone to class before,” Ger said. “We played some games to get them know them better and it was a good experience.”
Principal Mary Jo Fosselman-King visited different schools in China a couple of years ago to learn about the Chinese education system and the Chinese culture. Teachers from China also visited Temple City High School for six weeks that same year.
“Visiting China helped me understand the culture there,” Principal King said. “I could also understand the cultures of some of our students here.”
The education system is extremely different from our system in several ways, because all ninth graders take a test which has two results: students either go to an academic high school or a career high school and choose their major that same year. Also, compared to our school, there is less student teacher interaction.
“I like our school system better because we’re more flexible,” Principal King said. “There are more opportunities and different pathways for our students.”
TCHS School Newspaper