CHINA WEEK REFLECTIONS
Rabeya Jawaid
Coming from a country where Ahmadis are not accepted, and girls are not educated due to gender inequality, I appreciate the UWC’s call for equality, and the call for doing rigorous community service to bring about equality. This is why I was particularly excited about going to the Huaguang Girls’ School in Nanning for China week. Our main objectives were discussed during the China week meetings: we were to conduct English teaching classes, engage the students in creative, cultural, and interactive activities, do home visits, provide love and knowledge to the students, and make them feel uplifted and equal. In addition to this, we were also to eat local food, stay at a local hotel, and go for cultural visits around Nanning to learn more about Chinese customs and culture.
The journey to Nanning definitely bonded us students as a China week group. We played various interactive games amongst us and made an effort to get to know each other better. I, personally, talked to many students from Hong Kong and asked them to teach me a few of the mandarin phrases that I would need in China. It was interesting to get to know my co-years better and I felt it contributed to a lot of the success we made as a group, working together once we got to Nannnig. It also enabled us to understand each other better and to hear great stories about each other’s lives.
We visited the school the first thing when we got to Nanning. It was so heartening to see the management of the school greet us so energetically at the gate. We were taken to watch a presentation about the school and its aims. It was very depressing to see how the Huaguang Girl’s school and the students had suffered so greatly due to lack of capital and help from the government or any other source. However, it was very inspiring to see how the principal of the school had risen out of the dire situation despite the odds, persevered and re-opened the school. After the presentation, we went to see a physical display prepared by the students for us. As I watched them perform their well-synchronized display, I marveled at the sense of order and harmony that prevailed in the school. After the display, we went to meet the girls. That was the most entertaining time of my whole visit. It ranged from being able to tell my name and get to know them all using only English (which they could yet not fully understand) However, it surprised and amazed me how they still made a genuine effort to try to understand and communicate in English. Again, I saw perseverance in their eyes, and it greatly influenced me.
I had been assigned as an English Buddy in our China Week group and had already made basic teaching plans in our China week meetings, however, when we arrived at the school, we looked at the English text books and other materials to determine the level of English we should teach to each class. Each international student in our China week group was paired up with a Mandarin-speaker student. In my first few English classes, I felt that it was very difficult to communicate in English (specially while giving the instructions) because the students could not understand and I felt like my mandarin-speaking partner would often take over in Mandarin and I would not be able to get my point across to the students. Another criticism that I evaluated from the first few English classes was that we focused too much on teaching from the blackboard rather than involving the class in interactive activities. However, my teaching partner and I quickly evaluated our mistakes and talked about how we could make our classes better. I felt that the criticism and talk greatly enabled us to do much better in the rest of the classes, and that it was actually very helpful. Hence, we made our English classes much better by giving the instructions in English and making the classes more interesting. The most important thing that I kept in my head while giving instructions was to speak slowly, to keep repeating and to explain with visual objects to make them understand. We also involved the students in interactive games which would improve their English such as hangman, create a story game, learn and sing an English song game, charades. We also worked to improve their basic vocabulary and made them communicate in class in English to improve their English-speaking skills and to raise their confidence. By the end of the week, we noticed a significant change in their confidence while speaking English and I really felt like they could communicate much better.
The cultural visits around Nanning greatly enhanced my knowledge about Chinese culture, architecture and customs. We first visited the sports complex being built in Nanning, which was yet not opened to visitors. However, the massive architecture left me speechless and I could really see signs of great development. We visited various other places, like the China-ASEAN Expo where we tried various Chinese foods and carved Chinese dragons out of paper. I felt like the China week trip also made us all very independent. For food, we were given money by our China week supervisor and it was up to us to decide which food we should have and to have it from the money that we were given. I think it made our decision-making skills better and enabled us to think for ourselves.
The last cultural evening held at the school was very exciting. We, as a China week group had prepared various dances to show our culture and the students from Huaguang had prepared many dances and skits to show us Chinese culture and traditions. I was part of the South Asian Dance and also sang a Chinese song and an English song ‘We are the world’ I felt that the South Asian Dance was a great way to show the girls something about my region, where I come from, and how I dress back at home. The singing of the Chinese song initiated great laughter from the crowd as they realized what a difficult challenge it was for us international students to be able to sing in Chinese. Singing ‘We are the world’ was great fun, but as I sang it, I focused on the lyrics and realized how they were so true: how the Huaguang’s school was providing education to young children to enable them to grow up and ‘make a change in the world’. I also thought about my country at the point, and realized how this needed to be done in Pakistan as well.
Leaving was the hardest time during the whole visit. I had got to know the girls so well despite the barrier in communication. During lunch, near the basketball court, walking towards the canteen, or even while walking to the bathroom, they were always there, ready to challenge themselves and talk in English. We had spent time talking about their aims and their future. An inspiring and confident girl who I will never forget told me how she wanted to learn English, go to university, become a doctor and earn money for her family, and possible earn even enough money to fund schools like the one she had been taught in. We had a nice chat but by the time I was leaving, we were both in tears. I wished her luck with everything and I know she will be go very high in life if given the opportunities.
I think China Week was a great refreshing process for me. I think sometime we get so muddled in deadlines, assignments, tests and exams that we do not stop to think about the bigger picture: helping humanity. It was so revitalizing for me to finally be able to make a difference in someone’s life and to make them feel equal and special. In addition to that, I also met two UWC alums from Atlantic College, who helped us during the whole trip. I witnessed their passion and commitment to help humanity and was greatly inspired by that. I think the whole trip led to a great change in my attitude. I realized that we should be content with what we have and just keep inspiring and persevering: just like the girls in Huagong Girl’s school.
