First Day of School

Ayden Writes:

Today I started school. I was very nervous to start a new school. All of my teachers spoke all Chinese and no English. When I got to my school, my teacher was waiting for me. We walked up to my classroom. On the way up we didn’t talk to each other because she didn’t speak any English.

When I got in the classroom all of the students were looking at me. The first thought I had was that my class was huge. My teacher showed me where I should sit. I was sitting next to a girl whose name is very hard to say. When I sat down a teacher (who spoke English) came over to me and told me a little about the class.

The first subject was Chinese. They were learning Chinese characters. The next subject actually it was an exercise. We did morning exercises. The next subject was math. It was pretty easy except that it was in Chinese. The next thing we did was eye exercises. It was very strange. After that we had computer class. We did something like ultra key but easier. Next was music class. We sang songs in Chinese. I just hummed. And that was it for me.

--Ayden

Gavi Writes:

Hi all,
Today was the first day of school after The Spring Festival here in China. It was also me, my siblings, and all of the high-schoolers first day in Chinese school ever. For me school started at 7:50. Grace, one of the coordinators of the China Exchange Program here, met me at the front gate of the Gao Xin Middle School to walk me to my classroom. When I entered the room I was greeted by the first of many standing ovations. My English teacher Feng Lao Shi, who also was the teacher who brought the 8 Chinese students to Boston, quieted the classroom and then told me to read the speech which I had been asked to prepare the day before. I read it as best I could but seeing as it was mostly in Chinese it probably wasn’t very understandable. However, nevertheless I received another standing ovation as I finished. After that Tomas, one of the class presidents (there are four), introduced the fifty some 12 year olds who were to be my classmates. Then I was ushered to a seat in the back of the room, which was also apparently reason for yet another round of applause. The girl who sits next to me said hello and explained in broken English that she had essentially been assigned to help me get around and figure out what was going on.

Once I was settled and had gotten my notebooks out of my bag successfully Feng Lao Shi continued with her lesson. After a very short English class we had math, then a break, then Chinese. During the break all 50 some students were crowded around my desk asking my “buddy” questions in VERY fast Chinese. The most common answers were Gao Wei (my Chinese name) and mei go ren (American). After the Chinese class we went outside and stood in lines while someone spoke over the load-speaker. Tomas, who is Chinese-American and the best English student in the class, eventually was able to get the message across that this was a flag-raising. We must have stood there for ten straight minuets not moving a muscle when all of a sudden my “buddy” grabbed the hood of my jacket and pulled me to turn left as my class along with all of the other classes turned left at the exact same time, then she pushed me forward, and completely synchronized (with the exception on me) the entire school marched back into the buildings.

After the flag-raising I had music class. Everyone sang some song in Chinese that I understood none of and was unable to follow because the lyrics were written in characters, though the vocal warm-ups were similar to the ones I’m used to. Then there was another English class where again and again I was asked to stand and read something off of the board while everyone repeated after me. After English everyone went to lunch while I packed up and headed back to the high-school campus to have lunch and play a very heated game of soccer with the 8 high-school students and some Chinese students who were absolutely amazing at soccer and extremely intimidating. Over all my first day of school was very interesting, and hopefully, by the end of our time here I’ll be able to make out a little bit of what people are saying to me.

More later,
Gavi