Building Bridges: A Cultural Exchange

Building Bridges: A Cultural Exchange

Labels: profiles

BY YUXI LIU

Blog Editor

Thursday, April 4, 2013

Spring break is usually a time for relaxation. After months of cramming for never-ending midterms and postponing problem sets until the night before they’re due, every college student is ready to jet off to a sandy beach, preferably one far away from the continental US. But for some Yalies, spring break is also a time for service. This past break, over 100 students skipped the vacation destinations and traveled instead to rural areas in which they spent two weeks living and working alongside the locals. Some people worked on education initiatives, others worked to conserve natural resources, even others worked to provide basic healthcare to remote villages. And all I did was catch up on Game of Thrones with an embarrassingly large bowl of pasta.

One of the service trips offered during spring break this year was through Yale’s Building Bridges program, which led a two-week trip to China. The trip was broken down into three sections: one week was devoted to educating children in rural schools in Fujian Province, 3 days were spent exploring the small town of Xiamen, and the last 3 days centered around sightseeing in the business capital of China, Shanghai. I sat down with three participants of Building Bridges, Peter Zhan (CC ’15), Candice Hwang (ES ’16), and Diana Orozco (ES ’16), to talk about their spring break experience.

The first thing I wanted to know was: what exactly is Building Bridges? The mission of these service trips, at least on the surface, is to bolster English education in rural China, but how exactly do they accomplish this goal? The short answer: they don't... or not exactly. But what they do instead is perhaps even more valuable.

Peter told me that the teaching process is mostly used as way to get kids excited about the English language and to show them the opportunities that come from acquiring this skill. “A two-week trip is too short, so the purpose of being in rural China isn’t so much to improve the kids’ English skills academically but to inspire the kids to continue learning, even after we’re gone.” In order to accomplish these goals, though, they must plan out detailed lessons every day.

“We came up with a bunch of creative ways to get the kids engaged,” said Diana. “We prepare lesson plans the day before with the type of vocabulary we want the kids to learn: sports, countries, food, etc.” They use fun activities like Hokey Pokey, Simon Says, and popular music like the Titanic theme or Taylor Swift songs to help the kids remember the words. The only thing they don’t use is a textbook. Candice informed me, “the kids already have decent textbooks, so Yale students are more focused on exposing them to the proper American accent, as well as consistent practice.”

Although the trip is focused on teaching, Yalies also get something in return.

“We go to teach rural children English, but it’s really a cultural exchange opportunity,” Peter said. “We try to open up the rural schoolchildren’s worldviews and in return, we get to learn about Chinese culture.”

Most of this cultural exchange comes from interacting with a group of 10^th graders who live and attend school in Changsha, Hunan Province, which was unanimously considered the best part of the trip. Because many of the Yalies who go on these trips are not fluent in Chinese, Building Bridges collaborates with Yali School, a secondary school founded by the Yale-China Association in 1906. The Yali students act not only as translators but also as liaisons between the Yale students and the elementary school students in rural China. Throughout the trip, Yale and Yali students work together to come up with interesting and effective ways to implement their lesson plans, and even become friends.

Despite forming strong alliances, teaching English in foreign country will always have its challenges. Everyone started off confident but quickly realized exactly how different a service trip is from the archetypal spring break. After a rough first day, everyone was left a bit dissatisfied.

“We misjudged the English levels of the kids,” Candice explained. “But the Yali students were immediately looking for ways to improve the quality of teaching, which really impressed me because it showed that they actually cared about the rural kids. One student even said, ‘We’re here to help these kids, to teach these kids, not for a vacation.’” Apparently, the Yali students had spent months prior to the Building Bridges trip fundraising, putting on performances like “Yali Idol” in order to pay for teaching supplies and sports equipment. They certainly weren’t going to let a minor setback derail everything they’d worked for.

The Yali kids were not only determined but also diverse in their interests. Diana remembered fondly, “One kid really loves fireworks and rockets. Another one really loves computer science and works on the Yali website on the side after class. They definitely aren’t stereotypical high school students who only care about their academics.”

Other than working with the high school students, the Yalies also had a chance to speak with two Yale alumni (Matt Huttner ‘07 and Vincent Law ‘00) who currently live in Shanghai. This unparalleled perspective is something you can only find when you travel internationally. After learning about what it’s like to live and work in China after attending Yale, many of the Building Bridges participants are now thinking about a future abroad.

To Peter, the possibilities are visible in China. He says he’s definitely considering working abroad after he graduates, not only because of the booming business but also for an opportunity to reconnect with his roots. Candice, who lived in Shanghai and has always planned on going back, added, “There’s so much potential in China. I see things changing and developing constantly, and I want to help shape the course of that change.”

On that forward-looking note, we finished our interview, and I started to reflect. With summer approaching quicker than I can finish this week’s problem set, I weighed my options. I could spend a month at home doing nothing in particular, or I could spend half that time with a purpose in mind: to try to make a difference. Through Peter, Candice, and Diana, I found out that Building Bridges is offering another service trip to China this summer in mid August. If you’re interested, check out their website or contact co-presidents Jeanette Chin (jeanette.chin@yale.edu) or Chang Liu (c.liu@yale.edu). After hearing about their experiences, I know I am.