Locations: Weishan First High, Xiang Hua Middle School, An Le Elementary School
Shawna Ye:
As a returnee of SIW, I couldn’t but feel excited about the brand new adventure I would get to experience this year, and Weishan absolutely did not disappoint. During these two weeks, I learned so much about the different aspects of life in Weishan, about the students, and about myself. I was inspired by the students who had to face enormous workloads on a daily basis (which dwarfed mine in comparison) yet took it all with graceful ease, amazed by their ability to handle immense family responsibilities, and awed by their strength to retain their contagious laughter throughout it all. Because of these students, I can say with confidence that I have come out of SIW as a better person. However, to be completely honest, I was also incredibly nervous to return this year, because I had feared that I would not learn anything more than what I had learned last year. Thankfully, I was proven completely wrong as I was able to live through experiences entirely different from last year, meeting entirely new people and learning entirely new lessons. Weishan is an endless source of knowledge, and every lesson learned is something to be treasured.
Alena Zhang
Angela Chen
Annabelle Gong
Bo Deng
Erin Xu
Jason Ren
Lili Xu
Reymond Wong
Elaine Ren:
I would say SIW 2019 was one of the most memorable experience I had for my entire summer.
Throughout this journey, I had a chance to experience things I had never done before, one of them was teaching Chinese students English. We were the first-ever group to teach the middle school students in Weishan and also the first time collaborating with Xianghua middle school. This made us rather unfamiliar with the situation there. We had no idea where the students’ English levels are at and whether or not they would find our teaching materials understandable. It was only after we had officially met the teachers, then we were informed about their English level. We had less than a day to adjust the materials we prepared accordingly and the limited amount of time was a big challenge for us. Our group burnt the midnight oil and finished the materials for our lesson just in time for the lesson.
One personal breakthrough was that I am much more comfortable with public speaking. During the first lesson, I was super nervous. I remember speaking so fast that I keep stumbling with my words. As the lessons went on, my nervousness eased overtime. I was much more confident and much more comfortable speaking in front of the class.
Besides teaching, SIW allowed me to meet people whom I eventually formed deep bonds with, my groupmates, roommates, as well as the middle school students we taught. All the “fights” we had over Unstable Unicorn; the forfeit we came up with for the loser of the game Doudizhu (斗地主); and our obsession with green apple Fantas as well as Chickies. These memories we made, the friendship we had are things that I would treasure for life.
SIW was also a platform to expose me to different cultures. We experienced the daily lives of Chinese high school students. Their form lives with the early morning wake up bells at 6.30am and the lights off bell at 11 pm every day; their morning runs; their 早自习and晚自习. We had a glimpse of how hard they work towards a common goal of getting a good grade in 高考, as well as the time and effort they put into achieving their goal.
The SIW journey I had this year was unforgettable. If I have the chance next year, I would gladly come back and contribute more to this.
Noah Liu:
The two weeks I spent in Weishan were two of the most impactful and amazing weeks I have ever had. Being exposed to a culture so different from ours was an incredibly eye-opening experience. I had participated in SIW Elementary last summer and I was expecting a similar experience, but this year turned out to be very different. Since the students this year were older, teaching and talking to them was much easier. Just like everyone else, I was quite nervous in the beginning because I didn’t want to humiliate myself in front of all of the students, but I soon learned that most of students were just as nervous to meet us as we were to meet them. Once I started talking to them outside of class, however, the shyness they had faded away and kindness and curiosity took over. Almost every day, the students would give us small gifts and ask us questions about ourselves and about life in America. I also had the chance to learn about the lives of the students. I was a little surprised at how hard-working the students were. They worked from very early in the morning to very late at night and they seemed motivated – they all listened intently during our classes some would even take notes. SIW also taught me to be more confident in speaking. I have never been a loud speaker but the size of the classrooms forced me to really project my voice so everyone could hear. Overall, SIW was a wonderful experience for me to learn about a new culture and step outside my comfort zone.
Jichuan Li
Bailey Zhang
My experiences in Weishan has been unforgettable. I am thankful for having the opportunity to go to Weishan and teach for the second time. SIW has changed a lot since last year. Compared to last year the amount of SIW members have significantly became bigger. Our elementary team went from 4 members to 7 members! This was an improvement because we accomplished a lot more things, taught more classes, and provides more for the elementary school. Speaking of which, the elementary school also changed this year. Just like students in the elementary school last year, An Le elementary school kids were exceptional students; energetic, responsible, independent, and very hard working. Almost all of them paid attention to us during class and were patient when we were having some difficulties figuring things out(,like how to work the projector). In the beginning I was quite nervous about teaching, especially because you have to use Chinese. Another challenge was having to teach Gym, Music, and Art because I am not the best at any of those. When we first went to the Elementary School the kids were also shy because they didn’t know who we are and they probably have never had visitors like us. Teaching the first few times was a success--I would say-- and made me more comfortable teaching. The Students also became more friendly with us. Even though it is not the funnest thing to lesson plan it is definitely worth it when you get to teach these students. I had lots of fun with my team this year. My team was full of nice people and treated me as equals so it was easy to get along with them. This year we got to stay in Weishan Yi Zhong High School dorms and it was really cool to experience living in a high school campus, even though I am not even old enough to be in high school. We also got to experience school food (which is a lot better than Austin school food). Unfortunately, this experience quickly ended. On the last day, many students gave us presents and asked for our signatures. We had to say goodbye to the students which was sad and pack up to leave. All in all, I am so very grateful for this entire experience, I will cherish it forever, and I hope that I can go to Weishan again one year.
Sophia Li
Benjamin Li
Nathan Cong
Rachel Chen
Hillary Xu
Simon Wong