Little did I know how much I would enjoy today! Today has been a very eye opening experience. I went along with about 10 high school students from New York. As they came into a class in Yi Zhong for a good cross cultural exchange. Be prepared, parts of this had me hiding my face trying to avoid the train wreck. Other parts were priceless. But one thing is it put into sharp relief how immature Chinese students are by American standards. Standing in front of these students the American students looked so mature, but they were all about a year younger than the Chinese Students.
The first minutes when the students walked up, I heard very clearly "black people" and the class erupted into laughter. I wanted to hit my head against a wall. But a moment to discuss Chinese people's perceptions of black people. They are extremely racist, but not from a stand point of hate. Their entire understanding of Western culture comes from movies and tv shows. Then think about how they are portrayed, and how few black foreigners come to China. The more that come, the less racist future generations will be.
But anyways, so the Americans were nervous and mumbling. Which made it difficult for the students to understand. They asked each other questions, some were interesting. Some were awkward "Are you a boy or a girl?" was pretty awkward. The Chinese students went crazy when someone asked "are you allowed to date?" And two of the American students cozy-ed up to each other and said yes. It was chaos. It was hilarious. There was also an awkward moment where a student was asking about basketball, directing it at the black student. But overall a good exchange.
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