On the eve of the Spring Festival 2021, our school held the activity of “Staying in Huai’an to welcome the Spring Festival, the Year of Love in China” for international students. Traditional activities such as making dumplings, eating glutinous rice balls, hanging Spring Festival couplets, and performing let the international students experience Chinese folk culture and feel the warmth the big family of HYIT. Our school always adheres to the meticulous caring for international students, and brings them the warmth of home in all aspects such as life and study, so that every international student can be deeply bonded with HYIT in the time they spend here.
Heart-warming: teachers and students share the beautiful moments of the Chinese festival.
“I’ve learned how to make Chinese dumplings!” “I’ll take pictures and send them to my family!” “Chinese Tai Chi is so cool and I’m going to study it!” Benjamin, a freshman from Ghana, is very excited about this year’s Spring Festival. Every year, the School of International Education carefully organizes various activities on holidays including the Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival, Spring Festival and other traditional Chinese festivals, so that international students can experience the unique charm and profound heritage of traditional Chinese culture.
“It turns out that I only knew that there will be dragon boat racing on Dragon Boat Festival. Here, I learned the historical origin of the holiday. I Also learned the great poet Qu Yuan whose patriotic and noble spirit is very admirable.” At the Dragon Boat Festival tea party, international student Luo Qingbei (JABBOROV LOCHINBEK) was deeply touched after watching the video and pictures about Dragon Boat Festival. Wearing multicolored ropes, tasting hot Zongzi, foreign teachers and students not only feel the warmth and love of the big family of HYIT, but also enhance their understanding of traditional Chinese culture.
“As chance would have it, Mid-Autumn Festival approached shortly after I arrived here. The School of International Education organized the Mid-Autumn Festival party. I was deeply moved by the deep thoughts and good wishes in the song “When shall We have a Bright Moon?” After listening to the song, Ma Anji (MAGANGA AGNES), a freshman of class 2020, searched for information about the song and learned that the song came from Su Shi’s poem “Prelude to Water Melody: When shall We have a Bright Moon?”, which deepened her understanding of traditional Chinese festival culture. In order to arouse the enthusiasm of everyone and enhance interaction, the School of International Education also interspersed the games of “snatching stools” and “hula hoop relay” during the performance, which not only enlivened the atmosphere, but also triggered students to do exercises.
Writing Spring Festival couplets appeals greatly to students on this year’s Spring Festival activities. On the table are students writing greetings and couplets in red paper. “This is the first time I spend the Spring Festival in HYIT，also the first time I wrote Spring Festival couplets, which is great fun and attracts me very much.” John is happy to show his new year’s greetings.
“Cultural exchanges are two-way, so when holding these events, we will encourage students to bring their own national characteristic performance to show the wonderful charm of cultural collision,” said Xu Xiaomei, dean of the School of International Education.
Thoughtfulness：The Integration of Online and Offline Teaching
“At first, my Chinese reading and writing ability was not very good, which worried me a lot and made me lack of confidence in online study. However, the teachers gave me a lot of help. My Chinese has improved a lot, and now I can study and finish my homework very well.” Pu Tao (PAVINA LUANGLATBANDITH), a student of class 2018, who is now in Laos, said happily.
Due to the pandemic situation, some foreign students failed to return to school. In order to ensure the teaching progress of all the students, the School of International Education actively carried out online and offline synchronous teaching activities, and steadily promoted the online teaching of international students. Class teachers, counselors and teachers jointly supervise and guide students to carry out effective online learning, so that students can learn everywhere. The School of International Education summarizes students’ classroom development and online teaching skills every day, which continuously improves the quality of online teaching and ensures the overall learning effect.
To reduce the flow of foreign students between the north and south areas of the campus and to understand and solve their difficulties in learning and living in time, the School of International Education set up a temporary office in the dormitory for international students. Every afternoon, the teacher on duty will wait quietly for the students to come in the temporary office, listen to their joys and sorrows, help them solve the difficulties in life, and face the obstacles in their study together. Many students have made the similar remarks: “I can talk to the teacher face to face once I get downstairs, and many problems are solved more smoothly!” “Sometimes, even if I have no problem at all, I still want to chat with the teacher, and feel that my school life is also enriched afterwards.”
“I was preparing for the graduation design, and because I was not in school, I was very worried about whether I can catch up with others. After sharing my worry with my teacher, she told me not to worry and she will remind me on time. With the help of the teacher, I completed the graduation design ahead of time .” Li Na (MUN ANGELINA), a major in International Economics and Trade, said. For those who stay in school but really need to go back and forth from the north and south campus to use laboratories or communicate with their supervisors because of their specialty courses and graduation designs, the School of International Education actively contacts and verifies with secondary faculties, under the condition of ensuring safety, to maximize the help for international students to solve the learning inconvenience caused by the pandemic.”
Considerateness: Meticulous Care Warms the Heart
The year 2020 was an extraordinary year. Since the outbreak of Covid-19, the school has always prioritized guarding the health of teachers and students with orderly and efficient epidemic prevention and control work. The School of International Education has adopted the management method of being “vigorous”, “heart-warming” and “effective”, which passes on the care of the school to every international student, defuses their fears and worries, promotes understanding and trust, unite and bond teachers and students. “I am terrific here in HYIT, my teachers care about me like family, and the prevention and control measures are very strict, very safe and secure ,” said Ke Zan (DUSABE KEZA DOMINIQUE), a student who stays in school during the winter vacation when talking to his family members.
“I bought a thick quilt online, but it hasn’t arrived yet. When Mrs. Yu Min came to the dormitory and saw that I was still using a thin quilt, she took a new thick quilt from home and gave it to me. I was really very moved! She cares for us, just like our mom.” Roland (Bifou Roland Andres), a freshman of class 2020, said. “In May, the campus was closed, because our food and living habits are not the same, our teachers took some of our international students leaders to the vegetable market near the school, selected good and cheap suppliers who agreed to send the scheduled fresh fruits and vegetables to the school gate at a fixed time with no contact at the designated place,” Student Union President Ka Bu (KABUO CHIMDIA PRIMUS) said. Because of the epidemic, the supply of bottled drinking water was suspended for months, with the help of the housekeeper, it also returned to normal supply. “Now Downstairs I can get drinking water, which really brings us great convenience ,” Luo Qingbei (JABBOROV LOCHINBEK) said happily, “the school also distributed masks and disinfectant and other epidemic protection equipment, so sweet !”
“In addition to caring for daily life, the School of International Education has actively organized a variety of cultural competitions for international students in China, such as photography and short video competitions, Chinese classic reading competitions, Chinese chess competitions and so on, which have greatly enriched the extra-curricular life of international students.
