A group of high school students from Shanghai, China, got a taste of American culture through a new partnership with Hampton High School.

Ten students from Shanghai Pinghe Bilingual School spent Sept. 26 to Oct. 6 paired with Hampton High School students. They attended classes and extracurricular events as part of a student exchange program.

The program is the result of a new partnership between the Shanghai school and Hampton High School, initiated by Hampton's growing Mandarin program.

Hampton Township School District created a Mandarin language program three years ago. Today the district offers three levels of Mandarin between the middle school and high school to more than 70 students.

“I think our students greatly benefit from this partnership,” said Jun Gee, Hampton High School Mandarin teacher, who reached out to the Shanghai school to form the partnership, which will include the opportunity for Hampton students to visit the Shanghai school in June.

“I hope this project gave them a small peek to China and high schools in China and increased the cultural awareness and willingness to accept individual differences.”

The Shanghai Pinghe Bilingual School is a private school that offers classes in English and Chinese and incorporates the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme, which is recognized by universities around the world.

Students from the Shanghai school have participated in student exchange programs in several countries. Most recently, they branched out into the United States after changes to the Visa process made making the arrangements more feasible.

“We're doing the IB diploma program so cross cultural understanding is very important,” said Xu Ping, dean of the Shanghai school administration office, who accompanied the Chinese students to Hampton.

“I think when students live here and share experiences with their partners, the families, the school and afterschool activities, I think it will help them understand the education system here in the U.S. … A lot of students will go on to go to college here.”

The Chinese students discovered many of the foods, especially breakfast foods, are too sweet in the United States, restaurant food and beverages are served in large quantities, and American Chinese food tastes nothing like food served in their homes or school.

One of the biggest challenges for the Chinese students was the experience of changing classrooms for each class. In China, the students stay in the classroom and the teachers move from classroom to classroom. Students also noticed curricular differences.

“In China, PE class is only one kind (of activity), go outside and do some exercise, here you learn other things,” said William Su, 15, referring to the wellness portion of the physical education curriculum.

However, the Chinese students also experienced many similarities.

They enjoy watching American television shows such as “Modern Family” or “Breaking Bad.” They play on their phones, snap photos and even attended the high school homecoming dance and danced the Cupid Shuffle with their American peers.

“You think they're going to be so different, but there are so many similarities,” said Kate Mills, a 10th-grader who has been studying Mandarin for three years and is hosting Sherlock Zhu, 15.

“Teenagers are the same.”

Bethany Hofstetter is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. She can be reached at 724-772-6364 or bhofstetter@tribweb.com.

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