宝安举办中德中学生云端交流活动

两地三校65名学生参与远程互动

Chinese, German student online exchange event held

By Yu Yuanfan | Shenzhen Daily

Updated: 2023-03-17 10:52:42

AN online exchange between students in Shenzhen and Germany’s Heidelberg was held Monday, providing the students from both cities an opportunity to practice oral English while enhancing their understanding of different cultures.

Students of Heidelberg Bilingual High School of F+U Education Group listen as other students share their views during the online exchange.Photos courtesy of the Education Bureau of Bao'an District

Following a 15-minute ice-breaking session, 48 students from the junior high department of Bao’an No. 1 Foreign Language School Group and Xin’an Middle School Group Foreign Language School and 17 students from Heidelberg Bilingual High School of F+U Education Group then engaged in group discussions on designing an itinerary for a hypothetical one-week international student exchange program between the schools.

What subjects should the visiting students learn? What places in and outside the city are they recommended to visit? What food should they try? Through heated discussions, the students became acquainted with how a school in another country may resemble and differ from their own, as well as the differences between Chinese and German culture.

Students from the junior high department of Xin’an Middle School Group Foreign Language School listen as other students share their views during the online exchange.

“I managed to overcome shyness in the process of communicating with our German peers,” said Guan Zimeng, a student from Bao’an No. 1 Foreign Language School. “I wish there can be more exchanges of this type in the future.”

Li Shiqi from Xin’an Middle School Group Foreign Language School shared a similar view. “This online exchange has given us an opportunity to exchange our views with students in another country. I’ve learned a lot.”

Students from the junior high department of Bao’an No.1 Foreign Language School pose for a group photo after the online exchange.

Huang Chenghua, deputy head of the Shenzhen Bao’an Institute of Education Sciences, hoped students of both sides enjoyed and learned from the online exchange. He also expressed the hope for face-to-face exchanges between Chinese and German students and teachers in the future.

The online student exchange is part of an initiative launched by the education bureau of Bao’an District to foster a platform for cross-cultural communication and cultivate multilingual talents with a global vision. The two schools both have pilot classes whose curriculum includes not just English lessons, but also German lessons lectured by both Chinese and native German teachers. The bureau also hosted an online exchange program for teachers in China and Germany back in 2021 to facilitate exchanges between English teachers of the two countries on improving students’ reading capacity.