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Volunteer on the Campus
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A small concert was held in the music classroom of the Chaoyang Foreign Language School in Beijing. We organized this concert to give our thanks to our guests, a group of some 50 volunteers from America, who came to our school temporarily to be foreign teachers without any pay. They have various jobs, different ages and some of them are ABC’s (American Born Chinese).
Having a different background, this group of volunteers is more active than we are. Have you ever seen this kind of morning exercises? They call it “Rock It”. Everybody think s it is very interesting and though shy a bit at first, they soon get involved enthusiastically. Look, everybody have fun.
Classes are interesting as well. The foreign teachers have prepared some fine topic s for us, such as American Food, Philosophy of Success and Holidays. Kris studies for a doctor degree at an American university. His topic for today is the difference between China and America. Lawrence lists the names of many types of American food, though actually he prefers Chinese food. Jerry usually looks serious, but he becomes active when he talks about holidays. The funny thing is that his wife, Kathy, is talking about the same topic in the next classroom at the same time.
Today our lunch is western food. All the foreign teachers sit with us, so we have more chances to communicate. Meanwhile, we can learn from them how to use forks to eat Italian noodles.
The volunteers from America teach us some practical crafts in the afternoon talent classes. To piece jewelry together is no longer the specialty of girls, even some boys are crazy about it. In fact, there’s no more interesting class than the Rippling Paper class. We rip up old magazines and stick pieces together to form a nice-looking picture. The imagination and creativity of students is fully developed at this stage.
In our spare time, we invite the foreign teachers to visit our dorms. Kathy sees an “Erhu”, a Chinese musical instrument, for the first time, and wants to have a try. We enjoy singing American folk songs, so we sing together and we ask a few questions about the songs.
However big the world is, the world becomes smaller because of these volunteers ‘efforts. Their openness, equanimity and communication are the great achievements of these American volunteers bring us closer together.
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《校园里来了志愿者》
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这是我们朝阳外校的一间音乐教室，一场小型的欢迎会即将举行。几十位来自美国的志愿者，到我们学校作短期义务外教。他们的年龄职业各不同，其中有不少是黄皮肤黑眼睛的华裔。
为了表达谢意，我们自发组织了这次演出。
也许是观念的差异，这群有老有少的志愿者比我们还要活泼。你见过这样的早操吗？它的名字就叫 “我要摇摆”，大家觉得很新鲜，虽然开始有些害羞，但很快放开了手脚。瞧大家玩得多开心。
课上也同样有意思。外教准备了一些我们感兴趣的题目，比如美国食物、成功哲学、节庆等，大家一起讨论。KRIS 正在美国一所大学攻读博士，他今天的题目是中西教育的不同。LAWANCE列举了许多美国食品。但他说他更喜欢吃中国菜。JENY平时有些严肃，可讲起过节来也是眉飞色舞。有趣的是，同时他的妻子KATHY在隔壁的房间讲着同样的题目。
今天的午餐是西式的。外教们和同学们坐在一起吃。我们有了更多交流的机会。趁机还能向他们请教一下如何用叉子吃面条。
下午的才艺课，支援者教我们一些实用的小手工。穿珠子不再是女同学的专利，男生们干得同样起劲。不过算起来，最受欢迎的还是撕纸艺术。利用平时废弃的报纸杂志，就可以做出好看的拼贴画，同学们的想象力和创造力在这里得到了尽情发挥。
课余时间，我们请外教们来我们的宿舍做客。KATHY第一次见到中国的二胡，想要亲手试一下。美国的民歌我们也很喜欢，大家一起唱了起来。随后，我们问了几个自己感兴趣的问题。
是啊，世界很大，但有了这些真诚的面孔，世界就变得很小。开放、平等、交流。这是美国来的志愿者给我们的最大收获。
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