Chinese students welcomed

WINSTED — A Chinese student-teacher delegation has arrived at Northwestern Regional High School after touring New York City Saturday.

Families in Region 7 towns — New Hartford, Barkhamsted, Colebrook, Norfolk —  hosted individual students from Shandong University in Jinan, in China’s Shandong Province, who arrived at Northwestern Tuesday.

Each Chinese student was paired with a student at Northwestern for the day to visit classes and get a feel for what a day is like for an American high school student. The average age of the Chinese students is closer to an American middle school student, but their level of schooling is more on par with American high-schoolers.

While most of the Chinese students could not understand much English, a few were able to share some of their first impressions of visiting Northwestern and the United States.

“I was not nervous at all for my first visit to the United States. I was really excited!� said Ruobing Li, a 15-year-old boy. “New York City is so different from Connecticut. Connecticut is so beautiful, much quieter than China. My host mother cooked my first American food. I loved the pizza, grapes and my sandwich.�

The students were accompanied by two teachers and one administrator from their school. Guihua Shen is the director of students at the middle school affiliated with Shandong University. Jun Niu is an English teacher, and Dong Tai is a geography teacher with the school.

The two schools have a “sister school� relationship, said Changying Bishop, the Chinese teacher at Northwestern.

“Each of our Chinese students has a pen pal in China that they regularly correspond with and write back and forth,� Bishop said. “Our sister school partnership began last September and has been growing ever since.�

Bishop is originally from northeast China but has since made the United States her home and is the head Chinese teacher at Northwestern.

Another Chinese student, Shao Xuan, 14, said she was nervous but also excited to come to the United States for the first time. She said she was a little homesick, but really enjoyed visiting New York City and spending time with her host family.

“Families here are much bigger than in China, with many more pets,� Xuan said. “My host family has cats, dogs and rabbits. They also have gardens here, which is something we don’t have in China.�

Chung Chihao, 15, agreed.

“Connecticut is much more beautiful. Northwestern is beautiful, and so big — much bigger than our schools. I’m just so excited to be here.�

The Chinese delegation will be in town for the rest of the week visiting local malls and shopping centers to shop for their families. They will also go on local tours of Barkhamsted Elementary School and visit the Pequot Museum.

Next April, a delegation from Northwestern will make the trip to China to visit the students and teachers at the Shandong University to complete the exchange.