Today is the second and the last day of our immersion programme at Qidu Middle School.
We started the day by making a traditional fragnance pouch, also known as a 香囊. The teacher guided us with the sewing of the cloth bag, and we filled it with fragrant dried herbs and flowers which were grown in the teacher’s personal home garden.
Our hosts from Qidu Middle School put up a variety of performances to showcase their culture and heritage during the programme’s closing ceremony. We really appreciated the amount of effort which was put in even though we were just a small group of visitors to their school.
The two days spent at Qidu Middle School was a memorable experience for all of us. We did not expect them to see them feel so upset and disappointed as our interaction time with them was rather limited.
- Group 4 (Micole, Jia En, Javier, Ethan)
One of the cultural activities we did was Chinese calligraphy. We did not know that it was a challenging task. We could see that the Chinese students put in a lot of effort and had high expectations of their work. They rewrote the words many times in order to produce their best work. We also learnt that calligraphy requires a lot of patience and years of practice.
Through the Chinese students’ performances, they showcased different aspects of their cultural heritage such as Chinese calligraphy, poem recital, dance, singing and playing of Chinese classical musical instruments such as the guzheng and the er-hu. We really enjoyed and appreciated the effort which our hosts put in.
Through the two days spent at the school, we were inspired to further improve on our language proficiency in Chinese. We also learnt to be more pro-active in making new friends and how to initiate interaction with others.
Group 5 (Xin Mei, Cheryl, Cassandra, Xing Yi)
Students’ Reflections
"One of the students wanted to do calligraphy with my name for me. However, she felt that it was not her best work, and subsequently throw the paper away. This shows that they really do take pride in their work, and do their best. " –Yung Shan (3NT)
"Friendship is something that money cannot buy. It was very heartwarming to be with the students from Qidu Middle School. They were very welcoming and hospitable. I nearly cried when we had to bid farewell to them. " – Xing Yi (3NA)
"I learnt to be more open and outgoing with my thoughts and feelings in order to sustain the conversation with my buddy in Qidu Middle School. When we had to say goodbyes to our buddies, I realised not to take friendships for granted and to appreciate the friends I have around me" - Xin Mei (3E1)