Traveling is a chance to open the windows to the world

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Traveling is a chance to open the windows to the world

Participants say the trip, sponsored by the Tucson Unified School
District's Ethnic Studies Department and financed largely by a Chinese
non-profit agency, is all about breaking down barriers. <a href=http://
www.confuciusprograms.com>study in china</a>For recent University High
School graduate Stephanie White, it will be a chance to get to know a
country that she's seen only through news stories in the Western
media, which tend to focus on human-rights or environmental struggles
within the still semi-closed country.
"The stories don't come out and say it, but the underlying idea is
that they're our enemies," said White, who was a teacher's aide in
University High's Mandarin Chinese class. "I think this experience
will help me understand more about what the people there are like as
opposed to what we're told they're like on the news."
For Chinese teacher and trip organizer Jing Ma, the trip will be a
chance to show the people of his country that American students are
not the stereotypical drug-and-sex-addled messes in baggy pants that
they often see in the media.
Last year, when Ma took his first group of 13 students to China, he
kept hearing, "Your American high school students are so great and
respectful. They're not like what we heard they'd be like."
Ma, <a href=http://www.confuciusprograms.com>study in china</
a>who came to America to study in 1998 and who now teaches Chinese
language at Rincon, University and Palo Verde high schools, decided to
organize a trip after his students said they wanted to go to China. He
was energized, he said, by their interest in knowing more, from the
language to music, martial arts and movies. "Traveling is a chance to
open the windows to the world," he said, adding the trip couldn't come
at a better time. "China is an economic power. The Fortune 500
companies all have offices there and there are so many opportunities
there. It's the future promise." The trip will look a little different
this time around. Last year, parents paid for the trip. This year, the
trip is being sponsored by Hanban, a non-profit affiliated with the
Ministry of Education of China with a focus on increasing exposure to
Chinese language and culture. Students will be responsible only for
the airfare, which runs about $1,500. This year's trip also will be
about a week shorter than last year's.
It is not a vacation. While students will see important pieces of
Chinese heritage, the main function of the trip is education.
Students also will have a chance to meet and interact with
Chinese high school students with some organized physical education
activities, Ma said.
The trip is a chance White said she couldn't pass up, even though she
figures it will be intense and perhaps a little<a href=http://
www.confuciusprograms.com>study in china</a> intimidating because
Chinese is a difficult language and students are expected to apply
their learning and speak Chinese as much as possible.
"I want to meet people my age from a different point of view and a
different culture," said White, who plans to study art and languages
at the University of Arizona next semester.
"And I really like the idea of being submerged into a new world, where
you're forced to learn new language skills and communicate with people
you'd otherwise never meet. It kind of like forces you to open your
mind."