(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) Even as Chinese president Xi Jinping just started his state visit to the UAE to strengthen ties between the two nations, a number of Chinese school students have already reached the UAE as part of exchange programmes organised by schools and language institutes.
On Friday, over 45 students from one of the best primary schools of Beijing visited Dubai's Al Salam Private School (ASPS) that boasts of a fairly diverse nationalities of students, many of those Chinese. Students from Beijing Tsinghua Primary School along with eight of their teachers flew in from Beijing for this cultural exchange programme organised by Sumbella, founder of Language and Culture Enrichment Institute.
While the event saw the award-winning choir group of Chinese students displaying their choir skills and gifting souvenirs from China to Dubai students, the Dubai students, in turn, taught them some Arabic and Emirati culture
About 20-30 interns and volunteers from various Dubai schools and universities interacted and performed activities with the Chinese students. The programme started at 9am with the arrival of the students who introduced themselves and then formed inter-cultural Chinese-Dubai student teams.
After the welcome address by ASPS deputy principal Taher Ghareeb and school governor Margaret Orchard, the event took off with the Chinese students performing choir songs in Chinese and English, followed by dialogue game challenge where both the Dubai and Chinese students taught each other phrases in their different languages. In yet another challenge, Chinese students had to describe to Dubai students how to write a Chinese word and vice-versa.
The last but most challenging activity was titled Burj Khalifa tower Marshmallow challenge where students had to build a tower using only spaghetti, marshmallows and tape in 15 minutes. Awards were given out for the best, tallest and most beautiful towers.
Xue Chen, a Chinese teacher accompanying the children, said: "Our students loved the activities. The interaction with these students was quite fruitful as they learnt a lot about Arab culture and language and we are delighted to see how friendly people of Dubai are. This was our first ever trip to Dubai and a real memorable one for all of us."
Grade 6 Chinese student Ariel Yang said she found UAE people very kind and friendly. "I also got a few gifts to my Dubai friends, which include traditional Chinese opera mask and old Chinese coins as souvenirs. I loved the city's commuter system, internet connectivity and the low level of pollution. I hope to return to this beautiful country again in future."
Dubai students and volunteers present at the event said they were awed by the talent and discipline of the Chinese students. "Initially it was a bit difficult interacting with the Chinese students as not all of them could speak in English but we settled down soon using sign language and gestures and of course, with the help of teachers," said Dubai teenager Samir.
Arab teen Haya said she loved the happy streak in the Chinese students. "They were so attentive and interactive. They didn't form their groups but mingled so well with us. They sang meaningful choirs and for us, it was a different experience as we had not interacted much with Chinese," Haya said.
The three hour programme ended with closing speeches from Sumbella and the Chinese school principal who had accompanied the students.
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