On the afternoon of March 11, a volunteer service team consisting of graduate students from Overseas Education College and undergraduates from the International College entered the Xiamen Dadeng Middle School to carry out an activity themed “To See the World” to more than 200 middle school students from 4 classes. The educational activities kicked off the second round of teaching activities for the two schools' joint projects in the new semester.

The new semester is a new beginning. In order to guide the students to concentrate on study again as soon as possible, the volunteers designed some competition activities on purpose to activate the atmosphere, help the students adjust their mentality, set goals, make study plans. After getting along with the volunteers in the last semester, the students in the four classes answer questions actively and discussed enthusiastically. Their outstanding performance and obvious progress of won the appreciation of volunteers.

The students in grade 7 class (1) massage each other's shoulders, and the special warm-up activities allowed the students to concentrate and ease the fatigue of taking class. In the class, the volunteers introduced the categories, methods, attitudes, etc. of Chinese and Western food culture, so that students could more deeply understand the differences between Chinese and Western food culture, and also learned some strategies and methods to deal with differences. In the end of the course, the game “Who is Undercover” pushed the classroom atmosphere to a climax.

The class 3 held a mini-lecture on “Classroom Discipline” to ensure the smooth progress of teaching and improve students' concentration and teaching effects. Then, the concept of cross-cultural communication was introduced by introducing the differences in eating and living habits between China and Thailand. Many students showed great interest in the distinctive culture of different countries. After that, volunteers show the slides to explain the customs of New Zealand and Cambodia and guide students to establish a correct cultural outlook, adopt an objective, equal, open and inclusive attitude, respect the differences in behaviors caused by different cultures, as well as respect cultural diversity.

For the first time in this semester, volunteers taught a variety of courses to guide students to set goals and make new semester learning plans, so that volunteers can contribute to students’ growth. Volunteers hope that students could adapt to the new study life, do better in teamwork. Volunteers who are masters of Chinese international education will also accumulate teaching experiences in the new semester's volunteering activities, promote practical exploration through theoretical research, and build a solid foundation for Telling Chinese stories and spreading Chinese voices.

The volunteer teaching activity of the International College and Dadeng Middle School are an important part of the cooperation project between our college and the Dadeng Street Party Building. The purpose is to promote the construction of service-oriented party organizations, enhance the influence of joint-building activities, as well as strengthen the dedication and social responsibility of student party members and of the party’s activists. We are looking forward to taking new steps in the new semester.

Written by Simei Wang and Yayun Lian

Translated by Zhujuan Yang