Axel Landin – Year 10 William Ellis School Student

We flew out on the Saturday evening. The flight was about eight hours, followed by a second of three. We arrived in Kunming on the Monday morning, Beijing time.

We were met at the airport by Xiao Yu (our Mandarin Teacher at WES) and the Deputy Head Teacher from the Yunnan School. They gave us a warm welcome, holding a sign post and handing each of us a flower. As we drove into Kunming I saw many stalls selling local food, as well as other bits and bobs. Kunming is not a regular destination for foreign tourism so these were mainly intended for the local people. Our hotel was decorated with large red traditional Chinese-style lanterns, and inside we were shown to our rooms.

We got a good night’s sleep (which was well needed!) and woke up for our first morning in Kunming – nice hot weather, and a traditional style breakfast, consisting of noodles, soups, spicy chillies, dumplings, and biscuits!

Our first activity was to go to the school, meet the staff, and observe some lessons. As we arrived, we were met at the gate by staff and students waving, and a large red banner had been erected, bearing the words ‘William Ellis School is welcome to visit Yunnan Nationalities High School’ in both English and Chinese characters. Mr. Zhou, Head of Foreign Affairs at the school, came to introduce us, and showed us a large poster he had designed, detailing the link project between our schools. Then we were taken to visit the Headmaster in his office. Headmaster Li was very friendly. He told us a bit about the school, and we had a meeting with the senior management and some students of the school, where teachers on both sides made speeches and the link project was officially opened. The Yunnan Nationalities High School takes a diverse variety of pupils from thirty-five different Chinese nationalities, and many of the students were in their national costume. We were each given a doll bearing the national dress of a Chinese nationality.

Following our meeting, we were shown to some lessons. We first saw an English lesson, of which the topic was ‘Great Women’. This was two classes combined in their state of the art ‘multimedia room’ which had been fitted with an interactive whiteboard. The second lesson, also English, covered the French play ‘The Necklace’ and the pupils acted this on stage in English, and did so quite well. It was interesting to see that when this room was in use, the teachers were able to teach 120 students! The third and final lesson was a first year English language one. The students were learning about the question “What are you doing?” and with the help of some amusing audio and video material practised their language orally.

Most interesting were the exercises in which the entire school partook at break-time: we joined in these, but the school children were well rehearsed and knew them off by heart as they showed when performing to the music of Chinese nationalities that was played through loudspeakers throughout the grounds.

The school was in all not too dissimilar to our school back in London – the children liked to have fun, and there were some lessons which were slightly more disruptive than others but the children did seem slightly more academically driven, it being a selective school.

Mark Suen – Year 11 William Ellis School Student

The Yunnan Nationalities High School isn’t too different from William Ellis School. The teachers tried to give the impression that they were what would be typically expected i.e. students obediently sitting at their desks, obediently doing exactly as they’re told, whereas in fact they are just as rowdy as Ellis students can be. However they are far harder working than Ellis students, as in they start at 7.30 and end at 5.30. There is also an after school homework club that although isn’t compulsory they all attend; unlike in William Ellis where no one would attend if they could help it. I think the school was just as academic as William Ellis but I thought one of the main problems was that the school emphasised too much on work, work, work which meant that they were treated just like machines that just took in information without understanding any of it; it seemed they were just taught how to pass exams. The school didn’t seem to even try to cater to each of the students’ individual learning needs which I think WES tries pretty hard to do.

I think the majority of Chinese people are extremely hospitable and I really enjoyed the home visit where we visited one of the students’ homes. A lot of them are respectful people that will often go out of their way to do something for you. As a comparatively poor country, people seem far happier than those in richer countries i.e. England. The Chinese people I saw seemed to value a decent meal. I loved eating with them and I tried to pick up on some of their mannerisms.

Coming to China a second time really consolidated the fact that everyone is human. Visiting the poorer people in China was rather humbling because it seemed that not one of them really knew when they had attained humility. It has got me interested in taking a gap year out in rural China or somewhere else and living with the people to see what their lives are really like. It has also got me interested in anthropology, the idea of studying the way other people live their lives and perhaps even experiencing it is enticing.

Mikki Stratton Monck – Year 12 La Swap Student

This trip to China is something that I will never forget. From the moment we stepped off the plane in Kunming we were warmly welcomed with gifts and treated with the utmost respect which lasted through out our stay.

During our first week in Kunming, we spent a lot of time in Yunnan Nationalities High School getting to know some of the students, see where many of them lived and worked as well as having the chance to participate in activities with them. Before arriving in China I had wondered about how different it would be to study there but to my surprise there wasn’t actually that much of a difference. The students were just like any student at William Ellis, they didn’t always want to sit in lessons and pay attention which we discovered when we helped to teach an English lesson with two British students who were taking their gap year teaching at the school. One of the only differences between schools in China and Britain is that the students at Yunnan Nationalities School were under much more pressure work wise. Their school day has started when most of us are struggling to get out of bed and finishes when we are sitting at home watching TV (after our homework is finished of course). I don’t think that I would be able to cope with the amount of work that they have to do and I am surprised that they are able to.

Our final day at the school in Kunming was very special. It was Yunnan Nationalities’ first ever ‘English day’ and we were the honoured guests. We were treated to a number of special performances including a beautiful dance named the Peacock dance which was performed by a student of the school. We returned the favour by doing a number of activities including a presentation on our lives in London and studying at William Ellis School along with a group activity which got the students and teachers of the school performing tongue twisters.

We spent most of our final week travelling around the more rural areas in Yunnan province visiting towns such as Lijiang, Dali and Gianchuan, the home town of our mandarin teacher Doris. I found this part of the trip amazing. Kunming was a lovely place but it was a city very similar to many in western countries. The villages on the other hand were completely different. They were like nothing I have ever seen before. The towns had adapted to modern life and the increasing amounts of tourists that wish to visit these places which meant that many parts of the town were influenced by the western way of living and were full of stalls and shops selling things directed at tourists.