This summer, a few lucky students and staff members of Community High School District 128 will be making a 14-day trip to China to visit District 128’s sister high school in Changchun, China. About 10 students from Libertyville and Vernon Hills High Schools will attend.
The trip has become somewhat of a tradition, originating around 2008. Mr. Greg Herman, the science department supervisor, was one of the first to take the trek.
“It’s kind of a long, drawn out story, but…the first time I went to China was on my own as kind of a study opportunity for comparing science educations between the two countries. Around that same time, our pricipal at the time, Brad Swanson, had gone to China and looked at their education system, so when we got back together, we decided it’d be a really neat opportunity to set up some kind of connection between our country and a school in China. So that began the process.”
The China trip is a chance for students and faculty of District 128 to experience the traditions and ambience of China while also spreading the American culture and educational practices to our sister school. As Mr. Herman explained, “I think for me there’s two major focuses. One is that everybody that goes to China gets to experience the country. It’s such a magnificent country with tremendous history…The other is obviously to try to set up a better long-term relationship with the Chinese high school that hopefully will open doors for some of their teachers to come here, and some of our teachers to go there.”
Mr. Herman continued, saying, “This year is a unique trip, because we have the student trip which is chaperoned by Mrs. (Jennifer) Goettsche (international language department supervisor), Mr. (Brian) Voss (social studies teacher), and Mrs. (Wendy) Meister-Louria (English teacher), who teaches at Vernon Hills. It’s a combined trip. We’re running that trip with 10 students. We also have a trip going at the same time of administrators to talk to the high school in China about enlarging our exchange program, maybe including some teacher visits or some longer term student exchanges. So that trip is going to include myself, principal Dr. (Marina) Scott, Dr. (Jon) Guillaume, principal at Vernon Hills, Al Fleming, the Assistant Superintendent, and board member Jim Bass. So that’s kind of an administrative trip to look at extended possibilities of connections between the high school in China, which is a very, very, very good high school, and our own district, which they also view as a very, very, very good high school in the U.S.”
Although many of the attendees don’t speak Chinese, Mr. Herman stated that in China, English is the second language, and it is not difficult to communicate with people. He continued, saying, “But I’ve also found that even when people don’t speak English, the Chinese people are so genuinely caring and friendly that, you know, I’ll meet some old guy in a park doing tai chi, and we won’t say a word to each other, but he’ll show me the moves and we’ll grin and laugh, and it’s a really neat experience to try to communicate without language.”
Mr. Voss noted, “That’s one thing that I’m kind of nervous about: not ever learning Chinese. We have a couple students going who are from China or from the region that will help us translate, and we’ll have a guide with us as well.”
Alec Zhang, a senior at Libertyville High School, recalled experiences from the 2012 District 128 trip to China, saying, “China is a freaking weird place, but it’s definitely a country everyone should visit purely to experience what is a completely different way of life. There are literally almost no rules in China. The police are laughed at. Also, if your skin color is anything but slightly yellow, you will get gaped at, called beautiful, touched, and sniped by aspiring photographers (and trust me, when you’re around, everyone in China becomes an aspiring photographer).”
For those hoping to trek to China in the future, Zhang noted that “making friends is really easy,” and that he still keeps in contact with many of the people he met in China.
