On Monday afternoon, the International School Luxembourg (ISL) welcomed 9 Chinese exchange students who are visiting the Grand Duchy and the ISL specifically, this week.
The Chinese teachers, visiting the school for a few hours, who were delighted at this exchange programme promoting mutual understanding and mutual interest between two cultures, made a presentation to Mike Hitchman, Upper School Principal at the ISL, who greeted the students and teachers from Shanghai for their week-long exchange in Luxembourg.
The exchange is being organised for ISL by Mrs Min Shen, and co-ordinated by the Centre de langue et de Culture Chinoises du Luxembourg (CLCCL), from whom Zhang Yi explained that many students in Luxembourg are keen on Chinese culture and participating in cultural exchanges. She hopes that there will be further such exchanges between the two countries after this first one involving the ISL.
In 2011 ISL made its first trip to China with 17 students visiting Beijing and Shanghai among other cities. In the subsequent years the China trip grew in popularity and the experiences were multifold. This year the contact with the east has expanded to include an exchange programme with the foreign language high school in Shanghai. Nine boys and girls from China have been attending classes in music, theatre and arts with their ISL partners as well as exploring Luxembourg and its vicinities.
In April, 12 ISL students will visit Shanghai on the return axis of the exchange programme during the spring break. They will stay in the corresponding high school in Shanghai (in a dormitory) for one week, attend various Chinese cultural classes and activities (calligraphy, tea ceremony, martial arts, etc.) and on the week-end they go to the homes of their exchange partners and explore Shanghai city. The second week of the trip to China will be a visit to the Wuyishan Mountain and Xiamen.
Photo by Geoff Thompson
