Beijing No 80 Exchange

Over the last two and a half weeks, several students form the Beijing No. 80 school came over to Concord College for their Chinese New Year Holidays. During the day the exchange students would attend lessons with an academic partner. If the partner was a boarder, they would also have a separate host which was the person’s house they lived in.

Different students from the school attended different lessons which their academic partner had to take them to. Some of the lessons were the same but some were different. My exchange student was Yishu. He chose art as one of his subjects and in the beginning I had to take him to the art block and back. Luckily he’s a quick learner. He found his way around the massive college campus in no time.

During some lessons it would be quite difficult for Yishu to adapt especially English. As being in the English as a first language set, we are required to study English literature as a part of our GCSE. We are currently studying the novel ‘The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde’ and it is quite difficult for Yishu to fully understand what it’s about. Furthermore, the 19^th century writing style makes it much more difficult than it already is.

However, during Maths, Yishu found everything very easy. In Beijing local schools, they tend to learn everything we would learn a few years earlier. This results in them having knowledge of A level Maths in F4.

One thing I found particularly interesting was what they thought about the food at Concord College. The Beijing students had mixed opinions and it was really interesting hearing all the reasons why they liked or disliked the food.

Overall, these two and a half weeks was really interesting. We, Concord students found out a lot more about the education in Beijing and how it differs to Concord. This was a really memorable experience and one that I will not forget.

Argus Chiu F4

See more images at the Concord website- Photo Library Beijing No 80