BENTONVILLE -- Three Bentonville High School students who study Chinese will have a special travel experience to share with their classmates when they return to school next week.
Derek Norby, Keagan Chronister and Allison Goldberg joined about 700 students from across the country on this year's Chinese Bridge Summer Camp. They left July 15 and returned home Aug. 1.
At A Glance
Chinese Bridge Summer Camp
To qualify for this year’s Chinese Bridge Summer Camp, high school students had to have been learning Chinese for fewer than three years. They also had to be interested in Chinese language and culture. Students had to fill out an application and provide a letter of recommendation.
Source: Confucius Institute, University Of Central Arkansas
The camp is sponsored by the Confucius Institute, a Chinese government initiative that aims to promote Chinese language and culture in foreign countries. Participants have to pay only for their airfare.
Norby, 16, is going into his junior year. Chronister and Goldberg, both 17, are seniors. All three have taken Chinese classes at Bentonville High for at least two years. All said the trip helped them develop their Chinese language skills.
Chronister, for example, said he was used to saying "xie xie" -- "thank you" in Chinese -- a certain way. But after hearing it pronounced in China, he realized he was saying it incorrectly.
Part of their visit was spent in classes where the teachers spoke strictly Chinese.
"That was a little challenging, but I feel like it was good for us," Goldberg said.
The group flew into Beijing and spent two days there. Then they took a bullet train southeast to the city of Tianjin, where they spent the next 11 days. They returned to Beijing by bus.
The Bentonville students said they were impressed by Culture Street, a huge marketplace in Tianjin. They took a river cruise. They visited two museums, a Confucius temple and the Great Wall of China. They also visited two colleges in Tianjin and met students their age.
A volunteer instructor provided tai chi lessons to the students each morning. Tai chi is a martial art that emphasizes fluid, graceful movements and deep breathing. Thanks to those morning lessons, Norby got to perform tai chi in the camp's closing ceremony, he said.
The students gave mixed reviews of the food they encountered but agreed overall it wasn't bad. Chronister admitted he's picky when it comes to food.
"My mom said before we left, 'Keagan, I hope you eat.' Every time I ate something there, I thought, 'this is pretty good,'" Chronister said.
Perhaps most striking to the group was how well the Chinese treated their guests. Goldberg said almost all of the souvenirs she brought home -- including a pair of high heels -- were given to her as gifts.
"They were so nice. They were so friendly," Goldberg said. "I don't know if it was because we were Americans or because they're just genuinely nice."
The Bentonville students were three of only seven Arkansans on the trip. The other four came from the central part of the state.
All three Bentonville students said they had a good time. Goldberg said she hated to see the trip come to an end.
"That was the best trip ever," she said.
Bentonville High has offered Chinese classes since 2011. Goldberg, who is entering her fourth year of Chinese, said learning the language is easier than most people think. The teachers are good at breaking it down and making it simple, she said.
Chronister agreed.
"I highly recommend the program here," he said.
NW News on 08/14/2014