Feature article

Hong Kong students visit Meadowthorpe

Article and pictures by Tammy Lane
February 5, 2008

  Ten-year-old Rachel Brown, has been a little weary this week, and so have her new friends Jasmine and Josephine, who are visiting from Hong Kong. It’s a good kind of tired, though.
  Rachel, a fifth-grader at Meadowthorpe Elementary School, and her family hosted the two Chinese girls during an activities-packed visit to Lexington this week.
  In the mini-exchange program, Meadowthorpe welcomed 18 students (mostly 11- and 12-year-olds), two teachers and an assistant principal from Tia Po Old Market Elementary in Hong Kong.
  A little more than halfway through their visit, about half of the students were homesick while the rest wished their 10-day trip lasted longer, said Meadowthorpe principal Mike Stacy.
  “It’s a completely different world in today’s society when you can have visitors from Hong Kong, which is almost on the other side of the earth,” he said.
  Amy Brown and her husband, Craig, who also have a 12-year-old son, researched Hong Kong to prepare daughter Rachel for the arrival of Jasmine Li Lam and Josephine Chow King Fu.
  “What a wonderful opportunity to get entrenched in someone else’s culture,” she said of being a host family.
  The visitors have had a full week, including a Chinese New Year celebration last Saturday at the Singletary Center for the Arts, a Super Bowl party Sunday at Gattitown and a tour of the capital and Governor’s Mansion on Tuesday in Frankfort.
  Another highlight was Thursday’s visit to Dixie and Yates elementary schools, both of which teach Chinese to kindergarteners. The students from Hong Kong had prepared Chinese theater skits to perform for the younger children.
  Mostly, though, the visitors wanted to spend time in the classroom with their American peers at Meadowthorpe. So Monday, Wednesday and Friday, they followed their hosts’ schedules, sampling everything from social studies to P.E. to music classes.
  “As a student in Hong Kong, you can go to any school. It’s open enrollment with stiff competition. Anything to push for English competency is a huge advantage,” Stacy said, explaining why the children would sign up for an exchange program in the United States.
  Brown said Rachel has learned a great deal from having the two girls staying in their home – mainly how much they’re alike.
  “People are still people even though cultures may be different,” Brown said. “She can be friends even if there are differences.”
  The week has not been glitch-free, however. Jasmine and Josephine use the term “rubbish” for garbage (likely because of British influence in Hong Kong), which was unfamiliar to Rachel, and Josephine initially was wary of the family’s pet husky.
  But for the most part, things have gone smoothly for the three girls.
  Rachel, who took her houseguests to an ice skating rink and a basketball game, found they all have some things in common, such as siblings – yet perhaps one of the biggest differences is how they spend their time. While the Chinese girls swim recreationally, it’s only on Sundays. On weekdays, they’re in school until 5 p.m. and spend evenings at home.
  “Our busy lifestyles are an adjustment for them,” Brown said, citing piano lessons and soccer practice among her family’s routine.
  As for the visitors’ reaction to life in Lexington, Jasmine said she liked Meadowthorpe’s art lessons best, while Josephine smiled and named the Gattitown party as her favorite outing. Both agreed they would remember the people and the hospitality.
  “What a great experience for our children,” Brown said. “We’d do it again in a heartbeat.”

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