Shandong Twinning Programme

When we entered the multi-purpose room at level 3, the Li Cheng Er Zhong's Chinese Orchestra was ready in position with their musical instruments to perform for us. Chai Chee-ians were quickly assigned to sit with their buddies. After the welcome speech by the Vice Principal of the Pre-U unit, 马校长，it was my turn to read out the speech crafted out by Mdm Xing Rui. Luckily we went there prepared with the pre-written speech. I feel eternally grateful to Mdm Xing Rui and the Chinese Department's Subject Head, Mdm Goh Watt Keng for rendering assistance to me whenever I needed them, whether to do translation, write letters, or speeches. They were always so ready to help. Mdm Xing Rui and another student, Qifeng, also helped to train Guan Nan, to give the opening speech on behalf of the students. I admire him for having the courage to present a speech in Mandarin in front of so many people. It must have been an experience for him.

Over there, actually Ms Kong and I felt quite stressed whenever we had to speak to the teachers and vice-principals at Li Cheng Er Zhong. Putting aside their heavy Jinan accent, we also had to maintain conversations with them and inside our heads, we struggled constantly to translate some English terms to Mandarin. The last time I had Chinese lessons was over 10 years ago. Imagine how out-of-touch I was with the Chinese Language. But of course, I tried hard to maintain the image of a bilingual Singaporean teacher.

After the welcome speech and mutual exchange of the school souvenirs, it was interaction time between Chai Chee-ians and their Li Cheng Er Zhong buddies. The lively conversations that took place in the room put my heart at ease, as I originally was still worried that Chai Chee-ians would not be able to run a decent conversation in Mandarin with their buddies. To my pleasant surprise, they were able to clique with their buddies very well. By the second day, some already received presents from their buddies. They also went shopping at the school supermarket, school bookshop (can you now guess how many shopaholics there were amongst us?) and played basketball together with their buddies.

After lunch at the school canteen, we were invited to watch a performance put up by Li Cheng Er Zhong students as part of the warm welcome. We had a good time watching the school talents perform without knowing that we also had to put up a performance for them in exchange. When it was our turn, it really took us by surprise. Ms Kong and I had to explain to them that we came unprepared and that we needed a bit of time to discuss what we could put up for them. Being uncreative and after thinking and discussing for a long time, the only thing we could put up was.................yes.......I think you got it right.......it's our National Anthem, Majulah Singapura! I was sure that all of us appreciated how Mr. Loke drilled us back in Singapore at the Chai Chee School Hall, to sing the National Anthem loudly with pride and gutso. We managed to pull through that one.

After that, they continued to put up interesting performances for us. But no, our ordeal was not over. They requested for us to perform again for them. We really ran out of ideas and luckily Afina came to our rescue by putting up a solo dance performance. It was after that then I learnt that actually Afina has ballet background. Phew!

Dinner was sumptuous, at a restaurant at Shandong University. As usual, Ms Kong and I felt stressed again as we had to sit beside the Vice Principal of the Secondary Unit, 高校长. We talked about the education system in China and the policies of Li Cheng Er Zhong, and luckily the conversations managed to cover the entire dinner. Meanwhile, I was sure that the students enjoyed the dishes on the table. There must have been about 20 dishes, and on the first day, I think students really enjoyed what they were eating. (as compared to the last day, because they realised that they were eating the standard dishes over and over again for the rest of the ten days). 高校长 shared that Shandong dishes are 四呼呼, namely: 黏呼呼 (sticky)，黑呼呼(black)，咸呼呼（salty) and 油呼呼(oily), which was really true. By the 4th day, most of us decided that we prefer Singaporean food, and the students sort of held their own cup noodle party every night in their rooms. That marks the end of the first day. I must say we were all quite overwhelmed by their warm welcome (Perhaps the word 'warm' is an understatement) as we were treated like VIPs.