Italy Meets China || School Trip to China

Italy Meets China || Ancona Comes to China

In the Spring of 2019 LTL Beijing welcomed a 30+ strong group of 16-19 year old Italians from Ancona, a town on the eastern coast of Italy.

Find out more about their experience below.

School Trip (Ancona to China) || Ancona comes to China

School Trip (Ancona to China) || What did the students do?

School Trip (Ancona to China) || What did they think?

LTL’s biggest school trip program to date was a memorable and jam-packed one.

Throughout the school, Italian (except Chinese of course), was all you could hear!

Buzzing with anticipation and ready for their exciting adventure, they spent a busy 10 days here in Beijing, studying Chinese for half a day, and enjoying an excursion for the other half of the day.

Trips for the students included:

• The Great Wall
• The Forbidden City
• Tian’anmen Square
• 798 Art District
• Exploring the Hutongs

An Introduction || Ancona comes to China

High School name: Istituto d’istruzione Superiore Savoia Benincasa

We actually welcomed this very school to LTL in Beijing last year, but their total of 16 students meant this years visit was much larger! Over double in fact.

With the group so large we divided the students into two groups, a yellow team and a blue team (LTL colours of course)!

Alongside the students, 4 teachers from the school in Italy came over, 2 of them had also visited last year and 2 were new to LTL!

Overall the duration of the stay was 9 nights and 10 days

The Program || What Did the Students Do

Out of the 10 days, 6 included Mandarin class, 4 hours per day, and the classes were split by level of Chinese.

Our director of studies, Angela, helped create these groups.

Being a former LTL teacher herself, Angela has bags of experience when it comes to placing students at the right level.

This is essential when learning Chinese in small groups.

During the final day, our teachers provided the students with a little test.

The students had to discuss a topic which was assigned to them. The teachers in turn gave the students each a score.

The students were also presented with certificates at the end of their time with LTL, showing how many hours they studied – their own little graduation if you will.

Our teachers also prepared the students with a little gift, and the students did likewise. Some lovely touches to end a great trip.

Students and teachers will continue to keep in touch via a WeChat group which has been set up to help keep their levels of Chinese nice and high!

During their stay in China the Italian team stayed together in a hotel and local meals were arranged nearby. It’s a restaurant we at LTL know particularly well and has a broad variety of Chinese cuisine and dishes including the famed Beijing Roast Duck!

The feedback on the food was positive which was great!

Highlights of the trip included a day trip to Mutianyu, a section of the Great Wall of China, and the challenges in the Hutongs and Forbidden City which the students had to undertake. Students also enjoyed a Tea House experience and a night of karaoke at a nearby KTV where they seemingly had fantastic fun!

The Students || What Did They Think?

Let’s see what our students thought about LTL and China in general:

Q – How was the LTL Experience on the whole?

SOFIA from Group 4 – “It was an amazing experience and I liked it so much. I loved to study Chinese with my teacher and I’m so happy about this journey.”

SARA from Group 2 – “The LTL Experience on the whole was really good. I enjoyed the time spent at the school and I liked the lessons (and the teacher)”

ELEONORA from Group 5 – “This experience with LTL was so beautiful. The school is very good and during the lessons I learnt a lot of useful new things.”

GEORGIA from Group 4 – “The LTL experience was beautiful. We only stayed 8 days but it will be unforgettable.”

AURORA from Group 2 – “Very good, I want to stay here for more days.”

ALESSIA from Group 5 – “The LTL experience was fantastic. I have learned a lot of new things and my time in China was very funny!”

ASIA from Group 2 – “The experience was extremely useful in order to help improve my Chinese.”

Q – What did you think of the classes at LTL?

ALESSIA from Group 5 – “The classes were very funny and I learnt a lot. We also did a lot of games”

SARA from Group 1 – “I really liked them because the environment is very comfortable and the atmosphere is very positive.”

SIMONE from Group 4 – “Classes at LTL are interesting and well organised. The teacher is clever and taught us a lot about culture in China.”

BEATRICE from Group 5 – “The classes were fantastic. The teacher was so polite and caring and we learned a lot of things.”

MATILDE from Group 2 – “I think that the “little classes” are very useful because it helps us better understand what we study together.”

GIULIA from Group 4 – “I really liked my classes, especially my teacher. I really picked up a lot during these days. I would suggest slightly longer breaks between classes.”

ASYA from Group 5 – “I think that the classes at LTL are pretty amazing. They are funny and interesting and we learnt a lot of things.”

Q – Did you enjoy the LTL Activities?

SARA from Group 2 – “I enjoyed the activities, they were interesting and fun. I also found them useful as they allowed us to understand Chinese culture better. My favourite was definitely cooking Jiaozi”

ASYA from Group 5 – “Yes I did. My favourite was the challenge interviews that we did in the hutongs.”

JERBI from Group 3 – “The interview challenge in the hutongs was amazing because it helped us in communication with Chinese people”

SARA from Group 1 – “Yes I enjoyed them, my favourite activity was the Calligraphy because the park we went to felt really calm and relaxed.”

ELEONORA from Group 5 – “I enjoyed them a lot. My favourite activity was writing Chinese characters (calligraphy) in a park. The park was really beautiful and relaxed and had a beautiful lake behind it.”

Q – What changes would you recommend?

ASIA from Group 2 – “It would be useful to organise some more games in order to make the lessons even more entertaining I think.”

IRYNA from Group 1 – “More food at breakfast!”

BEATRICE from Group 5 – “I would recommend visits to even more areas of Beijing like Panjiayuan Market and Wangfujing”

ASYA from Group 5 – “The only thing I would say to improve would be to choose more restaurants for us to eat in.”

GABRIEL from Group 4 –“Nothing”

Thanks Gabriel!!

Q – What are your general thoughts on China?

CHIARA from Group 5 – Beautiful but very different to life in Italy!”

REBECCA from Group 2 – “I was expecting many differences between China and Italy but actually they are similar in some ways. China is a very developed country.”

JERBI from Group 3 – “I really loved China. I loved the people the food and the culture. Maybe I’ll return one day.”

SARA from Group 1 – “I think it’s a fascinating country full of really nice people and interesting culture.”

ELEONORA from Group 5 – “I was so happy before I knew I was coming to China and it was like I thought it would be. It’s so beautiful. The people and city are very nice and cute, like my teacher here in China for example. It’s very different to where I live in Italy but was a really beautiful experience.”

IRENE from Group 1 – “I think China is a beautiful country with an interesting culture but I prefer Italian food! The places we visited were beautiful and Chinese people are really nice and polite.”

Q – What was your favourite thing about LTL?

REBECCA from Group 2 – “My favourite thing about LTL was my teacher. She has been really kind and open minded.”

SOFIA from Group 4 – “The relationship between our class and the teacher because she helped us so much.”

NICOLE from Group 1 – “The fact we are always together for breakfast, for rest and to talk.”

MATILDE from Group 2 – “The games we have played in the class to revise our knowledge.”

JERBI from Group 3 – “The patience of everybody. They were all very easy to talk to at the school.”

SIMONE from Group 4 – “The lessons because they helped us all improve a lot”

There we have it, a successful 10 days in China for our friends from Ancona. We hope to see you all for a third consecutive year in 2020. Keep that Chinese going…!

好好学习天天向上

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