Schools

Chinese Students Adapting to American High School Life

More than a dozen students are sharing their culture with Dominican High School students through the school's first-ever foreign exchange program.

Four month months ago, 13 teenagers traveled halfway around the world to attend high school with kids of different races who speak a different language.

Now, after nearly a semester, the Chinese exchange students at Dominican High School have found a way to adapt to life more than 11,000 miles from home.

The students came to Dominican through CERNET, a Chinese government agency that aims to prepare students for higher education in the United States. This is the first year Dominican has participated in the CERNET program, which is administered here by the Wisconsin International Academy.

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The students meet once every two weeks in the high school art room, where art teacher/international student coordinator Lindsey Dineen talks with them about grades and answers any questions they might have. She said she's been impressed by the progress the students have made in the past semester.

“You’ll see some who reach out and are a little more outgoing. English is probably a little bit easier for them," Dineen said. "But there's still some students who still aren’t comfortable. They speak Chinese with each other and kind of stick with their group of Chinese friends."

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The students — three freshman, two sophmores and eight juniors — are encouraged to stay at Dominican through graduation but are able to leave sooner. Dineen said some of the juniors have expressed an interest in staying another year and graduating at Dominican.

In addition to their biweekly lunch meetings with each other, the students also meet regularly with school officials to talk about their academic and cultural transition.

"One student said the teachers' Midwestern accent was too thick for them to understand," Dineen said. "Now, that student gets the handouts ahead of time, so they are able to come to class and know what's going on."

The biggest barrier for the students is their familiarity with English. While all of the Chinese students came to Dominican with the ability to speak English, some of the students said it's been difficult to catch up to their American colleagues in classes like English, religion and social studies.

Junior Jaron Tong said some of the more advanced grammar concepts like simile and analogy have been difficult to understand. He also said there's a philosophical difference in how literature is taught in the schools.

“Here, when you read essays, we try to judge. But in China, there is always a certain answer, and you have to go with that answer; you have to go a certain way," he said. "Here, it depends on you. It can mean anything you want."

Some of the students say they feel more comfortable with math, physics and science concepts than the American students, but they still have trouble understanding the wording of the questions. Dominican offers several tiers of English as a Second Language classes, which have also helped the students adapt.

Cross-cultural connections

Dominican students are not entirely unfamiliar with Chinese students. The school hosted two Chinese students last year – one of whom graduated and went on to a state university, and another, Ray Wang, who is a sophomore at Dominican.

Wang is one of three Chinese students attending Dominican outside of the CERNET program. The other two students, Sylvie Li and Yufie Du, have relatives in the Milwaukee area.

Some students have found ways to connect with other students through extracurricular activities. Three of the students are involved in choir, and about four or five of the students are involved in Dominican's upcoming theatrical production of "Phantom of the Opera." One student, Sylvie Li, plays on the girls basketball team.

The Chinese students were also able to spend quality time with American students through Kairos, the junior class retreat, where they talk about their emotions in a confidential environment.

Dominican's host family program has also aided the transition for the Chinese students. The Chinese students don't stay with the host families — they stay at a hotel on Port Washington Road — but they do meet with the families at least once a month.

Senior Jacob Scobey-Polacheck's family hosts freshman Tony Ji. The family has taken Tony to the zoo and eaten Thanksgiving dinner with him. Scobey-Polacheck said he's been impressed with Tony's transition to American culture.

"His English was really bad the first time we met him, but with his English classes he's gotten a lot better," he said. "It's been nice to see him get used to America."

Junior Ariana Badran said her family has enjoyed spending time with their host student, junior Vicky Xu, at an outdoor art festival and other activities.

"I think a lot of the things, like the food, are new experiences for her, and she likes that," Badran said.

Dineen said the cross-cultural program has been a great learning experience for both the Chinese students and Dominican's American students.

“It's a good thing to give our school more diversity, as well as giving our school more exposure to other cultures," she said. "Eventually we hope to have a sister school exchange program, where our students go to China for a week or two.” 


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