In order to help students socialize with teachers and get used to the local culture, we arranged a group dinner on Friday night and a badminton workout afterwards.

At 5:30pm, the students and Keats teachers gathered together at Keats cafeteria. We enjoyed a wonderful buffet meal at the school and it was definitely a great opportunity to practice Mandarin Chinese with the teachers. Students started to chat with their teachers using the Chinese they learned in class.

After dinner, students and teachers walked to the badminton court located in the Yunnan Provincial Stadium opposite to the school. The students and teachers were divided into two groups, which were for a badminton match. Once we arrived at the court, the teachers and the students couldn’t wait to start to practice to get prepared for the match. Some students played badminton before while it was the first time for other students to try this sport. Everyone was trying his/her best to practice and was excited for the match. Around half an hour later, the match officially started. Group A and Group B chose a captain for their team. The captain needed to select one team member to challenge the other team. The team member who received more points won the game. After each captain selected the player, the game started. Although all the players were not professionally trained, you can tell that they spent great efforts in winning the match. The cheering squad was also giving lots of confidence to the players. After a hectic competition, Group B finally won the match. However, the teachers and the students were very happy. Joep is a returning student at Keats. He told us that he enjoyed the game a lot and he was very pleased to join such group activity. It was such a great opportunity for our students and teachers to communicate and practice Chinese.

Students wish we could organize more sports activities like this. And we will definitely take our students’ suggestions and help the students enjoy the local more than they expect.