Waiakea High straddles
cultures in China program

A high school class interacts
with peers in China via e-mail

Student Q & A
Life skills grow in ag program
Waiakea gets insight into making aloha shirts

---

By Jessica Yeh
Waiakea High School

Aloha!" Shelly Naungayan greets her students as they enter the classroom and take their seats. Her Gifted and Talented (GT) English class fills the room with excited conversation, then begins to settle down.

Little do most people know that these Waiakea High sophomore GT English students are forging friendships between themselves and peers in China.

The class's inspiration comes from Hawaii County Mayor Harry Kim. Kim asked that the students make friends with children from China. He feels it is important for the students to learn about the Chinese people because "they are an important part of the development of the land around Waiakea."

So far, the students at Waiakea are gaining positive insights and learning new things about the people of China and hoping the Chinese will a gain new perspective on American students as well.

The China Project began during the first quarter of this school year. The students write via e-mail to each other weekly, due to the Chinese students' lack of free time and limited computer resources.

Students communicate with 15 and 16 year olds who make up two English classes from Jing Zhou No. 1 High School in Jing Zhou, Hubei province, in the People's Republic of China.

The project began when Naungayan asked for a contact for Chinese students from Waiakea High librarian Gloria Kobayashi, when Kobayashi went on a trip to China in June 2002. Kobayashi, in turn, asked her guide, who referred her to the school and English teacher Li Dongmei.

The rules set by Naungayan are simple and understandable. Because Waiakea students are talking to Chinese students, they need to be sensitive or more cautious of what they talk about. Kim believes that Waiakea High is "one of the first high schools in the nation to communicate with Chinese students since the Cold War."

The class is prohibited from discussing information about military installations, the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and war. They are to stick to basic interest questions, which usually pertain to activities, music, weather and lifestyles.

Besides 'small talk' questions, deeper issues that stem from restrictions put on people living in China often remain unspoken.

Since families living there are allowed to have only one child, Chinese students are eager to hear about what living with siblings is like. Many differences in lifestyles are caused by the communism present in China.

Waiakea students are impressed with their counterparts' discipline. The Chinese have a more defined work ethic, with school a huge priority for the children there. The top-notch high school appears to be an engineering school and is an archetypal structure of how the People's Republic grooms children for jobs.

Both classes are learning about each other and accepting their counterparts' ways of life.

Besides improving writing skills, Mayor Kim and Naungayan have qualities they would like the students to acquire. Kim wants students to "be cosmopolitan in their thinking" and to be "citizens of the world." He also requested that the students learn to speak Mandarin, but that has yet to be accomplished.

Naungayan also hopes her students will gain a broader view of world culture. She hopes that her students will understand that "no matter where they live, or where anyone is from, that we're all alike. We have more similarities than differences."

Naungayan also hopes that the Chinese students will gain new insight from this experience as well.

"We're special Americans, from Hawaii," she says. Naungayan wants the Chinese to see the positive side of Americans.

Apparently, Naungayan's wishes look as if they could become reality; by allowing Chinese students to communicate with Americans, we are taking a small step to bettering relations for a possible partnership in the future.

The China Project is just the beginning for better international relations. To most teens, e-mail is just a means of conversing through informal messages, but for the select students of Naungayan's sophomore GT English class, it is possibly bettering a view of Americans for China's students. In addition to making new friends, the students at Waiakea are gaining new insight, learning experiences, and respect for their similar, yet distant peers in the People's Republic of China.

---

BACK TO TOP
|

You asked

What are some solutions to help peers stay off drugs?

Compiled by Necelyn Cabalce, Waiakea High School

Tracey Okutsu
Junior
"Be involved in some type of sport where anyone can participate."

Paige Sumida
Freshman
"Go talk to them about drugs more."

Royce Oshiro
Sophomore
"Join sports."

Jennifer Hamada
Junior
"(It) differs from person to person. There is not only one solution. It's a case-by-case basis."

David Okubo
Sophomore
"Other activities and older positive influences."

Rachel Kaneda
Sophomore
"Stricter consequences."

Necelyn Cabalce
Junior
"Get a life, rather than escaping reality through drugs."

Waiaka Kealamakia
Sophomore
"Music."

Gary Sur
Freshman
"Boy Scouts."

Click for online
calendars and events.