ChinaTrip 2015 Unknown

NARRATOR: Hello,welcome to this podcast! My name’s Rachel McCoach and today’s topic is a student trip to China that myself and 6 other students went on in May of 2015. We headed out there to teach university Students at Zhengzhou University of Light about SQL, Human Computer Interraction and HTML. But there was, of course, a whole lot more that we gained from the experience. I am joined now by a few of my fellow students, Shika, - and Calum to discuss a bit more about everyone’s experience in China.

Shika: Shika: My name is Shika- Hurrydass and I went to China with 6 different other students, uh to help out in classrooms to teach HCI, -database and- HTML

Calum: my name’s Calum Gathergood. I am a 4th year Computing Science Student and in May 2015 I went to Zhengzhou in China to teach. So we were there for 3 weeks and- as soon as we got there, we did Beijing for a weekend which was great fun

Shika: It was brilliant because we’ve all seen these in films and stuff so it was,it was just an experience... Of a lifetime.

Shika: A lot of people, a lot of - security. Had to carry our passports all around the place

Calum: next day after that we went to the Great Wall which was really really awesome so- that was definitely one of the highlights. It’s -just amazing- to see in person


Shika: The Wall was a massive struggle for me- there’s a lot of walking, a lot of climbing up stairs and stuff-,I didn’t have good shoes -
But it was brilliant. I cried and everything

CALUM: when we were actually in Zhengzhou -we did lots of stuff with the students in and around the Henan Provence - we went to Longman Grottos, which was beautiful and then we went to the Shaolin temple which was really really cool- It’s the home of Kung Fu

Shika: The student were super welcoming and really really nice
I mean, basically - we were there to make friends and it was amazing. They weren’t just students at the end of the day, they become like part of our families I guess. - I’ve had really good relationships with some of them and I still keep in touch with them and stuff



CALUM: they were all quite- surprised to see so many white people to start off with, but- everyone’s very, very trusting and just friendly and just wanting to say hello


Calum: best memory of the trip was probably just teaching really.- realising that they were all so keen to learn, regardless of their skill ability - was really cool, and it was - rewarding to kind of start off the week with a subject they know nothing about and then see them pass the test at the end of the week-to be honest when I first went out I thought it would be kind of like work, and all the fun would be outside of that – I think that was my best memory, just teaching overall


Shika: I guess the language was the hardest thing they had a really hard time saying Lachlan, or Calum-, so they said Clum-

Calum: my Chinese is pretty much non-existent -Smiling gets you pretty far. -luckily enough there was a lot of students there that helped us out with our Chinese and we -came off -learning a few phrases, but I wouldn’t-call myself a Chinese speaker just yet.

- “hao chu” is how you say “good food” in China

Calum: I knew Chinese food would be good, but I didn’t know it would be quite that good- they just do really good noodles and it sounds pretty plain but I mean, it’s a staple of a lot of their dishes and it was just-it was all done really well. - definitely the highlight for me.

Shika: I’m not a big Chinese food kind of person, but it was interesting because -I missed, like pasta and pizza I guess. But the food was so cheap and so good and eventually hen you gave in it was so nice.


Calum: you definitely gain awareness of other cultures-You’re there-to work and to kind of- live with other people from a different background and I think - it’s really useful to gain- those social skills.

Shika: people gain the idea of freedom, to travel more, - knowledge, experi