On Tuesday morning this week, our Year 10 Mandarin classes engaged in collaboratively planned class activity with five Harvard students. This activity is part of their Capstone Project in Harvard – giving a speech of chosen topics to Secondary students in a city in China. Here is a summary and feedback of the event from one of our Year 10 students.
Mario (Year 10):
We had a wonderful exchange session with Harvard students and their Mandarin teacher on Tuesday in our Mandarin lesson this week. The session was split into two parts: Topic Presentation and Group Discussion.
Their speeches in Mandarin were mainly focused on the comparison of education systems in Asian countries and the US, plus some advice for students who want to study abroad. We had gone through a wide range of topics such as ECAs, wellbeing, self-identity and critical thinking. We also got the opportunity to ask them questions after their speech and later on to deepen our understanding of studying abroad in the US by asking them questions in different breakout rooms.
Throughout this session, we learnt the importance of independent thinking and how to balance our life with study. I was particularly impressed by the speech and discussion about the ‘kiasu’（怕输 fear of losing）culture in Singapore, and understand how this culture has impacted the intensely competitive academic environment in Singapore and other similar Asian countries. In the end, we had the opportunity to ask Harvard students more personalised questions in our group discussions.
This activity was a very nice experience that gives us more insights into our studies, and a truly great opportunity to connect with Harvard students.Â