Offer tours to teachers:
Each year we provide Seattle area teachers an opportunity to explore Chinese culture by visiting China, Hong Kong and Taiwan during the summer for two weeks. In addition to guided tours to historical landmarks, this program includes many opportunities to meet Chinese school teachers, educators, parents and students. Noted by many past participants, these informal interactions with Chinese people allowed them to gain a better understanding of modern China and Chinese people - a perspective that can never be provided by any textbook. We hope this experience will bring a new dimension to school curriculums and enrich lessons for any China-related subjects. Our objective is to impart a broad understanding of the people and the culture of China. It is applicable for teachers of all grade levels (K-12). We encourage teachers teaching subjects with components related to the understanding of Greater China to apply. Since 2000, we have sent over 30 teachers to the trip, each was rewarded with a life change experience.
Today, the Chinese people live in many different countries, so Chinese culture is manifested in a variety of ways in every part of the world. The CE program is community-based. Unlike many other cultural exchange programs sponsored by various governments or academic organizations, CE is a “people to people” program. Our program differentiates itself by emphasizing “informal” people interactions. A non-governmental sponsored program, CE covers multiple regions under different political systems.
For more information about the trip, please select Trip to Greater China.
Host scholastic competitions for Chinese language learners:
The Cultural Exploration of Greater China Foundation was founded in order to support the broader community through education. The Scholastic Competition is an initiative designed, in line with our mission and goal, to inspire and encourage children across Washington State to learn and understand more about the Chinese language and culture.
The National Standards for Foreign Language Learning in the 21st Century includes Communication, Culture, Connections, Comparisons and Communities. By holding the Scholastic Competition, we create an environment where these five standards will foster a greater understanding of Chinese. Learning a foreign language cannot be effective without the opportunity to use the new language in meaningful ways beyond the classroom setting. This competition will enable language skills to be developed in an interactive and enjoyable environment, providing students with a positive experience of language learning while concurrently broadening their cultural horizons and challenging preconceived notions.
We believe learning to communicate in languages of the world helps our next generation become global citizens who are ready for life in the interconnected world of the 21st century.
For more information about Scholastic Competitions, please select Chinese Scholastic Competitions.
Share resources and knowledge:
Because of our connection to the Chinese community, we enlist local experts to offer Chinese culture-related seminars and workshops to the community. The subject we developed for “Chinese Opera” has been presented to the students of the Masters in Teaching program at City University, Everett Campus in November 2008, and to a local Chinese heritage school in May 2009. The next session is scheduled for the Mercer Island High School for February 2011. Together with the teaching plans developed by the teachers returning from their sponsored trip to China, we plan to host a web-based repository that can further provide opportunities to collect and share the information and teaching materials that will expand the benefit to an audience beyond Seattle.
For more information about the shared sources, please select Resources