This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Chinese students and teachers from the Sichuan Province had a few surprises when they visited Bountiful: drinkable tap water, cold soda and cemeteries within cities.
Effie Peng, who teaches high-school English in China and accompanied the group, explained that Chinese drink only bottled water because it is not safe to drink from the tap, and prefer hot tea and warm soda. They don't use ice.
As for the cemeteries, "there are no graveyards in the city. People are buried in the country," Peng said.
Forty-eight students between ages 14 and 17 visited the U.S. from July 18 to Aug. 15 through Salt Lake City Internexus Language School to improve their English-language skills and have a cultural experience.
They visited Washington, D.C., New York and Boston before arriving in Salt Lake City, then visited Las Vegas and Los Angeles before returning home. The students lived with host families in Bountiful and Centerville and studied English at Bountiful High School each weekday. Afternoons were spent participating in activities such as swimming, skating, bowling, picnics and touring Salt Lake City.
"In China, they don't get a chance to practice speaking English," said English teacher Andy Nelson, who returned from China in July. She taught the students language, grammar, slang, idioms and American culture.
Forty-seven of the students have no siblings because of Chinese law limiting the number of children, and most were surprised at the size of Utah families. "I love my host family. In China we only have one child and we all live in apartments. Here people have many children and live in houses," said 15-year-old Rose Lee.
Because she is an only child, Rose will be allowed to have two children when she marries. "I want to have one boy and one girl."
One of the most enjoyable activities for the youth was camping. "It was my first time to sleep outside," said 15-year-old Vivian Huang.
Charles Wang, 15, had an adventure when he camped with his host family. "I was sleeping in a tent in the forest and animals came in our tent and made a lot of noise. It was very surprising."
Fourteen-year-old Dale Azure was most impressed by the manners of Americans and "the way they think," he said.
"Americans always think about what is fair," he said. "The Chinese think about how much money they can get." Azure has enjoyed his visit but admits he misses his family.
Five Chinese teachers accompanied the students to the U.S. It was their first visit to America. The teachers expressed surprise at the rural nature of Utah but found similarities to their home when visiting Times Square. "New York was very crowded, which is the same as China," Peng said.
The students and teachers all used "American" first names.
"These names are chosen based on similarities to their Chinese names or they are just picked out of a dictionary because we like the way they sound," said English teacher Ken Ben.
He joked that he considered choosing the first name Benjamin so he could be Ben Ben.