'China was the best experience of my life'
- By Helmut Matt
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E-mail China Today, November 25, 2016
Multi-faceted Communication
The final statement of the Chinese-German government consultations announced on June 13, 2016 includes the statement: "Germany and China welcome the current year of German-Chinese School and Youth Exchange 2016...Both sides agree that their year of school and youth exchange should aim to further deepen the promotion of intercultural competence."
The exchange between Germany and China is lively and multi-faceted. Many German pupils and university students get the opportunity to experience everyday school life in China, and every year young people from China come to Germany to study. People meet, and friendships grow. Two cultures that formerly seemed mutually strange and far removed have now grown closer and enriched one another.
Talking to exchange students from both countries or reading their reports about their experiences gives you a sense of how much these young people appreciate their experiences and encounters in this foreign country. It is to be hoped that the German-Chinese Year of School and Youth Exchange 2016 will help to promote, strengthen, and further develop what has already been achieved. In true friendship no distance is too great and no barrier too high.
As Confucius once said: "If friends from afar arrive – isn't that a reason for happiness?" Meanwhile, Yiqi has finished her high school degree in China and has also to pass the entrance exam to the Conservatory of Freiburg University, even though it took place at the same time as preparations for her college entrance exam. She is now studying in Germany and really enjoying her time there, and even flown to the U.S. for a semester to study under a famous violinist.
Yiqi will take her BA soon, and plans to take her master's degree in Germany as well. Her mother has been over several times to visit her daughter and us. Her grandparents became so curious about this far-away country after all she told them that they also took the long journey to see it for themselves. So we have now grown into a real German-Chinese family.
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