5月23 -29日，我校外语教研部和国际英语文化研究中心（IECS）联合开展了以“培养跨文化交际能力”为主题的第二届英语周系列活动。现在，参与这次活动的外教们结束了他们的中国之旅，近日，记者收到两位归国外教——Dick and Marlene发来的邮件，讲述了他们在我校参加英语周活动的所见所闻所感。现将原文附在后面：

We just returned from our China trip yesterday.  Still adjusting to the time change. 

We would be happy to tell you about our travels in your wonderful country and answer your questions below.

We came to China with the International English Cultural Studies group which is an organization currently serving students in northeast China by teaching English as a second language.  We were happy and honored to be so welcomed by the students and teachers and staff at Hebei University. 

 This was our first trip to China and our first experience with IECS.  Our impression of China was that it is full of wonderful and hardworking people.  We see much progress in changing from a primarily agricultural society to a modern industrial and capitalist-like society.  In some areas striving to maintain their ethnic way of life and in many other striving to become better educated and more world-like.  Due to China's large population this growth appears to have many layers.  It is very much like the United States of America in many ways such as the way people dress and the optimism they seem to express about the future and the way the younger generation has embraced new technologies. 

 The harvest is all the love that we received and were able to give to many students at Hebei University. 

 One difference between Chinese students and American students might be that Chinese students may be more goal oriented and work harder and with greater dedication.  While most American students will work hard to get good grades, they also appear to spend more time socializing and doing extra-curricular activities.  Perhaps this difference in dedication to studies is due to the difference in the opportunities that await them at graduation.  During normal times the majority of American students can expect to find work in their chosen field whereas the typical Chinese student may not.

 The living conditions appear to be much more family oriented than in some parts of the United States.  We think that is a wonderful thing.  The sanitary conditions appear to need further improvement.  We had the opportunity to travel to several different provinces in China and the scenery in the countryside was breath taking.  In the cities there was a mixture of old buildings and new buildings and a rush of cars, bicycles, pedicabs, motorcycles and people all day long.  The wonderful thing about traveling through China is that the food is so delicious.  We found the best tasting food to be in Baoding.

 The new friends we made in China are the many students that we will stay in touch with by email.  Also some of the other team members we traveled with as many of them we met for the first time. 

As to your question of comparing Chinese and American teaching content and focus we can not really comment on this very well as we did not get to observe teaching methods or content outside of our own English teachng classes.  At large universities in the USA students often have lecture classes in large halls with hundreds of students present.  Also, we do not have the extensive testing similar to what you are currently experiencing.  We are not sure if China has a community college system that is available in most USA cities with populations over 200,000 people.  These are colleges that students can attend if they can not afford a regular university or if their grades and/or if their SAT (Student Aptitude Test) grades are not high enough to get accepted to a university they could attend.  After two years at a community college they may get into a regular university if they can show that they can do college level work.  Also we have an extensive night school program offered by many universities that can be attended while working full or part time during the day and also students can earn college credits on-line (internet) or by correspondence.