On the evening of March 27th, a light-hearted party -- “find your buddy” -- was organized by Global Society on our campus. Hoping to make new friends and practise languages, more than 40 Chinese and international students participated in this activity.

After a brief introduction about this activity by the hosts, the participants began to find their own buddy. Everyone opened a slip of paper given in advance and matched with the one who could form the correct equation. As soon as they found their own buddies, with open arms, these new friends fell into a lively chat, even though it was the first time they had ever met. Later, all of them read letters to their buddies, which were written beforehand in Chinese to express their anticipation and warm welcome to new friends. Gradually, the atmosphere of enthusiasm vibrated through the classroom.

Buddies matching the paper with correct equation

The Chinese and Korean buddies reading letters to each other

After the participants got acquainted, it was time to play some ice-breaking games. The first one was “sentence link game”. All buddies were divided into three groups and each group had to deliver a Chinese tongue twister. Starting from a Chinese student standing in the forefront, everybody in the group passed backward the same sentence orally only once and the last one in the queue spoke out the whole sentence. During this process, the foreign students scratched their heads anxiously and struggled with some homonyms and characters with difficult pronunciations, and burst into uncontrollable laughter when some funny mistakes were made. Also, other games such as “pass the Hula hoop” and “you feed me” greatly aroused students’ passion to express and show themselves. In the meanwhile, cooperation and communication offered these buddies an opportunity to get to know each other better and build up their friendship.

Chinese and international students in a circle passing the huha hoop

At the end of the activity, the foreign students exchanged their WeChat with their Chinese buddies and also got some Chinese souvenirs like Knot Craft from the organizers. A South Korean girl, when asked how she felt about this unforgettable night, with her eyes twinkling in delight, expressed her excitement: “I love China and I am eager to learn more about Chinese people. That’s why I came here. I feel grateful for this activity as it offers a chance for me to practise Chinese with local people.” A Chinese girl said, “The activity was fantastic. It was destined for us to become friends and I hope we can become close friends in the future.”

 

A group photo

Attending this party, both Chinese and foreign students had a wonderful night. Not only did they make new friends, but also had a better understanding of cross-cultural communication.