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Three Lindstrom residents recently returned from 23 days in China. Before you think, oh boy here's the obligatory local-angle-Olympics feature, be forewarned, this trio's trip had nothing to do with the Olympics.

Joanie and Gary Sackreiter and Liz Slama traveled to China with Concordia College's Global Language Villages program. The fact that they missed the jacked-up prices and transportation headaches surrounding the Olympics doesn't bother them at all. This is not to say that the Olympics didn't get on their radar screen. Newspapers gushed Olympics headlines weeks before the extravaganza, and at the streetscape level workers were altering public access points by manual labor-- to accomodate handicapped or elderly Olympics visitors. Slama and the Sackreiters also knew there'd be rain during the Olympics because the papers reported July 29 of an "approaching typhoon" weather system called Fung-wong.

A related heat wave the Chinese and our local travelers endured for days leading up to the Olympics was best dealt with by eating cold concoctions. But ice cream made of peas wasn't quite what they expected. "Everything there is made of some kind of vegetable," Joanie said. Slama also spoke of being treated to "popsicles" made of gelatin. Yes, there's a real trick to eating them.

Concordia-Moorhead has been known for its language camps for decades. Many a Minnesota youth has attended Concordia's summertime camps to be immersed in non-English language instruction. Gary Sackreiter, a Concordia alum, mentioned the global villages program is a natural outgrowth of these camps.

Sackreiter had opened his e-mail one day last winter and there was a brochure promoting the China Global Language Village. He and Joanie talked it over and signed up.

They hadn't even boarded the plane at Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport when they chalked up their first travel surprise, meeting another Lindstrom citizen also taking the global language village trip.

Slama, who is a junior high and high school art teacher with the Forest Lake School District, was on her second China excursion. She first volunteered last year; motivated by information on a poster she saw at Century Junior High.

The Concordia promotional materials tout: "travel. teach. volunteer." but "learn" also should be included in the tag line. All three said they certainly learned more than they taught. And, having Concordia to coordinate the itinerary and bring China to life through interpreters and specially-arranged experiences greatly enhanced the adventure.

The group arrived in Beijing July 8, a week before they were expected in their China global villages classrooms.

Joanie said not a minute was wasted. "I could never have seen that much of Beijing without Concordia setting things up." The first part of the trip included guided visits to The Forbidden City, Great Wall, Tiananmem Square, Imperial Palace, Temple of Heaven and open air market shopping and restaurants. Slama and the Sackreiters said they felt nothing but warmth and hospitality and were never anxious or fearful.

The volunteers used the week to bone up on Chinese phrases and adjust to the heat and cultural quirks. Joanie got lots of polite smiles when she would nod and utter "she-she" thinking this was how to say thank you, but instead she was saying in Chinese, wash your hands. Thank you is pronounced "shay-shay."

At the end of the week the volunteers dispersed to their school buildings-- the Sackreiters were transported to Guangzhou outside of Hong Kong and Slama was assigned to Yangzhou near Shanghai.

Gary Sackreiter said the teaching day consisted of seven 40-minute periods. Every class was different due to the range in age of the Chinese students and the varying degrees of English speaking skill.

The curriculum requires volunteer adult teachers to come prepared to instruct on ...

~ an American holiday

~ one state,

~ to play a game

~ and do an art project.

Class sizes ranged from a dozen to around 24. Joanie also had students from Korea and one from Vietnam.

Gary said students were issued pretend "passports" and state stamps (the teacher brings the stamper) went onto the passport as youngsters progressed through this summer educational program. Hopefully, at the end of all classes, the Chinese kids were more fluent in conversational English and had learned a thing or two about the U.S.

Slama chose Wisconsin as her state to teach about, she chose dodgeball for her game, pop-up cards were the art project and Christmas was her holiday lesson. The Sackreiters had Presidents' Day and Texas Independence Day, taught about Alaska and Texas brought supplies to draw and color with, and developed a lesson plan on restaurants, complete with some local menus. Joanie taught a card game and Gary shared the finer points of a Texas game called washers.

Gary said it was very interesting that Chinese youth all had American names, they get them in addition to their Chinese given name as infants. Some of the names: Yo-Yo, Ajax, Rita, there was even a Snow (after Snow White, he assumes.)

Even as someone who teaches for a profession, Slama observed that the Concordia program presents a very unique classroom atmosphere. At the end of the day, for example, all the students pitch in and clean floors, empty wastebaskets and put things away. "There is a real sense of all having responsibility...even each student would take it upon themselves to help other students," Slama added.

The biggest impression made on all three volunteers was how honored the Chinese were to have them as guests. They went above and beyond what would be considered ordinary hospitality to make the adventure a memorable experience. They were also "totally engaged" in learning and practicing English, said Joanie.

To learn go to www.GlobalLanguageVillages.org or call 1-800-222-4750, extension 803. There are also limited spaces for high school aged volunteers if traveling with an adult.

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