PdC students plan Chinese trip in 2019, setting their focus on Hong Kong
Pictured above is Kylee O’Kane posing on the Great Wall of China during the Prairie du Chien School District’s most recent trip to the country back in 2017. Below, O’Kane (second from left) and Maggie Dobbs (left) are pictured with new friends they met when visiting China’s Wenhui Middle School.
By Rachel Mergen
“One of the nice things about traveling is so many different people will get different things out of it,” Adam Stout, Prairie du Chien Chinese teacher, said about the school district’s next China trip. Last year, 15 students and adults enjoyed the opportunity to see a different part of the world. Now, Stout is planning the next expedition, which will lead students through a whole new experience for a week in June 2019.
“We’re going to see Hong Kong this time. Last year, we saw three cities in China. It was a really good trip, because we saw the Great Wall, the Terracotta Army Statues, a bunch of stuff; but we squeezed it in under a week and a half,” Stout explained. “This time we are just going to Hong Kong. The idea is it will be a cultural deep dive. We’ll just be in the one city for about seven days overall. We’ll see everything.
“Hong Kong itself is just really cool. We’re going to see the whole city. That in itself is a major deal. It’s a treat to be there because it’s huge and modern. It’s very Chinese, but, at the same time, it’s a very modern, up-to-date city.”
Stout knows Hong Kong quite well from his own experience of living there for two years. He was sent to the city after his high school graduation as a mission trip through The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He was given 12 weeks of training before moving to the foreign land and working 12 hours a day there helping the community and spreading the messages he stood for.
After returning from Hong Kong, Stout attended college with the idea in mind of wanting to be a teacher. He always had the career path, but didn’t know what he wanted to educate students on. He couldn’t pull himself away from the Chinese language, so that was what he decided was the best fit for him.
“It’s really eye-opening,” noted Stout. “I enjoyed it. That place is impactful.”
To explain the importance of travel, Stout quoted American essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson, “The mind, once stretched by a new idea, never returns to its original dimensions.”
He continued, “It changes your perspective forever. You realize there’s a bigger world. You meet people from other cultures, people who speak other languages. You realize that they are people too.”
His goals for the students are for the trip to broaden their horizons and introduce them to places they may have never been able to see otherwise. He hopes the travelers will truly take in everything they see.
Students from last year’s trip are still thrilled from the experience. Stout mentioned, “[They] are already talking about going back.”
Prairie du Chien High School students find themselves at a variety of levels of learning Mandarin Chinese, with no one being fluent quite yet. In the school district, students begin learning Chinese and Spanish in kindergarten. The students are then able to choose one path in fifth grade, which will lead them to taking their chosen language five days a week up until their eighth grade year. Students then choose if they wish to continue in high school.
What makes the trip even more interesting though is that the majority of Hong Kong speaks Cantonese Chinese, a language the students have not experienced. It will give the students the opportunity to learn on the scene, in the middle of the culture.
Stout noted the language is complex, because there is no way of sounding out the characters used, and there are no words that are the same between Chinese and English, except the few words we’ve adapted into our daily vocabulary. Stout’s freshmen class understands almost 400 characters already, which enables them to communicate basic information and questions. The language has some easy characteristics though, as there is no conjugating like there is in languages like Spanish and English. For example, “eat,” “eating,” “eaten” and “ate” are all just said as the Chinese version of “eat.” There is no change of the word based on tense.
Stout noted that all challenges with learning a language are worth it though, as languages help “make the brain stronger” and “open doors even in Wisconsin.”
Stout concluded, “It’s really nice to be a part of a school district that has these opportunities for the kids. The board and the administrators are very supportive of letting us pack up and head to China. I wouldn’t be able to do it without them and the kids themselves. They make some sacrifices to be on this trip.”
To learn more information and discover how to sign up for the trip, contact Stout at 326-3746 or stoutad@pdc.k12.wi.us. The trip is open to students, family of the students and community members. Attendees are expected to pay their own fees. There is no cap at the moment of how many people can attend.
