Chinese students warm up for 1st rehab class in Russia

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-07-23 06:40

ANVLADIVOSTOK, Russia -- "Katya, Vika, Ksyusha, Huang Lin and Zheng Xiaopeng!" responded Zheng Xiaopeng, the famous young hero in China's after-quake rescue work, in the warm-up session before his first class in a Vladivostok-based children's care center.

According to the rule of the game "Remembering names", Zheng, like every participant, was in turn to tell correctly the name of all the other students who had spoken before him, as well as the name of the teacher and himself.

A Russian teacher chats with two students during a class in a children's care center in Vladivostok, Russia July22 2008. [Xinhua]

Zheng, together with some other Chinese students from quake-affected areas, was sent to Vladivostok in Russia's Far East for recovery.

The interesting game, said teacher Katya, was to help all students get acquainted with each other as soon as possible.

Actually, this group of pupils and middle school students are from different ethnic groups in China. They hardly knew each other, due to a fairly short time they had spent together.

So, in the game, it was no strange for a player to forget his or her friends' names. Sometimes, if lucky, they could read from others' name cards. But, for those with no name card on, the answerers in turn could do nothing but wish an "Er...Er...Er" might get them through.

Of course, their unconfident murmur would bring them no "pass card", but the laughter from all classmates and teachers.

At last, Yang Zhichuan, a Qiang-nationality student from Qushan Primary School in Beichuan county and the last one of the game, succeeded in calling correctly the names of all the 25 students and three teachers in the classroom, and won himself a big hand.

After reviewing all the new Russian words they had learned the previous day, the students started a new game called "electric current". Everyone stood in a line and held the hand of each other. After getting a hard grasp from the student on one side, you need to pass the "power" to the one on your other side with another hard grasp, as if you are transferring the electric current.

Gradually, students were excited by such a fascinating game and those in the back of the line started to take pleasure in exaggerating their body movements by shrugging shoulders and throwing arms, as if they were really hit by a powerful current.

When the clock struck 10 a.m, the music teacher came in with an guitar. All the students quieted down and said "hello" in chorus in Russian with the instruction of the teacher's gestures.

Happy warm-up delighted all students, and lit up the atmosphere in the classroom, making students prepared for a whole day of enjoyment in the class.