A few days ago, Professor Kerry Clark from Kansas Branch of Missouri University, USA together with his students gave a lively simulation lesson to over 300 students in Nanjing Qiuzhen Middle School, vividly showing them the social routines and etiquette of Americans in their daily life.    

For the middle school students aged between 13-14 who attended the lecture, how boys and girls get along with each other is a sensitive but interesting topic. Two students of Professor Clark demonstrated the process of a boy and a girl getting to know each other, talking and becoming friends in the class.

“Today, I’m giving my lecture at the platform and you are listening while sitting. But in the USA, usually the teacher and the students sit together. Students can interrupt the speech of their teacher at any time and have discussion immediately”, Professor Clark said. He raised a little question to everyone: How would an American student call his/her most intimate teacher? The students had various opinions but none of them answered it correctly. “The answer is to call the teacher’s name directly”. In US, most students directly call their teachers by names or nicknames to show intimacy. “American teachers and students are in the atmosphere of fair communication, so students may interrupt the speech of their teachers to raise questions. Teachers think a lot of knowledge can be obtained by students through various means in their spare time while valuable time in the class can be used to stimulate their creativity and train their ability of viewing and analyzing issues from multiple perspectives.”  

China is a country with rich etiquette resources. Is it necessary for students in Nanjing to learn American etiquette? A teach of Qiuzhen Middle School said, “Many of our students are learning American English. They may go to the USA for study or work in the future. It will be hard for them to get used to the culture there if they do not know the social routines of Americans.” It is reported that, Professor Kerry Clark will also go to give lectures in Nanjing Foreign Languages School and Hexi Branch of Jinling Middle School. (Nanjing Morning Post)