Liu Yihe is a 10-year-old pupil in Grade 3 of Nanjing Hanjiang Road Primary School. Huber is a 24-year-old sophomore of European Commercial University, Germany. They are 9000 km away from each other and their age gap is 14 years. Knowing the “International Intern Program” founded by Nanjing Foreign Cultural Exchange Center, Liu Yihe tried hard to become a candidate for Civilian Ambassador of Foreign Cultural Exchange of Nanjing and his family is selected as the first “home-stay” family. As the first international intern of the program, Huber came to stay in Liu Yihe’s house since June 15th last year and has formed a close bond with the Liu family. 

Though Liu Yihe is only 10 years old, he has his own method in teaching Huber Tang Poems. He explains verses in details and demonstrates how to pronounce the tones to Huber.

“I also teach him Chinese songs.” Liu and Huber sang a children’s song named “Looking for My Friend” for the reporter. It is funny to see the boys sing songs hand in hand, clapping and leaping.

However, there is still language obstacle between them. Liu’s vocabulary is limited, but he has smart ways. For example, once Liu wanted to tell Huber that ancient Chinese wrote on bamboo slips but he did not know how to say “bamboo”. A bright idea flashed through his mind, then he asked Huber what did panda eat. So the problem is solved.

Huber who is inspired by the experience has decided to teach children of immigrant workers English to repay the goodness of Nanjing people. (Yangtze Evening News)