By Weng Yongxin

On December 16th, many students who knew each other via the English Corner came early to the library. Mr. Martin Stannard, Mr. Brett Gearing, Dr. Thomas James Hughes and Mr. Aaron Richards joined the students tonight.

Since Christmas was around the corner, it became the hottest topic for tonight. Martin said this year he would celebrate Christmas by having dinner with some friends. In terms of decorations, he said due to the limited space, he only bought a Chistmas tree and didn’t decorate his apartment a lot. He also mentioned the true meaning of Christmas. In his opinion, many Chinese people celebrated Christmas because they just followed the trend and loved the festive atmosphere.

Meanwhile, Brett shared his wonderful childhood memory about Christmas Eve with students. He mentioned the dinner, the gifts and his little friends. He told us that he did not have chances to spend Christmas with his family anymore since he came to China. However, he stated that it was always a great time during decorating his place for Christmas.

Thomas showed his interest in British and American TV shows and movies, followed by the phenomenon of accents. Aaron dwelled on American dating culture which was really different from that in China.

Foreign teachers shared with students different cultures, adding flavor to students’ everyday life. Through comparisons, students could learn more to enhance their social skills with foreigners.