Education and cultural interaction between 2 countries

Daily News – 18th Oct 2011

While all focus is on the French and the All Blacks, 17 visitors from Taiwan, Miao-Li state visit Fo Guang Shan temple on 18th October. This ex-change programme was initialled by the Miao-Li state governor, with the help Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) in Auckland to visit New Zealand Fo Guang Shan (FGS) Temple. This group of 17 visitors from Taiwan consists of 12 principles and family members were accompanied by 3 executives of TECO in Auckland.
The tour was lead by Venerable Manwang and Stella Lu the Executive Principal of FGS NZ Chinese School and teachers. There were 3 phases of this visit; first one was to visit the FGS Chinese School to understand the activities and syllabus. Second phase was the temple tour and its art exhibition and introduction of the core value of Humanistic Buddhism. Thirdly, a visit to a local school , Willowbank school and a great opportunity to interact with principle and local teachers and have a better understanding of NZ Education system.
The tour started after a beautiful vegetarian lunch at the Tea House in FGS. Stella Lu presents the talk on the role of FGS Chinese School to teach Mandarin and advocate Chinese culture to the children of the new immigrants in foreign land. Followed by, the teachers gave talk on the challenges when dealing with students of different backgrounds, ages and languages. Nevertheless, all students are always encouraged to take extra curriculums, and participate in a wide variety of activities and competitions. The spontaneous students were there, despite the school holidays to recite poems to the visitors and display their art works on a board. Lastly, there was an interaction and ex-change of ideas from both parties.
After the visit of FGS Chinese School, Venerable Man-Wang talked about the elementariness of Buddhism whilst conduct a guided temple tour with the visitors on the architecture of the temple and its exhibitions. She gave each visitor a copy of the book “Way of Life” as a souvenir and in return the leading principle gave FGS a painting in (wood). The visit at the premises of FGS temple was ended at 2:30pm.
Finally the last phase of the tour was to visit a local school, Willowbank School near FGS, where there is a good working relationship. The principle of Willowbank , Madam Deidre Alderson showed the group around the school premises and facilities. She also gave talked about the NZ education system and its policy. The visit was ended with a lovely tea receptions prepared by the teachers and an annual of the school was given to the visitors.
This visit has marked an excellent opportunity to share ideas and have a better understanding of the education systems of two different countries. The visitors also felt the hospitality of NZ.