Xi encourages US students to boost friendship

In surprise letter to Mandarin learners, he says young people are 'the future' of countries' ties

President Xi Jinping's letter came as a big surprise to students and their teacher at a school in the US state of Illinois.

"At first the students could hardly believe it was true," said Limin Dove, who teaches Chinese at Niles North High School in the city of Skokie. She was notified by the Chinese Consulate General in Chicago about the response and presented the letter to the students on April 1.

"They were surprised that someone who is so busy taking care of over a billion people would reply to a bunch of high school students," Dove said.

In his letter, Xi encouraged the high school students to study hard and contribute to the friendship between the people of both countries. His letter was written in response to a letter written in Chinese by the students.

"I hope you will make the best of your time, study hard, and contribute your part to a deeper friendship between the people of our two countries," Xi wrote to the students in late March.

"Young people are the future of the China-US friendship," he added.

More than 40 students from the school's first-year Mandarin class got together to write to Xi in January, wishing him a Happy Chinese New Year, asking about his work and life, and sharing their fondness of China.

They told the Chinese leader in the letter that they are studying Mandarin, and they love the Chinese language, music and cuisine.

In his written response, Xi expressed gratitude to the students for their letter, and said he can feel from the letter their love of the Chinese language as well as their interest in Chinese culture.

"Learning Chinese will help you know China better and make more friends, both Chinese friends and friends from other countries who speak the Chinese language," he wrote.

He also shared his affection of the beautiful scenery, hospitable people and diverse culture in the US and told the students he has visited the US many times and made a lot of American friends, including young ones.

Xi shared some of his personal life. He said he has a deep interest in philosophy, history, literature, culture, music and sports, and that he first cultivated many of these interests while in middle school and they have stayed with him ever since.

His job is serving the people, and he works hard with a busy schedule, but takes great pleasure in his work, Xi wrote. "It is very tiring, but also very fulfilling," he wrote.

Since the students expressed their wishes to visit China, Xi said he hoped they would see the country for themselves, quoting the old saying that "seeing is believing".

Dove said she and her students were touched by Xi's response, which was full of genuine details. "We could see that President Xi is sharing something personal, like his hobbies and his thoughts about studying," she said.

The activity of writing to Xi took place in a normal class exercise in January. The students were in just their fifth month of learning Chinese, and many had never studied the language before. They also did not know much about the Chinese president.

"As they are learning Chinese, I thought it's natural for them to also get to know the country - its leadership, for example," Dove said.

The students each wrote their own letters. Then they discussed them in class and put together a final version, which was handwritten.

"It was a very genuine letter - it was nothing but writing to an ordinary stranger and trying to get to know him," said Dove, who saw the letter, filled with "lovely questions" like, "Do you like your job?" and, "Do you have friends?"

"So this started as an activity for them to practice the Chinese that they've learned and to do something fun - we definitely never would have imagined President Xi would respond to us."

The letter also came as an opportunity for the students to learn more Chinese, Dove said. The students, who began studying Chinese in August, were learning mostly conversational Chinese at the time.

They read the letter out loud together during the class, and Dove took the opportunity to teach them the characters and phrases that they did not know.

"I believe this experience could inspire some of my students," said Dove, who believes that most of her students will continue studying Chinese and advance to the higher-level Chinese class in the next academic year.

The Niles North High School began offering Mandarin in 2008 as an elective course.