Chinese School Dubai serves as a bridge between cultures

When 6-year-old Peng Gelin walked into the Chinese School Dubai for an admission interview, he could barely introduce himself in Mandarin or English. The Iran-born boy who only spoke Persian was visibly nervous.

His Chinese father and Iranian mother had relocated to the United Arab Emirates from Iran to restart their lives, and hoped to give their son an education rooted in China's rigorous, yet productive, school system.

The first interview did not go well. "He was too shy to speak," said school principal Zheng Li.

But after learning about the family's sacrifices, the admissions team offered the boy a second chance. This time, with patient guidance, Peng sang an Iranian children's song and said in broken Mandarin: "I like this school and want to study here."

After a year, the once-timid boy now converses fluently in Mandarin. "I like everything here — my classmates and teachers, they're all good to me," he said, his eyes shining.

Gelin's transformation didn't come easily. He initially struggled with Mandarin tones and could only pronounce the fourth one correctly.

"He would ask classmates their names when I distributed notebooks, which helped him integrate quickly," said Wang Yiwen, class supervisor. "He always asks me, 'Ms Wang, did I get a hundred points?'" she said, adding that Gelin scored 99.5 points in his last exam.

The boy's father, Peng Tinghui, said the change in his son had been profound.

"He surprised everyone. In Iran, he didn't have the environment. Even at home, he resisted talking with me in Chinese so we had to speak Persian," said the Hubei province native who moved to Iran in 2016 to run an aquatic products business before marrying an Iranian woman.

"If not for this school, we could never have come to Dubai. The school changed his personality and his destiny.

"Here, he is encouraged to grow into a bridge between two cultures," Peng said.