is magazine 8.1 - Autumn/Spring 2005 - International Schools ...

From international to intercultural
pare their daughters for life and work in our future global marketplace.
The Boarding House which, in earlier decades, provided a
home for generations of country Victorian girls, has also become
so popular with families from SE Asia in particular, that it is oversubscribed
and the boarding house is being extended. Boarders
are supported by special orientation and ongoing cross-cultural
seminars including welcome lunches with non-boarders to help
them settle into their new home, school and country.
It is a challenge for staff to provide an harmonious and tolerant
home for nearly 100 teenagers! With girls coming from
Australia, Europe, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, China,
Indonesia, the Philippines, South Korea, Japan, the Middle East,
Brunei, Thailand and Taiwan to live together at PLC, staff too
are being trained with the skills to facilitate intercultural understanding
in the busy, demanding day-to-day life of the Boarding
House.
There are currently almost 60 international boarders at PLC
and many international students attend the College as day-girls
because their families take up residence here for the duration of
their daughters studies in Australia. These family members are
often homesick and isolated and need to be encouraged to engage
in the life of the school in a meaningful way. Amongst the almost
1500 students in the PLC community, there are many who come
from multicultural, particularly Asian backgrounds. Clearly, girls
from Asia feel very comfortable in a College which is sincere and
serious in its attempts to embrace and celebrate the uniqueness of
all students.
However it takes time to feel a sense of acceptance. As one girl
from Hong Kong wrote about her initial period as a boarder: ‘I
had few friends when I first came. It was hard for me to figure out
what people here liked or disliked. I was often scared my
approach to things would make them think I was weird.
Therefore I became quieter and quieter and it soon became too
hard to make any friends at all.’
Australian girls from Caucasian backgrounds are given the
opportunity to experience other cultures on a daily basis while
‘More Australians learn
Asian than European languages
at school and PLC, based in a
city which delights in its multicultural
mix, teaches Chinese
(Mandarin), Indonesian and
Japanese. As a former
Indonesian teacher said, while
it was wonderful that her students
went on to become skilled
teachers in Indonesian, what
delighted her was when her students
were employed in influential
government positions
because they knew “how
Indonesians think”...’
learning of the richness of their Australian heritage. All girls are
being prepared for their future employment, which for many will
involve global positions particularly in Asia. As the overwhelming
response shown by both the Australian Government and
Australians themselves, to the Bali bombing and recent tsunami
tragedies, the future of Australia and the countries of Asia are
inextricably linked, not just on the economic, security and
tourism levels, but more importantly through personal and emotional
ties of friendship as well.
This cultural diversity has been embraced by staff, students and
the PLC community at large and activities have moved beyond
the merely show-and-tell presentations at traditional national
days and International week to a deeper, more reciprocal endeavours
like INTERWeave, the PLC International magazine. It is
here in frank, poignant, funny and provocative writing and illustrations
that we see what it means to be a student in the intercultural
world of PLC.
We read the wistful, thoughtful response of a Third Culture
Kid who disagreed strongly to the comment, given at a talk to
PLC students by the late David Pollock, “that being a TCK was
not a bad thing”. She wrote, ‘This is not a piece to say that I
enjoy my culturally diverse background. However, this is not a
piece to say that the move to Australia ruined my life. I still don’t
know.’ It is in an atmosphere of trust and security that the girls
are encouraged to really express the ambivalence they feel about
being part of a globally mobile family.
Making cross-cultural awareness, interaction and engagement
the ‘every lesson, every day’ experience of teachers, students and
administrators in not an easy task. It has required the entire PLC
community to step outside its comfort zone and learn and then
practise new social and professional behaviours. Teachers are now
more aware of the inner struggles that students from overseas’
education systems endure. As one girl wrote:
‘I was quiet in class partially because it was not easy for me to
express what I wanted to say in English. The other reason was
simply that students in my old school had never been expected
to have class discussions because we only had to rush to learn as
much theory as we could for exams. It was also hard to have a
conversation with someone who speaks English ten times more
fluently than I do. Thus I was seldom involved in any class or
extra-curricular activities.’
Such honest comments help to break down the prejudice that
many Asian girls are only interested in achieving brilliant results
and have no time for music, drama or sport!
There have been worries that the strong western European
background of PLC, which dates back nine generations, would be
watered down in the face of the increased number of students
from India, Sri Lanka and South-East Asia. This has not been the
case as the strong and enthusiastic involvement of over 4000
people who celebrated the 130th Anniversary Twilight Picnic
Scottish-style showed! The recently formed PLC Pipes and
Drums played stirring music, Junior School students performed
Scottish country dances and a Scottish rock band upped the pace
for the evening!
PLC, through its teaching of French, German, Latin and
Classical Greek continues to nurture the countries and cultures
with which Australia has had long-established cultural and business
relationships. The language immersion exchange programmes
to Germany and France continue the College’s firm
friendships with institutions in those countries as does the GAP
program.
More Australians learn Asian than European languages at
school and PLC, based in a city which delights in its multicultural
mix, teaches Chinese (Mandarin), Indonesian and
Japanese. As a former Indonesian teacher said, while it was wonderful
that her students went on to become skilled teachers in
Indonesian, what delighted her was when her students were
employed in influential government positions because they knew
“how Indonesians think” and this would be extremely helpful in
furthering meaningful relationships at government to government
level.
PLC has a strong and dynamic exchange programme with
schools in Japan and with Ge Zhe High School, its sister school
14Spring
is Autumn 2005