Mayor Picks Up Tips From Students

The Mayor of Bath was given a quick lesson in technology when he met and posed for pictures with visiting Chinese students.

Councillor Andrew Furse admits to picking up “quite a few tips” when the 14 art students from Shanghai visited the Mayor’s Parlour for tea and “very traditionally English” custard cream biscuits.

The Mayor told the students, who were studying at City of Bath College for two weeks, about the history of his role and his Mayoral duties.

With his wife Mayoress Mrs Mei-Ling Chou Furse as an interpreter, Mr Furse told the students it was “a great pleasure” to meet them and praised them for picking a “very good city” to study.

It was then the turn of the 19 to 21 year-old students from Shanghai Art and Design Academy to tell the Mayor about their studies, how much they loved shopping and how Bath’s historic buildings made the city “look like one big museum.”

The knowledgeable youngsters also took the opportunity to tell the Mayor all about the best mobile phones and tablet computers on the market. Mr Furse then joked he felt like a celebrity as it took the students about 20 minutes to take photos of him.

Student Bibi Feng, 19, was among the students excited to add their names to the visitors book at The Guildhall, which includes the signature of the Queen.

She said: “Bath is so much more peaceful than Shanghai. It’s more relaxing, people don’t move as quickly or run in the road.”

Bibi said she also liked the teaching at City of Bath College, explaining: “There are students from all over the world and they promote independent thinking. 

“In China you have to do as the teacher says, but at the College we learned about ourselves as we didn’t always have to do things the same way as the teacher.”

At the Mayor’s Parlour, the students also got to meet the Council Leader Paul Crossley and Cabinet Member for Sustainable Development, Councillor Cherry Beath.

Group leader James Cheng, who visits Bath regularly, said it had been the students’ first visit to England and they had stayed with host families.

He said: “The students think England is so different to China, they enjoy life here. They say Bath is so pretty with its architecture, museums and galleries, and the people are so very polite. 

“Their English has really improved with lessons at the College and they have got to meet lots of foreign students. The College is an international environment and they really enjoy that.”

The group of students also got to spend a week seeing the sights around the UK, including Edinburgh, London, Cambridge and the Lake District.

Sandra Tavakoli, International Development Manager at City of Bath College, said: “It is always a pleasure to host James Cheng’s students at the College. James and his groups are regular visitors to Bath, coming for a few weeks in the summer and during the period of the Chinese New Year. 

“On this occasion, his students attended not only English as a Second Language classes with other international students but also sessions with our UK students doing ‘Location Photography’ in the city. We are very much looking forward to seeing another group of his enthusiastic students again in the summer.’