By David Kearns
dkearns@hometownnewsol.com
SUNTREE - Jimmy Zhoa needs to find four host families for four wonderful exchange students from China.
The owner of Lucky Garden 2 Restaurant in Suntree Plaza agreed last year to help an exchange student program, but the company that bought the round-trip tickets for the youths and paid other expenses encountered financial difficulty, and could not afford to pay staff to come to Florida and contract directly with local families to house the teens.
It fell to Mr. Zhoa, who was glad to help the kids as their foster-father here in the United States.
"I would like for them to have the true American family experience," he said.
What he wants for them is at least one or more months of immersion in an American family home; complete with sit-down dinners, speaking with host siblings and host parents about school and activities; attending local church services and sporting events with them.
While they can speak some English, they haven't crossed that crucial boundary where they are forced by necessity to begin thinking in it, he said. The boys speak too much Chinese with each other.
"They're talking Chinese together all the time. You can't stop them," Mr. Zhoa said.
And since Mr. Zhoa has satellite television with Chinese channels, he frequently catches the boys watching sports and other programs from home.
That's right. They're just like your kids!
"I want for them to experience an environment in which only English is spoken," Mr. Zhoa said.
The owner of the Lucky Garden 2 isn't asking for a family to foot the food bill for a growing lad; which, as any parent can attest, can be expensive.
Mr. Zhoa is offering $200 a month as a food stipend. He will also allow a host family a 20-percent-off discount at Lucky Garden 2 for the entire time the boy is in a good American home.
"I will give them a family discount because they are family," he said.
He has the health insurance covered for the youths, and is available 24-7 for consultation with the host families about any issue, emergency or otherwise.
What Mr. Zhoa proposes is that interested, prospective parents in the vicinity of Viera High School contact him directly for a meeting.
For their part, the lads are loving the States, so far. They all started learning English in preparation for a cultural exchange six years ago, in China, said Alex Xia.
Alex, 16, is from Guangdong province. He enjoys pre-calculus, chemistry and his choral classes.
His pal, Harry Liang, 17, enjoy pre-calculus and team sports at the school. Harry is interested in tennis.
"I have played three years in my school team," Harry said. "I am pretty good." Mr. Liang is also from Guangdong province.
Kobe Lim enjoys playing basketball and his team sports classes.
Richard Li is learning tennis and enjoys it but wishes he was better at it.
"I'm not very good yet," Richard said.
How do the boys like attending Viera High?
"We like so very much our new friends," Alex said.
All the boys agreed that classes were going well with the help of their fellow students and their principal, Mark Tormoen.
"He is very kind," said Kolbe.
Mr. Tormoen said the lads attended their first Hawks football game last week.
"If I didn't know these boys, I might not step out and say it, but these boys are all from good families, they are all very smart, and polite. They also speak very good English. It would be an enriching experience for any family in the area to get to know these boys," Mr. Tormoen said.
Mr. Tormoen is a U.S. Army veteran who served overseas in Korea, where his wife is from.
"They are a joy to be around," he said of the boys from China.
Mr. Zhoa said the cultural exchange is the most important aspect of this mission and still hopes he can find one or two families for each boy to share the full experience with.
"It could be split up between one family for one month and another family the next," Mr. Zhoa said.
Mr. Zhoa and his wife Grace came to this country 13 years ago from Haerbing province, along the shared border with Russia.
Haerbing is also known as a melting pot, since many different cultures were expelled from Russia during purges of the early 1900s.
Coming to this country was a dream he also shared with his wife, he said.
Now he considers himself an emissary of sorts.
"I try to do something good for both cultures," he said.
He sees that Sino-American relations have been strained in the past.
"It's like I have my adopted mother, and my birth mother. I don't want to ever see them fighting," he said.
Cultural understanding goes a long way to preventing future misunderstandings, he said.
Mr. Zhoa can be reached by calling Lucky Garden 2 at (321) 242-1167, or his cell phone (321)258-9799, or by e-mail ruizhao2000@gmail.com