Chinese Youths Sample U.S. Tradition : Culture: Seventy-five exchange students experience an American-style Sunday picnic at Warner Center Park.

They looked like any other bunch of kids on an outing to the park as they tossed a football back and forth, chased each other in circles and kicked a soccer ball in the midmorning sun.

But for the 75 Chinese exchange students, Sunday’s excursion to Warner Center Park was their first taste of an American-style picnic, complete with the staples of hot dogs, potato chips, ice cream sandwiches and a few friends.

After some stiff introductions in English and Chinese, the exchange students, who arrived in the San Fernando Valley in September, warmed up to a group of El Camino High School students who hosted the picnic with the Rotary Club of Woodland Hills.

A simple ice-breaking game helped cross the language barrier as small groups of youths held hands--crossing them over each other--and then tried to untangle themselves, giggling and smiling as their hands strained to stay together.

Games of soccer and horseshoes also helped the exchange students unwind from their rigorous routine of school six days a week.

After two months at Hale Junior High School in Woodland Hills, where they study English and take typing and physical education classes with American sixth-graders, the exchange students’ language skills are still a bit shaky.

“The hardest thing has been to learn English,” said Pan Hui Shan, 12. “But we want to try.”

El Camino student Sabra Martini, 15, said although there was a language barrier between the students as they played, “we could still understand each other. They still caught on to what we were doing.”

There are a few parks near their school in China, Lin Li, 11, said, but none as big as Warner Center Park. “The trees and the grass are nice,” Li said. “We don’t have much of that in China.”

As Zhong Shun Ping, 13, sat down to eat her lunch, she reflected on what she likes most about America. “It is more relaxing here,” Ping said. “The whole community is nice.”

The students, here as part of the China/United States Business and Technology Exchange, will be in the country until June.