It is a common complaint of students: What they are learning does not have a practical use. The quickest way for students -- or anybody for that matter -- to lose motivation when learning is to think that it does not have any real-world application, that it doesn’t matter.

Recently students at a Chinese immersion school in Washington, D.C. got motivation from an unlikely source: The White House! The White House invited fourth and fifth grade students from Washington Yu Ying Public Charter School to meet President Xi Jinping at the official welcoming ceremony at the White House. Oh, they also got to meet President Barack Obama! But this wasn’t just a photo-op, an opportunity for two presidents to take pictures with smiling children. Several of these students said that meeting President Xi inspired them to study more Chinese. It gave them the chance to see that what they are learning is useful and can be used in the real world.

Maya is a fifth grade student at Yu Ying. She went on the field trip to the White House to meet President Xi and had this to say. “It gives you like a little bit of inspiration that other people can speak Chinese, too, and you’re not the only one.”

Maya’s classmate, Felix, said that the field trip was “cool.” He adds that the words of the two presidents were heartfelt.