Dear Taiwan
Dear Taiwan,
Thank you for being the beautiful little island that you are. From your ease of transport to every convenience store ten paces away from the next, each aspect to which we have become accustomed shall be missed. There is nothing quite like the feeling of being able to fill up our EasyCard, hop on a bus and train to another county, and still be home in time for dinner. Each experience, each scooter adventure, each new Taiwanese delicacy; pieces from this year that will be irreplaceable for years to come. Where else in this world could we have eaten free pineapple cakes atop a mountain? How many times has a fruit vendor gifted you extra ‘peach’ pineapple slices in other places? There isn’t any other spot on this Earth that I can think of where these scenarios have happened. I could not have imagined a better place to spend a year teaching.
Until next time,
Crystal
First joint-site orientation in Yunlin County! Taichung, Changhua, and Yunlin ETAs all came together for a workshop at the San Hao International Hotel, the perfect place for three great counties to convene during our first month in Taiwan.
Every time I visit Sun Moon Lake, I am reminded of how I fell in love with this beautiful island. This picture was taken during our remote service project at a local English camp. We had a lot of fun teaching students the English words for popular foods in the area! ↓
Peak Taiwanese fashion! These were taken during a ‘huan dao’ scooter trip. Another ETA and I scootered over twelve hours to get from Changhua to the gorgeous Hualien County on the East Coast of Taiwan. We are grateful we had the chance to explore Taroko Gorge with new friends. ↓
When I first stepped into Taiwanese classrooms, I found that I was never without a few pieces of candy. They were excellent initial motivators. Rather than preaching to an unresponsive choir, hands shot up when presented with a brightly colored lollipop. No longer were students sitting paralyzed, just petrified by an all English class. Students of all levels were starting to pay attention, trying to answer the questions that they could. Then, students started to expect candy. A seventh grade boy would greet me in the hallways with first my name, then “candy?” Something had to change. I started phasing out the candy rewards. Just as I learned in my teaching languages courses, I paired this technique with verbal praise. Then students starting imitating my excited exclamations of “nice!” and “you can do it” to each other, cheering on their peers and increasingly speaking more English. The incorporation of more group work has also started to lower the affective filter. Students were learning that they could try to do what they could and would not be penalized for not being able to spell or say a certain word. Learning another language can be a scary experience but when students feel safe enough to make mistakes, that is when true language learning begins.
Some of the most energetic students at Fen Yuan Junior High School! This is a picture from Sports Day of my LET’s homeroom class. They had practiced running and jumping rope for weeks to prepare for this event!
After our Halloween lesson, students started to treat me like a Santa Claus who just hands out candy! We had a fun time making Halloween origami together and realizing that learning English did not have to be scary.