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Lo, Hui Esther (羅慧)
During the first week of the program, I had some issues of terrible homesickness, stressful demerit system and boring three-hour long workshops. But fortunately, new friends helped me get rid of the homesickness. Also I was able to “find my way” around the demerit system. As for the workshops, I used to think it was useless, but they had really prepared me for the time of chaos in my classrooms.
It was both great and disappointing to finally be at the school. I’ve been looking forward to get to the school, but then I realized how different it was from where I’ve always lived, especially the shower (we all had to share one) and the squatting toilets. And then were the terrible mosquito bites and heat. But as we got into the teaching part, everyone got busier for the teaching plan and the performance for the opening ceremony at the school. We were definitely sleep-deprived for the first few days, but as you get a hold of the class and time, everything gets easier. Each day was still long and tiring, but I was constantly rewarded by the heart-warming smiles of the students. Weekends were definitely fun; the staffs at the school will go out of their way to arrange things for us to do. On the last day, we all got teary over our departure. Time flies by so fast.
Two weeks passed by so quickly, let alone a week of tour. I was on the southern tour, which went from the southern tip of Taiwan to the north of Taiwan, back to where we all started, Taipei. During this time, I visited some of the most amazing places I’ve ever been to and did many “first-time” activities. I saw beautiful parts of Taiwan that I had never seen. I enjoyed trying delicious food and shopping. It was fun designing and practicing for the talent show. Everyone worked so hard to make the night unforgettable. Four weeks wasn’t that long, but it was filled with much more memories than I’ve ever had in the past summers.
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Tsai, Wan Ting (Tina) (蔡宛庭)
Upon realizing that I was admitted to the 2012 AID summer program; I was scared. Sure I was glad and proud to know that I qualify for a program that seem to bring together all the best achieving oversea youths, but at the same time, I wasn’t sure if I was ready for the challenge that it represents. Despite all my doubts, I wanted to give it a shot because I’ve never been to a summer camp. Who knew, my first summer camp experience turned out to be the best summer of my life.
Summer back to Taiwan was often very relaxed, but fattening and wasted because I have no school friends in Taiwan, so the most I do is sit around watching TV and eat all day. This summer was different, all the things I learned throughout the program made my summer enriching and meaningful. From the teaching techniques taught by various lecturers, to the importance of working as a team; AID was an opportunity for me to learn through living and doing. Before the program, I would not know that competition is the best way to get kids motivated, or that teaching young kids is a very difficult job. A lot of the things that I used to take for granted watching my elementary teachers teach were in fact very challenging, and required an unbelievable amount of patience. To me, most of the learning comes from taking on the role of a teacher/role model for the kids, it demanded more than most people could imagine. This program gave me a new perspective on learning/teaching, which is something I appreciated a lot.
One of the best aspects of this program as I have mentioned is learning, the other one is the definitely the experience and the people. Summer camp is new for me; to live with a small group of people 24/7 for two weeks is really fun and memorable. Washroom mosquito-killing-buddy-system, six people shared five mattresses, singing Jungle song at the top of a mountain, wrestling, eating MacDonald in kids’ area, conquering mountain trails and volcanic island, and diving are just a few of the many awesome things you can’t do on your own. Most of the crazy events were the first time for me, and to have your new buddies by your side through it all just made it that much better. In the end, even the super sketchy washrooms and the ever increasing cockroaches/bees/bugs became unforgettable memories because they were all part of a new life, new experience, with new friends.
With all the friends and connections I gained, lessons I learned, and experiences I lived, I can say without a doubt that this is the most rewarding program I’ve ever been a part of. If I could go back in time with all my new knowledge and appreciation, I know I wouldn’t be scared upon seeing my admittance to the program. I would ecstatic.
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Liu, Yu Shan (Suzanne) (劉宇珊)
Aid summer was a whole new experience for me. I found this summer to be quite refreshing and special. I was born in Taipei and moved to Vancouver when I was seven years old. Personally, I’ve always considered Taiwan as my second home, but never my first. I come back to visit my family every year and if not, every second year. This time, however, my experience coming back was different. Firstly, I was away from family in a new environment. Secondly, I had to learn to do everything by myself. I do chores at home, but this is the first real time I had to depend on myself only to get things done. Thirdly, I was teaching English at a school in a rural area. For someone who grew up in the city, this is a diverse experience.
The training week went by really fast. In our school groups, we attended different classes about classroom management and different ways to deal with children who aren’t cooperating. We were taught different ways of encouraging our children and making our classes fun. Even though the classes at times seemed boring and useless, I actually learned a lot from them. I picked up different class room activities and ice breakers for children to play. Day by day, we learned more and more about being teachers and leaders. Then the day came, the day we set off for our schools and started our teaching.
I was assigned to Da Du Elementary School in Hsin Chu County. We boarded the bus with our little box of bread for lunch. The ride to our school was fairly short. Around one and a half hours. Da Du elementary school is really pretty. The front of the school had a little U for cars to go through. On the front of the school says the three words that represented the school motto: happiness, health, and hope. We went to settle in our room as we prepared for our two week teaching.
The kids at our school were all so cute and friendly. Our classes composed of kids who came from five different elementary schools in the area. As a result, we had a diverse range in ages and language level. The kids with better English always tried to help and translate for kids who had a weaker capability. Even though the first day was quite slow and the kids were really shy, throughout the two weeks, the kids started to open up to us. Instead of being our students, they became our friends. We chatted about everything, exchanged contact information, played card games and they even visited us in our rooms.
We also had lots of outings led by our teacher and the school. We did many activities which I have never done in my life before including riding a horse, holding a snake, go carting and holding a week old puppy. We went out to eat on Fridays and during the weekends. We went to Hsin Chu county and sang karaoke as well as shopped. Not only was my work time there really enjoyable, but I also found our free time to be extremely satisfying. I really enjoyed all the activities we did.
Two weeks flew by really fast and before we knew it, we were rehearsing for the closing ceremony. Every class prepared a performance for the closing ceremony and all the kids were really nervous. The closing ceremony was a big scale affair; the Hsin Chu county mayor came to watch it. There were also many reporters and press people with really big and professional cameras. Our kids did an excellent job with their performance and we were all really proud of them.
The next day after, we took a bus to Taichung to start our tour. I was assigned to the Southern tour. Being from Taipei, I was really excited to be visiting the south because I’ve never been there. Every day, we stayed at a different hostel. We went to many different places including scenic places, common tourist attractions, different malls and markets and museums. I found the tour to be a really nice way to end this program because people who are new to Taiwan can learn more about this country and appreciate it. For those of us who were born here or come back often, it’s a refreshing and fun experience where we visit places we’ve never been before.
I think this is one of the best summers I’ve had in my life so far. I had an amazing 4 weeks with other volunteers and I definitely do not regret coming. If I had a chance to participate in AID again, I would do so for sure.
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Chang, Grace (張詩恩)
Getting into AID Summer was, at first, a guarantee that I would definitely be adding something nice on to my resume this summer. My major aim in participating in AID was to gain experience that I believe would be valuable later on in life. But also, it meant that I would be going back to Taiwan again.
I would hesitate to say that Taiwan is my home, but it definitely is a place that I feel I fit into to some degree. It has a warmth and to a university student like myself, Taiwan has a stress-free environment that attracts me to go back year after year. I had expected that my AID experience would be a relaxed and fun one filled with many good memories. But after spending a month relaxing in Taipei, arriving at Chientan and starting to work in Taiwan was something that I was not expecting, and certainly to some extent, shocking to me.
To be quite honest, the one week workshop during which we were to prepare for our lesson plans was quite a nightmare. We would be up at 7am and not be done our work until 9pm. The instructions we received were confusing and the lectures we received just confused us even more. I truly felt that we were heading somewhere that I had no idea about and it was quite a hectic week for me. I would often wonder why I was doing what I was doing and the relatives that I would message daily would empathize with my predicament. Although I have to seriously compliment the camp counselors as they were a great help to me and I could see how difficult their work was.
I think it is fair to say that we were all really anxious about leaving Chientan, but more than that I was excited to leave and actually be able to finally see what I had come into this program and spent a whole hectic week to come to. The accommodations that Neihu Junior High made for us were tremendous. The staff at the school were so friendly and very easy to communicate with. The weekend that we arrived at the school was filled with more planning, and I was really on the verge of tears of not knowing what was expected and how to exactly do something that I have never done before. Needless to say there was still a lot of stress.
I thought I would definitely be nervous that first day of class; but instead, I was actually relieved. Relieved that we finally made it to this point and get to see what we had fought through the week to do. After seeing the students and actually being able to get an idea of what teaching was like on that first day, things began to lighten up. Our planning sessions were filled with what we needed to change to meet the level of our kids, what we thought our kids would think was fun and what we thought our kids needed to learn. The stress and pressure didn't disappear, but after actually seeing the kids and knowing what we were doing, we were finally able to work towards something we felt familiar and confident about.
The volunteer teachers would always get together during breaks and discuss what our kids did or didn't know, what they thought was fun and what wasn't, and what their individual persons were like. It was like a whole new world and we felt like we were finally in control and had gotten to the place we had originally imagined ourselves to be. That's when something else came. Our table teacher started to tell us complaints she had received from the staff or others about our teaching or behaviour. Some things they thought we could do better or shouldn't do. Other things we better do and improve on. Tensions arose and stress came crashing down on us again.
By this point we were living day by day, planning night by night. Counting down to the last day. Holding it through the two weeks, with our kids and volunteers. We always had a smile on our face, but it was unquestionable how much stress and pressure everyone was feeling.
I don't know what everyone thought the last day of camp was going to be like. But I didn't realize what these two weeks had meant to me until the very last part of our closing ceremony. Few parents came, it being a Friday afternoon, so to us it was just our little time together. When the slideshow began playing and the microphone was being passed around to all of the volunteers it all of a sudden became very sentimental. Thank god I was the last to speak, because I seriously could not make my words come out when it became my turn. Two weeks before this, I wouldn't have thought that I would actually have cried during the closing ceremony.
I hadn't realized that underneath all the stress that we were under, how close we had become to all of our students, volunteers, teachers and the school staff. My students and I still talk about how the two weeks of camp really felt more like a year. When I looked back at the two weeks we were with our kids, I realized how many things we had accomplished together. I realized that during this short amount of time, after revolving my life around creating something memorable for them, how much my students were like my own kids, younger siblings and friends. Stress really does end with a valuable paycheck.
It was only after the two weeks of stress that I saw how the staff and teachers of Neihu Junior High and OCAC treated us like actual teachers. During one of her lectures, our table teacher questioned us about the meaning of a volunteer. I never said this at the time, but I feel that the definition of a volunteer in Taiwan is very different to that of one in North America. Never will you find a volunteer experience to be as stressful and the expectations to be so high here in North America. However, likewise, never would you be able to gain so much experience with a volunteer position in Canada. I feel like the teachers that directed us in our teaching saw us as children. And their role was to bring out our potential. Because they know that the more pressure they put on us, the more valuable our experience becomes.
It wasn't until the moment I started to cry during the opening ceremony that I released all of my stress and saw how valuable the three weeks I had spent with AID was to me. Not only was it purely for work experience anymore, it became an emotional experience for me. Even now, I think of my fellow team members as family. I am truly in debt to our table teacher. And I will always see my kids as my kids and do anything I can, even in the future, to help them out and watch them grow up. AID Summer was the most stressful position I had ever held, but it has also become the most treasured experience I have had. To this day, I still think back to the AID days with a smile.
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Lam, Cheuk Yee (Cherrie) (林卓儀)
When I first arrived at Taipei, I was honestly terrified and nervous, not to mention extremely exhausted from a long 13 (14?) hour flight. Not to mention being approached creepily at the airport luggage belt by a sketchy old Asian man that owns a massage parlour. I hadn't been really excited for AID at all, and didn't really expect it to be stellar, or life-changing, or really anything much. Then the AID programmers decided to throw in a sappy camp song (I believe I can fly), a list of endless demerits to limit our freedom, an overly long and boring opening ceremony, an overly touchy and sort of frightening icebreaker session in which I did not learn anyone's names, and a long training week of semi-boring and at-times-extremely-hard-to-survive-through lectures on how to teach. Oh, and don't forget the training demo my teaching partner, Stephanie, and I prepared for, in which all of our demo material ended up being thrown away by the Chientan staff. And I somehow got an all-girl group too! Not that I dislike hanging out with girls, but we were all so passive aggressive against all the other boy/girl groups during the training week, it felt like we were lacking something.
Fast forward two weeks at Da Du Elementary School in Hsinchu County, where I was assigned to teach fifth-graders. It was amazing. At times, Stephanie and I had no idea what in the world we were doing, and would just wing the lesson plan. At times, it got super chaotic - like when we let our kids fling paper frogs with their rulers. I'm sure around 6 rulers ended up being broken (including one being broken by me). Sometimes we had our conflicts, but our teaching group got way closer over the two weeks - and I couldn't have wished for better people to have been assigned in a group with. All the girls in my group were awesome people to hang out with – they’re enthusiastic, caring, spontaneous, crazy, weird; I love them all.
During our first class at Da Du, the kids simply stared at us. One student, Peggy, did try to raise her hand, but would quickly realize that no one else was participating, and shyly retreat her hand. Ilene and Irene (two other teaching groupmates), on the other hand, had a class of students that were extremely full of energy. We could hear their kids all the time, a few classes down, shouting with enthusiasm to answer their questions. I remember wondering why we didn't have that class, and wishing that we could trade students. After what seemed like endless talking at the children and persistent attempts to “charm” them with our games and enthusiasm, the class suddenly began to respond. We learned what they like (four corners), and what they disliked (singing songs). We learned that they were different from the other classes. We learned who was good at drawing, and who was good at English, and who was shy. Our students would say hello to us at the dining area, and would respond to our questions enthusiastically. They would struggle and ask each other what the teacher said in Chinese while we'd pretend we didn't understand them, until Patrick, one of the students Stephanie and I nicknamed “The Translator”, would figure it out and translate it to all his classmates.
When we filmed the Da Du English Camp closing ceremony video for our class, we had to refilm it at 3 different locations, because it simply wasn't good enough. The shots were awkward, the background sound was too loud, something like that. I felt terrible, because the children were becoming extremely restless with the changes, and getting their English lines correct was difficult already, let alone incorporating acting. When I apologized to them on the second to last day about the endless filming, they surprised me with wholehearted recognition of the necessary work that still needed to be done, and did not hesitate to cooperate with me. It was awe-striking, and heartwarming.
Over the span of two weeks, our students developed a strong bond to us two teachers, and the connection truly made our time at Da Du a great learning experience from both ends, for the students and for us. Our class, which Stephanie and I named “Team Cool”, became a big, close (and cool!) family.
Da Du Elementary is a beautiful place, with even more beautiful and wonderful kids! I miss them terribly. They’re all the most wonderful, special, and brightest students I have ever met - they are all my favourites.
This trip was my first time at Taiwan, and spending a chunk of it at Hsinchu County is something I’m truly grateful for, because Hsinchu is gorgeous (as with most of Taiwan though, I must admit)! On the weekends, our table teacher, Christie, took us rock climbing, bike riding, singing karaoke, and more! Christie was extremely kind and extremely accommodating to us; she even took us to Hsinchu harbour for the birthday of one of our teaching groupmates, Sara! The work and dedication Christie put in was astounding, and I really have to thank her, and all the other table teachers (I’m sure they were equally as awesome, although I’d like to think that Christie is the best) for their commitment.
To be honest, the living conditions at Da Du were definitely different from home, we slept on tatamis / bamboo mats next to each other on the floor of an English classroom, there were often many bugs everywhere (spiders, mosquitoes, cockroaches, and other crawlers I don't know the name of), and the washroom situation was not the most pleasant (apparently the bathtub in the teacher’s washroom was crawling with countless baby spiders at one point, but I didn’t personally witness it); however, the pros (weekend activities, awesome students, yummy meals, fun school activities like archery and air-gun shooting) definitely outweighed the cons! And plus, the change in environment made me so thankful of home and realize just how lucky I am!
As for the Southern Tour - it was really fun!
At first, I really hated the touring around aspect; a pack of 350 people shuffling around between red and green flags, being ordered by shouting to put up their umbrellas, isn't really great. But we lived around it! We got to see many amazing sights, but more importantly, reconnect with all the other awesome volunteers! Taiwan night markets = LOVE! I WILL DEFINITELY MISS TAIWAN STREET FOOD; so many delicious memories from Shilin, Kenting, and Fengjia. Drumming and fan-making were pretty fun too! I also liked One-Piece Land, particularly the roller coaster, Maya Adventure: upside downs and flips and dangling legs and corkscrewy and whatnot. It's WONDERFUL. Plus, on the tour, the counsellors are more slack with the rules, and you get to know them a lot better, and realize they're really fantastic people; they put in a lot of effort to make the tour as fun as possible within the limits and rules that are really out of their control.
Looking back at the AID times, I realized that it's not the tourist attractions, not the city highlights, but really the people you visit them with that make those places special, and the memories you share with them that make travel worthwhile.
I'm so grateful for all the wonderful people, counsellors, volunteers, students, teachers, and friends that have walked into my life through this rewarding AID Summer program, and I'm so thankful to have made friends across North America - and in Taiwan! It's been a whirlwind month, but it's been amazing.
If you want my advice, do consider AID Summer! Yes, you will hate it at times. Yes, the living conditions are not spectacular. Yes, the rules suck. Yes, the polo is fugly and probably doesn't go with anything you own. Yes, nametags suck. Yes, they will speak to you endlessly in Mandarin, and it can be a struggle to understand if, like me, Mandarin is not your first language. Yes, there is quite a bit of work involved when you teach. Yes, you will lose sleep. But, YES, my recent rewarding month of July was worth every last bit of those negatives up above. If you love teaching, love kids, love travelling, love Taiwan (or just plain love street food), and can put up with a bit of grossness, mosquitoes, and strict rules, you will love Assisting Individuals of Disadvantage - AID! Plus they cover your room/board and food? I spent sooooo little in Taiwan (and I did buy a TON of street food, mind you); what a deal (especially for a broke, student-loaning, university student like me!)
So thank you again for the awesome summer, AID. I miss Taiwan, I miss my Da Du family and all the crazy and awesome girls from group A1-7, I miss Bus 1 - but ah, it feels good to be home.
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Shen, Mu-Yun (Jessica) (沈睦芸)
AID was not at all what I expected it to be. I didn't expect to meet so many amazing people at Chientan, as well as during the tour. I didn't expect to have such a busy schedule every single day in the program. Last of all, I didn't expect teaching to be so challenging.
After attending the lectures and workshops, and several meetings with my teaching group during the first week....none of us felt prepared at all. We didn't know what we had gotten ourselves into. Teaching English was one of our goals - but our main one was to inspire and motivate the students to continue learning English in the future.
"Okay.....we need to make our lesson plans interesting."
"How will 13-14 year olds react to singing songs, and playing games?"
"Will they find it too childish?"
These were a few of the countless amount of questions we asked each other. Not only did we have to keep the lessons entertaining for teens, but we also had to tailor our lesson content to match the varying skill levels. The classes weren't divided by skill level - everyone was mixed. This posed as a problem early on. Some students would complete the worksheet easily, while others needed help translating the instructions. Our lesson plans were revised daily, and more worksheets were created each day to keep the students busy.
If we weren't found in the classrooms teaching, then my teaching group and I were most likely found in the Principal's office, preparing for the next day's lesson. Spending 13 hours everyday at school really took a toll on us. Dead-tired by the time we started making our way back to the dorm. That didn't mean we went to bed right away though! Even after spending so much time together during the day - we would still find things to talk about or entertain us before going to bed. I have never gotten to know a group of people so well in just a matter of weeks. Spending, literally, every single waking moment together..kind of made us into a family.
The last couple days spent at Neihu Junior High School was bittersweet. Looking forward to the touring week, but having to leave the kids you've grown attached to. As more and more kids started giving us cards, gifts, and pictures - I realized how much of an impact we made in just a span of ten days.
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Shih, Li-Ning (Lilian) (施力寧)
The moment I found out I was accepted into the AIDSummer program two emotions swept over me: excitement and anxiety. I haven’t been back to Taiwan since I was very young and I was very excited to visit my birthplace again. However, after reading through the teaching section I became a bit worried about teaching the kids. Now that I have experienced AIDSummer with my fellow volunteers, I know that the anxiety I felt was unnecessary. I had so much fun while teaching that I didn’t think of it as work. The kids were much better behaved than I had expected. They were the nicest and most interesting kids that I have ever met. I will most definitely miss these kids and this school I hope to come back again to visit and see their English become even better, but until then, I wish a successful life for everyone that I had crossed paths during those four amazing weeks in July. Finally, I would like to thank everybody that has made my stay in Taiwan absolutely fantastic, without them I would probably be miserable with the heat and mosquito bites.
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