志工感言 (Reflection) >> Boston
# Center
1 Houston
2 San Francisco
3 New York
4 Toronto
5 Orange
6 Chicago
7 Maryland
8 Seattle
9 Vancouver
10 Los Angeles
11 Boston
12 Atlanta
13 Kansas
14 Miami
15 London
Chiu, Lucinda (邱資晴)
When I first arrived in Lishan Elementary School I didn't know what to expect, but what I knew for sure that I was ready to teach English. After spending five days training at Chientan and learning how to teach English, I believed that I was ready to tackle the task of teaching 7-11 year olds.

After my first day of teaching at Lishan though, my opinion quickly changed. I soon realized that teaching English was not as easy as I had thought and that being a teacher was definitely not as simple either.

For example, when I was teaching my class the days of the week, I would tell my students that the first day of the week is Monday. When asked to repeat after me all together as a class, they would all respond very enthusiastically and quickly, using loud voices as well. When I asked them to raise their hands and say the words individually, however, some students would be too shy to respond, speak too quietly, or not know what to say at all, which I found really odd.

That experience left me slightly discouraged as a teacher but four days later, during the class breaks, five of my students stayed after and came to my desk with their notebooks asking me to help them review the vocabulary we had learned today and this past week. At this moment, I realized that although my students may not be the best at speaking English, they came to my class to learn English from me and they were all passionate and interested in doing so: a realization that motivated me for the next week.

Lastly, I want to thank AID for allowing me to have this experience. I will never forget all the friends I have made here, all that I have learned here, nor all that I have seen and experienced!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yeh, Jonathan (葉家彥)
It had been almost 5 years since the last time I had visited Taiwan. I was ready to go back and visit my cultural homeland to teach English. However, I was unprepared for the unforgettable experiences and memories that soon ensued.

For the first week, we lived at Chientan Youth Activity Center. This served as the AID home base, where all 350 of us lived, ate and learned. We attended lectures from 9-5 that would prepare us for the next two weeks of teaching. The teachers offered important insight to us by putting into perspective the current situation of these rural elementary and middle schools. Many of the students never had access to the vast resources that students in the city have. Combined with the fact that these little kids have (understandably) an attention span of approximately 7 minutes, the task of teaching them English became ever more daunting. Luckily each of our groups had representative teachers from the school that we were assigned to. They gave us an even better idea of what the school was like. For us, we were assigned to Rui Hu Elementary school in Miaoli county. Our effervescent and extroverted teacher, Ally, guided us as we made our lesson plans. We learned that the students there loved to play a lot of sports, especially Tae Kwan Do, as well as that a lot of the culture there is based on agriculture, with their specialty crops being pomelo and sweet potato. With this in mind, we centered our coursework around sports, food, and holidays.

I never realized how isolated we would be until the day we got to Rui Hu Elementary and the principal plainly informed us that the nearest 7-eleven was a 20 minute drive away. Now in Taiwan, that is saying something, as most of the major cities in Taiwan are plagued by these clean, convenient, and (thankfully) air-conditioned stores. However, being that isolated wasn’t a problem, as there was always plenty to do at the school. The first day of teaching was probably one of the most challenging days. Back at Chientan, we were taught to try our best and use only English to communicate with the students. My teaching partner and I tried this tactic for the first 40 minutes, only to be met by 16 of the blankest stares from these 3rd and 4th graders. At this moment, we both knew we had to adjust our teaching material. It was evident that we had overestimated our kid’s English ability. This was probably our biggest challenge to teaching: how could we overcome the language barrier with these children? It soon became apparent that the best way to do this would be to include a Chinese translation of our vocab and sentence structures. That way, the students could associate those words and phrases with the meaning most effectively. Yet, we as teachers had to be swift with our lesson plans. Sometimes, our activities would just not work out because the students just simply did not enjoy some of the games. This challenge forced us to be creative and to have the ability to think on our feet to adjust the games as necessary. Luckily we had prepared a lot of different activities for the students, as every morning we lead the whole school in a school game that incorporated English. We also one day had a pizza day where the students learned all the words associated with pizza, and during one of the last periods, we taught them how to make their own mini-pizzas. This may sound cheesy, but it was honestly an amazing experience. We as the teachers formed special relationships with all the kids, as they not only viewed us as teachers, but also viewed us as older brothers and sisters to look up to.

The last week of the AID was a tour, where we got to really explore and understand what this beautiful island was all about. My teaching group and I were assigned to the Southern tour so we got to explore the scenic beaches of Kenting as well as the lively cite of Kaoshiung. We got to see a lot of the locals and experience each part of the island’s cultural niche. It made me really appreciate the history and culture of Taiwan. Not to mention, the food was just delicious as well!

My advice to all future AIDers is to really enjoy these 4 weeks. Though it may seem like a long time, all the fun activities and unforgettable friendships that you make will make it feel short. Though this may not be true for everyone, being in AID has unequivocally made this summer the best one in my life so far.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pan, Lilian (潘麗安)
Coming to Taiwan to teach English was an incredibly rewarding experience. After teaching English to the kids in Changhua, I went on tour week with mixed feelings. Despite the fact that mosquitoes were everywhere in Changhua, the kids and the scenery made teaching a worth while experience. Teaching my class of 15 students with the aid of my teaching partner and the TAs allowed me to give the students a chance to learn and hopefully love English. In addition, my Chinese also got the chance to improve! To the kids in class C, you are awesome and I love you! I will never forget how I was your jungle gym and I also won't forget your loud enthusiasm to play (educational) games!
By the time that tour week started, I had many stories to share about my kids, and from conversation I learned that others had stories to share as well. The words I heard the most were, "Oh my god, my kids were so cute!" and "I miss them."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ko, Jason (柯文傑)
I taught at the Nanho Junior High school for my two weeks in Taiwan. I had been a Teacher's assistant at my Chinese School for a few years and a Counselor-In-Training at a Chinese Summer camp for a few years too. My experience teaching the kids at Nanho Junior High was tremendously different from my past experiences with kids. It was very challenging, but also very rewarding. I have learned a lot after spending two weeks with the students at the Junior High school. I believe this experience has shaped who I am, and I have gained valuable experience after attending this camp.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Huang, Claire (黄惠祺)
台灣桃園機場:Other passengers bumped past me as I continued to gawk at the airport signs. I was stuck in a strange situation where I understood perfectly what people were saying, yet I was nearly illiterate. Every Chinese character seemed to grow extra limbs here and there. As a CBC “mainlander”, my knowledge of Taiwan was limited to bubble tea and Jay Chou. Not only was I nervous about writing teaching plans and dealing with a teaching partner, but I was also concerned about “What if my kids try to discuss politics with me?” However, as the shuttle bus rolled towards Taipei, all my worries flew from my mind. I had visited other Asian countries before, yet never have I set foot in a place where the green of the mountains and the lights of the metropolitan areas blend together so effortlessly. And that’s when I realized that this summer would be different than any other one before.

瑞胡国小: Walking into class the first day, all my memories of elementary school came flooding back. That morning, my teaching partner and I exchanged many awkward and distressed glances; I had never improvised so much before a silent audience. As the week went on though, the classroom was increasingly filled with laughter and English words. Seeing our kids smile rekindled a childhood flame that high school had buried deep in my heart. That innocent curiosity resurfaced. We had our fair share of sweat and tears, though. By the third day, my back muscles would cringe at the cries of “piggy back-uh ride!” and “duck duck GOOSE!” Looking back, those long nights spent sweating over the next days’ lesson plans and drawing fruits (over and over and over again) only seem like casual hangouts with my teaching group. They did in fact become the people I am most comfortable being myself with - after all, we did survive with each other while cooped up in one room during the typhoon. All good times had to come to an end though, and the two weeks came to an end sooner than we realized. On the final day of performances, as I emerged from under the sleeping bag as a very hungry caterpillar turned butterfly, I realized how many of my students broke through their own chrysalis.

Eventually, my mosquito bites will become faint speckles and my adopted Taiwanese speech inflections will fade. However, the lessons learned - and those taught - will remain with me forever. Every person I had the opportunity to connect with, whether it be an elementary school student or a fellow AID volunteer, a counselor or an outgoing boutique manager, helped unlock a window in my mind to let in just the smallest sliver of light. While I’m still quite unable to read Traditional Chinese, four weeks made me more literate in the language of Taiwanese culture and friendship. To me, Taiwan is the best classroom and its people, the best teachers.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wang, Ren-Jay (王仁傑)
A lot of people say that AID Summer was the best month of their lives. That is not necessarily true for everyone. But what IS true is that it is a meaningful, enjoyable and downright unreplaceable learning experience that I don't regret at all. I'll go through it.
First week of the program was training. It was also the week to make new friends and find social circles, and I feel like that could make or break an AIDer's experience; fortunately we had our school groups, and most people were open to meeting new people. The training itself was well-done; lectures were interspersed with interactive activities, and our group was able to work effectively, even though we were the smallest group in the program :)
The teaching weeks are really a blessing. After a weekend of getting to know the surrounding area and practicing our opening ceremony performance, we were ready to begin teaching. It was everything we thought it would be, and more. The children were adorable, ready to learn, unique, fun-loving and sometimes difficult. There were tough times. Trying to get rowdy students to learn matched with struggling to stay focused in meetings after class. Every day we had to upload a working journal, and then plan and prepare for the next day's lesson. But during those times we worked as a team. We may have been suffering, but we were suffering together. We may have been tired from staying up late, but it was for a cause that would make us want to do it again and again. If I were to do it again, I know there are some things I would do differently. First, we used a lot of Chinese when speaking to the children. It made some sense because the children would rarely understand us when we used English, but 1) we had a TA would could translate for us and 2) we should have used English anyway, at least in simple conversation. Second, our teaching plans centered around teaching new vocabulary and reinforcing them with review games. However, we should have focused more on teaching them complete sentences and conversational English. The children were very capable of memorizing words, but they were not as comfortable when it came to complete sentences. I really enjoyed being able to teach such wonderful children. I hope they continue learning English in the future, and definitely hope I can come and see them again!
The tour week was similar to the teaching weeks in that we met new people, but we were split into buses of about 35 people each, which helped us get closer to a smaller group of people. The tour itself was sometimes fun, sometimes boring, but it did expose us to Taiwanese culture. The best part of the program must be the people. The fellow AIDers, the hard-working and loving counselors, and of course the children. It really is amazing getting to know this many people, and I hope we can meet again. What's also incredibly significant is that we could use our English, a skill many of us take for granted, to help schools and children around Taiwan. I'm really glad I could do this program :)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Koga, Sayaka (古賀紗耶伽)
This program was a great experience. I learned a lot, made a bunch of friends, and bonded with all the students I worked with. It's crazy, because I have to admit, I was not that excited to attend. I was nervous, and being in a group of college students as a high schooler rattled me up a bit. As soon as I got there though, I was welcomed by all my group members, despite being younger than everyone. The two weeks at school were amazing as well. Though we were in a rural place, just being surrounded by the mountains in Rui-Sui and walking the small streets was a whole different experience from Taipei. Tour week was tiring, but there was much to see. All in all, I enjoyed this program.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------