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Ho, Gordon (何胤霖)
The past month was incredible. How can words even explain? We were all grouped together with eight random people we did not even meet before in the past. Yet when we left, there was a tight bond between each and everyone of us that will last a lifetime. How can there not be when you spend over 18 hours a day with them? Through hard work, teaching, playing, cleaning up, watching sunsets, late night barbeques, we learned more about each other everyday and connected and interacted like never before. We all made new friends, new connections, new experiences that we will find useful in the future as we look ahead. I will forever remember the good times I have had over the past four weeks and cherish the memories when I am down. Life is about the journey, not the destination. If you rush to the destination, then you will miss all the beautiful things life has to offer.
I thank the AID summer program for this unforgettable experience and I will personally recommend this program to every single peer I know. It has changed and matured me as person and I hope I can share what I have learned and apply it to my life in the upcoming future.
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Lin, Candy (林懿德)
I have to say, the first day was horrible. Nobody likes rules, regulations and demerits but that's what we started off with. It was great. As a young adult I love being treated like I'm five. Then there were the 3 hour lessons one after the other. Some were really useful but some weren't. I mentioned this to one of the organizers/principals once but of course all feedback is disregarded. It's fine. The only fun part of the first week was probably our group planning where we actually did something productive along with the peers we were about to live with for the next two weeks. It was 3 hours to work and also bond with our new best friends. The trip to Shilin was also pretty fun.
It gets better though. Don't worry. Once your out of Chientan, the rules loosen quite a lot. For all of those who are impatient and hate kids, this isn't the program for you; but, for everyone else, the next two weeks are amazing. Not only do you get extremely close with your teaching team, the staff at school and your kids you get to experience a new side of Taiwan. For my team, we had the chance to battle spider and snakes while also waking up to the beautiful view of mountains and frogs and blue skies. These two weeks were life-changing and super fun.
For the tour, it's a bit of mixed reactions. Imagine having a teacher authority and then all of a sudden you're back to being a five year old. Not so fun. So for the first couple of days, I guess it wasn't that fun. We also didn't have enough time for many places but slowly you get used to it I guess. Fortunately, the counsellors are great and you become friends. You also get close with your bus and practicing for the talent show is also really fun. In the end you get to see everyone's hardwork. Also, the rules get more lenient as the week passes. :P
I guess i have to say, aside from the horrible rules, the experience was worthwhile and I've made friends that will last a lifetime. I hope.
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Lin, Steven (林學文)
This has been a great journey and has completely exceeded my expectations. With the great friends that you manage to make, the thousands of great memories made, and English taught, it has been a great experience. The fact is you come in expecting something completely different, a place where you just get to teach kids some English not a place made amazing by the people around you. These people are what make everything worthwhile, fun, and amazing after all.
Teaching the kids is more difficult then you would think even the good ones, the one week orientation barely prepares you for what you expect to come. Both the good and the bad, but you have your teaching partners to lean on so you will pull through. These people, you will get extremely close to and not even want to leave. That is the truth. Even the kids despite how much trouble they might cause in class will make a difference.
The week tour is alright as in you get to play and make some new friends but in all honesty you just hang out with your group. There are lots of pointless things on the tour, long bus rides and fun times, but soon the end comes too soon and you have to say goodbye to everything that has become familiar. So that is the toughest part and that is also the worst part....so enjoy the entire month while it lasts because it ends wayyyy to soon.
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Chen, Han (陳涵)
This program gave me an unforgettable experience. From the first week to the last day I was learning new things everyday. During the first week I learned many different methods for teaching and classroom management. I also learned how to live with many different people and made lots of new friends. The two teaching weeks were more new and different experiences for me. Living with my teaching group for two weeks made us know each other well and we all became good friends. The teaching was difficult at first but I learned each day and by the end was enjoying every part of it. I hope the students enjoyed our classes as well and had unforgettable experiences just as we did. This was my first time living in such a remote place, so it took me a while to get used to the living conditions. However, away from all the cars and people of the city I was able to see and appreciate the beauty of the place. During the tour week, I was able to see many famous sites around Taiwan. Although a lot of time was spent on the tour bus, even the scenery as we were driving was breath taking sometimes. I learned a lot about the culture of Taiwan and also had an opportunity to be a part of the culture. I am very thankful for having been given the opportunity to participate in AID and the experiences I gained during the past month will be treasured by me for a long time to come.
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Chang, Sarah Chi Shu (張忻書)
AID Summer was a wonderful experience for me. I learned how to work with young students. I've had a great experience planning and teaching English to these students who live in rural areas. They are really great students despite having some disadvantages, and I am very happy to have met them. I also improved on a lot of my personal skills, such as independence, patience, discipline, and my Chinese. I've made amazing friends and had a great summer experience through AID Summer 2013.
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Ng, Jennifer (吳家欣)
It is said that time flies when you are having fun. These words ring truer now than ever before as our two weeks here come to an end. I can't believe it's really over!
A peaceful drive through the area left me with a great first impression of Mudan. Seeing mountains on one side and the sea on the other, I was completely blown away by its beauty and tranquility. I remember thinking how lucky I am to have been given this opportunity to visit such a beautiful place. Made possible by the ever welcoming staff at Mudan Junior High School, my already favouralbe impression of Mudan continued to grow as I was introduced to the many sights and tastes that make this southern county special. Having been so spoiled by all the wonderful people, breathtaking sights, and delicious food here, I have to wonder how I will ever get used to life again outside of Mudan.
Meeting the students for the first time was a nerve-wracking experience. with the preconception of junior high students as rebellious young teenagers, I worried that I wouldn't be able to handle misbehaviour and questioned my ability to manage the classroom. But more importantly, as a stranger in their school, I wondered if I'd be accepted among them. To my pleasant surprise, the students were all very welcoming right from the start. And as I discovered day by day, they were just as curious about me and my culture as I was about them and their culture. I wonder now why I was so anxious to meet them. While some students were more responsive to me, and displayed a greater level of English ability, others were slower to warm up. As such, I had formed immediate impressions of who I thought were the good students and who were the bad. Over time, however, I realized how wrong first impressions can be. Talking with my students between classes, I began to realize how much more there is to each individual than just the way they behave in class. Just because they do not excel in the classroom does not mean that they are bad kids. I have come to respect that they all have their own stories and their own struggles. It gradually became less important for me to reach my students through language instruction, and more important to reach them through their personal stories. It was especially heartwarming when my students would suddenly open up and share their stories with me. Thinking about it now, I feel very lucky to have been assigned to a junior high school - an age group that remains curious while also able to hold stimulating conversations with me. As such, I was able to learn from them just as much as I hope they learned from me.
It is a bittersweet feeling to have to leave so soon. I am sad to say goodbye, but am glad to have made so many new friends and so many memories along the way. It is good to know there will always be a friendly place to return to whenever I am back in Taiwan.
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Chou, Jing Chi (周靖祺)
At first I did not know what to expect. I have never taught English before and I was very anxious before coming to AID. During the training week, it was tiring and boring at times; however, I learned many valuable and useful ways to teach children. These came extremely handy as the two weeks of teaching progressed. As the children got to know more about us through our interactions with them, bonds were formed and the teacher-student relationship melted into true friendship. Two weeks at first really seemed to drag on forever, but after a few days, time went by really fast and before we knew it, it was over. With tears, we parted with the children and staff of Neihu junior highschool. Overall the teaching experience was amazing, we made amazing friends and, ironically, learned much more than we could ever teach. The subsequent tour of Taiwan was also quite enjoyable. We collaborated with other volunteers and bonded over a two week span. Thank you AID for this tremendous summer experience!
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Yieh, Allen (葉俊呈)
Sometimes the difficulty of enjoying the perfect summer is the fear of letting go. The souls of four hundred volunteers and counsellors were united and reunited in the beginning and the end, constantly reminding us of a seemingly predictable pattern for us to come together. However, for two weeks, we were each on our own mission in interpreting our own values for teaching. We learned to emphasize fun games and constructive team-building activities in the classroom while maintaining authority to better manage student behaviour. Although teaching exclusively in English may be challenging at first without the aid of their mother tongue, students were trained to recognize repeating phrases such as ones that dictate them to do a common action. Two weeks flew by quickly with early mornings rushing to print worksheets, hot afternoons teaching in sweating shirts, and long nights trying to come up with the best activities that will encourage student participation. We watched them reach out their comfort zone, break the limits of talking back to the teacher in English and blossom into confident individuals who found the desire to learn on their own without limits or fears.
While students were exposed to a new learning environment that helped them attain their language goals, we were constantly exposed to an environment where foreign species would paint a sea of red dots on our Californian-tanned legs. Not only so, we tasted the fine delicacies of Taiwanese cuisine in popular night market settings and simultaneously captured the beauties of natural and artificial sceneries on this Formosan island. Let alone the grandeur of architectural achievement, the natural environment driving the success of farm production led to better fruits and food selection at lower prices. In fact, most of us left this island with extra suitcases to carry because we just departed from the shopping paradise for affordable and innovative goods.
To be experienced in any discipline requires a period of exposure that demands you to immerse yourself in the environment relating to that discipline. While we created an all-English environment for the students to learn in, we, as volunteers, were given the greater exposure by being abroad and away from our home country. Language struck us as a potential barrier, but the culture drove us to break our barrier and raise our curiosity in learning more about Taiwan. Only through living, working, teaching, socializing, playing and travelling can you finally say that you have been fully immersed in a particular culture. AID Summer makes all this experience possible.
Great tokens of appreciations for the OCAC, MOE, AID Summer and Taitung Hot Spring Elementary for creating a perfect summer that I am reluctant to let go of.
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Liang, Eric (梁昀喬)
I signed up for AID Summer 2013 in the hopes of gaining a new perspective of Taiwan. Having been to Taiwan numerous times in the past, I really did not know what to expect out of the program that would be different from past adventures in the island nation. After four weeks of English teaching and more in Taiwan, it has become clear to me that AID Summer 2013 was one of the greatest experiences of my life.
Between the brutality of informative two-to-three hour lectures and the numerous memories had at Chientan during training week, the first few days of the program were a positive mix of lessons and socializing. From ranting about the various malfunctions of our particular room at the Youth Activity Center (1315) to staying up late watching movies and children's cartoons, the times spent together with my teaching group set the stage for the upcoming three weeks of living with each other. We managed to click right from the beginning, and that was only the start of a month filled with fun and learning. Teaching English was an interesting experience, given the cultural difference between us teachers and the local, rural region Taiwanese kids; the culture exchange between the teachers and students truly allowed for myself to gain a new understanding to a different component of Taiwanese society. Tour week was equally incredible to the previous three as the weeks of hard work were rewarded with a fun-filled trek around central Taiwan. Sure, train stations are kind of lame, but places such as the Monster Village in Xitou and relaxing in a forest lodge truly made up for the sweat compiled up before then.
What made AID Summer 2013 truly amazing, however, was the incredible people that I encountered along the way. The seven fantastic individuals that were with me the entire way for Ansi Elementary School 安溪國小, the amazing school staff that accommodated us with plenty of bubble tea and stinky tofu, the awesome TAs that assisted us teachers throughout teaching time, and the extraordinarily friendly counselors that accompanied us during the training and tour weeks, all made AID Summer 2013 an incredibly memorable experience. By the end of the program, it truly was saddening to have to leave the people that became my family and friends for a whole month. All the stories to be shared and memories to be held onto... It is what made AID Summer 2013 so much better than I anticipated. Not necessarily just the experience of teaching or the new perspective of culture, but the amount of laughs (and tears) that came along with it.
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Wang, Jane (王禎)
Before I applied for the AID Summer program, I assumed I would spend my summer lounging around in an endless stretch of lazy sunny days. Who would’ve thought I’d be back in the classroom so soon after graduation! However, this time my role was reversed from student to teacher.
Each morning my fellow teachers and I watched our students file in. Some trudged in, others were bright-eyed and ready. Throughout the course of the day we encountered many difficulties such as rude, disruptive students, shy students and unwilling, uncooperative students. With patience and understanding, one problem would be dealt with, but soon after, another would appear. The classroom environment is a dynamic one, we were constantly adapting to the students’ reactions (or lack thereof) to our lesson. Having a teaching partner was a relief; we could build off of what each other said, or look to one another for a quick review game to end the day with. When the clock struck 3:50pm, the children’s whoops followed them out the door, but our day was not finished. Planning and preparation for the next day came next; it sure was hard work.
It is not realistic to expect that the students have learned enough English in the span of two weeks to communicate with English-speakers. However, what we hoped we have achieved is instilled in them a spark of interest, or stoked a spark that may have already been there, so that it will grow into a passion to continue to learn.
Learning is a two way process for the student, and for the teacher. AID Summer was such a formative experience. One of the most important things I learned about is interpersonal relationships. Sticking six strangers together and expecting them to immediately bond is naïve. Each person has their own interests, working habits and their own way of teaching. In order to facilitate a successful teaching program, we learned to adjust to each other, to compromise. This insight on interpersonal relationships also extended to the rest of the 350 volunteer teachers. When placed in the midst of so many people, at first I was hesitant to reach out. Towards the end of the program, on tour week, I was much more eager to meet new people. I realized that the world is not only a big place, full of different kinds of people who each bring different experiences and mannerisms to the table, but I can also see it as a small world, where, even though we come from different parts of the globe and despite our differences, we can still make meaningful connections with each other.
AID Summer has given me an incredible experience. The people I’ve met are all unique individuals and I can now say I have friends all over the world. Though I have now left Taiwan, I carry with me the memories of our classroom filled with our students, of 7-11s on every corner, of the beautiful scenery, and of waking up and spending each day with my friends. I am very grateful to all the officials, teachers, and volunteers who have made this trip possible.
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