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Tzeng, Jessica (曾美慈)
Being apart of AID has allowed me to experience many great new things in this world. I experienced a major culture difference in Taiwan as compared to the United States of America, such as in public events, the people in Taiwan bring stools to either stand or sit on. I was so excited to teach these kids English because I teach little kids how to swim in the US, so I love interacting with kids in general.
Teaching children made me realize that lesson planning is harder and more time-consuming than I had previously thought. Every night, I would spend about thirty minutes to an hour and a half coming up with games, activities, and power points that will keep the children entertained while learning English. I also realized that not every kid will appreciate what the teacher does to get the students to participate. Being a teacher is a huge responsibility because you have so many responsibilities regarding the student's safety. I really grew attached to these kids and I really hope they continue to practice their English after this two week summer camp. A lot of the kids thought that I was coming back next year to teach English and it broke my heart to tell them that I wouldn't be. These kids are going to be great people and do great things when they grow up.
I really enjoyed getting to know a lot of people in this program because they're all from different states and countries and different ages. It feels good to be in a different environment for a while because it feels like I'm starting anew and going to experience and do great things. I loved the people in my group, we've become so close and it's like we've known each other since we were one day old. My group and I experience and go through things as a sort-of family, and we have so many things in common, it's perfect. I'm really going to miss everyone in this program, but I'm going to miss my group people most of all.
One thing I really enjoyed about being in AID was the tour week. During tour week, we go experience aboriginal festivals and places around Taiwan. People are split into the southern or central tour based upon the location of the school that they taught at. I went on the Central tour and I heard from the Southern tour people that the tours are really similar and not much different. When I went to the aboriginal festivals, I really enjoyed the way how there was an amusement park that was aboriginal themed. It was a culture difference compared to the amusement parks in Georgia. I also really enjoyed going to different places where we could try a bunch of different foods that I've never had before. I now have a love for mochi and milk tea. One thing I didn't enjoy about tour week, was that I had to write the reflection before the program ended. I'm trying to enjoy the tour but I also have to write this reflection; also, not all the hotels/hostels we stayed at had wifi available and I write my reflection from the website. Overall, this AID program was amazing because I got to experience the cultural differences and experience the Taiwan lifestyle.
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Chen, Michael (陳皓瑋)
I was forced by my parents to sign up for this program, and admittedly, I was not excited to attend this summer camp. Since my Chinese is not great, I was nervous because I wasn't sure whether I could communicate with anyone. I was scared of being humiliated in front of the kids. Instead, I just wanted to sit at home and watch tv. However, this camp has been one of the greatest experiences of my life. I immediately felt good about the camp during the first day. We played ice breaker games throughout the afternoon and night, and all the counselors were on task yet nice. Our group's counselor was Ryan, and it was because of Ryan that our group was able to start feeling really close. Ryan made sure we were on task, yet gave us a certain degree of freedom that we needed in order to think of creative ideas during training. I believe having the right counselor to fit your group's personality is necessary for the group's success, and I believe that Ryan was a great fit for our group and a big part of how we teached. Our teaching style was strict yet relaxed. We wanted to let the students know that we were teachers, but we wanted them to know that they could be comfortable around us and shouldn't be scared to ask questions. Just as important as the counselors were the volunteer teachers in the green shirts. We had Sophia Ho from Li-Ming Elementary School as our volunteer teacher, and our group definitely would not have gotten along as much without her. Sophia was witty, smart, and funny all molded into one person. None of the group members expected her English to be so advanced. She worked effortlessly to make our teaching as efficient and enjoyagle as possible. She would stay up late with us to help with our teaching plan, and she was never more than a chat away. Sophia was a great blessing to all of us. I have made a lifelong friend through Sophia. The whole community of Yilan was so supportive of our two week teaching visit.
One thing that I am grateful for is the opportunity to use my Chinese in Taiwan. My Chinese is not that great, so it was good to go out and try to talk with native speakers. I feel like I'm breaking through a personal barrier because of this. I am truly thankful for the efforts that the Deans, Headmaster, and teadhers put in. I am thankful that they made our stay as comfortable as possible. I feel as if I have made life long friends through this program. I will definitely keep in touch with my teaching partners along with all the friends i have made during this past month. Although this program is only 1 month long, the experiences and memories of Taiwan AID Summer will last a lifetime. Thank you AID summer for making this the most memorable summer I've ever had.
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Huong, Rebecca (黃祥林)
After missing my flight and having little sleep, I finally rode on connecting domestic flights to finally arrive in Taiwan a day later than expected. I missed the first day, which was probably important for anyone who wants to make any close friendships and inside icebreaker jokes in this program. However, when I arrived late at night, I met two other girls who would stick with me through the entire four-week trip. One I was already friends with on Facebook, but haven’t met yet in real life until the day I arrived, and the other was a girl who was already close with the first girl. I also forgot to bring soap, but, luckily, the place we stayed in provided necessities for its inhabitants.
The first week courses to prepare us for teaching bored my entire group, as all six of us were unmotivated to do anything when we were locked in a center with classes that lasted three hours, until I noticed how every other group made signs and noisemakers for the speakers to pick their groups. We started drawing posters, boosting our ego in artistic abilities as well as our participation. My group also decided to separate into boy-girl partners, just in case some students were against speaking to the opposite gender. My partner did not plan nor talk as much as I wanted him to, as he only wanted to talk to one of my other teammates. We all chose the grade levels to teach. My partner and I chose to teach the lowest level.
The two weeks of teaching was definitely a special experience that few people can obtain. Students had bad catchphrases they learned from older kids around the neighborhood. Most of the students loved us, and would even come and visit our home after dark. Some would even take our phones to add themselves on our Facebook accounts. Others, on the other hand, would fight each other every single day. One student even punched me multiple times, but unfortunately, the student was not in class often enough for me to send the student to the front office.
On the bright side, the six of us American and Canadian volunteer teachers became closer as each day passed. All of us, except for one early sleeper, would watch TV, television shows, and movies from our laptops. The six of us also attempted to master the smack down of mosquitoes and other flying insects as well as roaches. The six of us would also tell each other what happened in our classrooms each school day. On weekends, we would go from our fresh, air-conditioned bus to walking for hours on end. The lunch boxes were so delicious, we would take food from each other’s boxes, as all of us were accustomed to eating traditional Chinese food back in our hometowns.
Although some days I dreadfully miss my home, the days and nights spent doing what I enjoy to do made up for the alternate universe where I never signed up to attend this summer program. I cannot wait to share my experiences with my family and friends.
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Chan, Claire (陈诗琪)
I heard good things about AID Summer from a friend who participated the previous summer, so I decided to apply. Needless to say, this program both has lived up to and exceeded my expectations.
Sure, training week was a bit rough. The wi-fi was spotty, the food was less than spectacular, and the freedom was limited, but my group and I all really learned a lot from our coach and the workshops that we attended. The speakers prepped us well for the daunting task of teaching English. Coach Kurt gave us plenty of helpful feedback after we each went through our teaching demos.
When we all departed for our schools that Friday afternoon, I felt a strong sense of excitement for what lay ahead. I was especially nervous for the first day of teaching. In my mind, I harbored a lot of insecurities: Would I be a good teacher? Would the kids like me? Would they actually learn any English? Would these two weeks encourage them to work hard and continue to further their English skills?
We were told to pretend like we didn't understand Chinese in an effort to force the students to try to communicate with us in English. Sometimes the language barrier was difficult to deal with--we had to speak very slowly and use lots of hand gestures. On the first day, some of the kids weren't even willing to speak. As the kids grew more comfortable, however, they also became rowdier and more spirited. At times it was hard to calm them down and make them pay attention. Despite this, the kids were still incredibly lovable, and we really bonded with them over the course of the two weeks. They all felt so betrayed when we revealed that we could all understand and speak English at the closing ceremony!
It was very hard saying goodbye to the kids, the staff, and our coach as we set out for tour week. Now, I can say that the two weeks of teaching were undoubtedly the best part of the entire program. Everyone--主任, the principal, and the various teachers who stayed with us and took care of us--was so warm and welcoming. They treated us so well, feeding us tons of delicious food and taking us to lots of great places to visit. It felt incredibly fulfilling to be given the opportunity to teach the students and watch them improve day by day, changing from kids who didn't open their mouths to kids who participated with energy and excitement. Hopefully, we instilled within them a love and interest for learning English.
So far, tour week has been going pretty well. We visited many cool and interesting places; I just wish that we had more time at some of our stops. I also had the opportunity to interact with and talk to a lot of great people that I wouldn't have been able to meet otherwise. The counselors were always there to help us out, whether it was introducing us to our next tour stop, recommending what local eats to buy, or just being available to help or answer questions.
Altogether these four weeks have been unforgettable. I'll miss everyone that I met and everything that I experienced!
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Tsao, Matthew (曹己侯)
The 4 weeks that I spent at the AID program this summer was a lot of fun, provided me with a lot of great memories, and really was an experience that meant a lot to me. But even though I really enjoyed the program, I can’t help but feel that it fell short when it came to its main mission, of assisting individuals with disadvantages.
When it comes to teaching English, it’s true that you really can’t achieve much in just 2 weeks. I went into the program knowing that. But still, on the last day, after the closing ceremony, I really felt that I had accomplished very, very little. Perhaps part of it was my own personal failure, my failure to rise to my responsibilities as a teacher and do everything that needed to be done. Yet I felt that there were some things that were beyond my control.
2 weeks felt like a really short period of time, especially since a day of school was cancelled due to a typhoon. It took us a few days to become familiar with the children and for the children to become familiar with us. Then, the teaching ended a few days later. Had the teaching period been longer, I think we could have accomplished more.
I also felt the emphasis on things like the opening and closing ceremonies at the schools was unnecessary, and the amount of work that was invested into the 1.5 hour ceremonies could have instead been used to improve the teaching for the children.
My issues with the program are only the parts that concern the teaching. On the whole, personally, I really gained a lot from the program. From meeting hundreds of other foreign-born Taiwanese to getting involved in new communities in semi-rural areas, this program marked a lot of firsts for me.
I’ve been to Taiwan a few times before. Actually, I’ve lived in Taiwan for a year before. But since my family is all from Taipei, I’ve rarely seen the part of Taiwan that isn’t a large metropolitan area. My visit to Changhua was one of the first times I visited the more rural areas of Taiwan. And I absolutely loved it. It was interesting to see how inter-connected people were in smaller towns. People were connected in a lot of ways, whether it was by blood, through employment, friendship, or marriage. I was able to participate in this intricate web, and accepted as part of the community. Especially since I did a homestay, and was literally accepted as part of the family. At the end of the two weeks of teaching, not only was I sad to leave my students, but I was sad to leave the community that I had been a part of for just two short weeks. When I visit Taiwan next time, I won’t only have Taipei to visit, but also Qingshui.
I’m really glad I participated in this program, as I was able to make friends from two different countries.
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Wang, Tiffany (王可藍)
When I first arrived at the Chien Tan center, I was pretty overwhelmed. Imagine walking into a crowed room knowing no one—to say the least, it was a bit nerve-wracking. Everyone warmed up to each other so quickly; by the end of the first day I already made some friends. Although the ice breaking games were strange and hearing other people’s fantastic Chinese was intimidating and there was a lack of wi-fi and the rules were too strict, I had a good time in Chien Tan getting to know my group. Some of the classes were dull, but others provided inspiration useful for teaching the kids. I really enjoyed working together with my group as a team; we worked on assignments and I really got a feel of the other personalities in my group. Finally, the training week drew to an end and I said goodbye to my friends from other groups and went off to my separate school. I wish I could say I felt confidently prepared after training, but honestly, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I had many questions swimming through my head: Would the kids like me? What if they didn’t understand anything I said? I was nervous until I met the people working at the school. Right from the start, they were very warm-hearted towards us. I could tell they really cared about the kids. They attended to our needs and tried their best to make us comfortable living in the school. When the first day of school arrived, I was nervous and excited at the same time. But when I saw the students, my nerves faded. They were all so cute and little! My class was the older kids, and they were timid and quiet on the first day. I was afraid that they would always be unresponsive towards us, but as time went on they became more comfortable. I could sense they were all bright kids, each with very different personalities. A challenge with teaching was that the teachers asked us to speak only English with the students. It was hard making sure they understood what we were saying. We eventually got a system in which the students who understood quicker would help translate for the rest of the class. We also found out that there was an art to arranging the students at tables. We put the students who worked well together at the same table, so we could maximize the learning. The students were the highlight of this teaching camp. They became very familiar with us and watching them grow was an amazing experience. They were very funny and amused us their 5th grade drama. Everyday we would have a meeting afterward to talk about our problems and how to work through them. I have to thank our AMAZING coach Kurt for being a really good counselor and helping out any problems we have. He gave us really good advice and was there to guide us through our problems. Teaching ended up being more work than expected. It was hard working constantly after school everyday to prepare for the next day, but it ended up being very rewarding. It was interesting experiencing the role of being teacher instead of a student—now, I realize the effort put into teaching and how hard of a job it is. Overall, this was the best volunteering camp I’ve been to. I will never forget everything I learned on this trip. Also, I made some life-long friends along the way. I learned that people get really close after living 4 weeks together! I also got to tour Taiwan and I have a newfound appreciation for Chinese culture.
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Chao, Anne (趙潁安)
I feel that AIDSummer has a very enlightening and unforgettable experience for me. As a TA at my local Chinese school, I have begun to find teaching to be something that I enjoyed doing, because it let me give back to my community. Being Taiwanese, I found that this AIDSummer opportunity would be very important to me, because I could expose the children in rural Taiwan to the concept of learning English, opening to them the rest of the world. Coming to AIDSummer has let me give those children what I usually take for granted, while helping me to improve my teaching. Seeing the children have fun, while genuinely trying to learn English, is one of the most extraordinary things I have ever seen. The fact that we, as volunteers, can make such a large impact on a child’s life, is something that I will take home with me and never forget. However, I know I could not have experienced such success without the hard work of my coaches and wonderful group. It’s amazing to see how us, a handful of strangers, has come together in the span of 3 weeks to change the lives of these children.
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Wang, JiaTzeng (王家增)
When I applied for AID summer I had not anticipated how hard it would be to teach kids English. I thought English would be easy to teach, especially to elementary school kids. After moving into Chientang Youth Activity Center we started to rehearse and prepare for the oncoming challenge of teaching these disadvantaged kids. The workload and policies soon made me doubt my original views on teaching English. Soon we got on the buses and headed for our designated schools all over Taiwan. I felt really queasy and nervous when I first saw the children, but when I saw their eager and curious faces looking up at us I knew I had to step up my game and do something. At first the kids were all shy and quiet, but as time went by the kids became more hyper and socialized more. The days went by really fast and at the end, all of us were saddened to leave the place we had spent 2 weeks together in. During this trip, as a team leader, I learned to not only take care of myself but also to take responsibility for my teammates as well as the children. I also found courage, new experiences, and most importantly, friendship. During the trip everyone went from total strangers to becoming a successful team of people who strived for a common goal as well as accomplishing that goal. I met amazing people during this program and I honestly feel the bond of our friendship during these few weeks can’t be broken easily. I also want to thank all of the staff and people who assisted us and made this an unforgettable summer for me.
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Horville, Justin (謝立凱)
During my stay at A.I.D, I have learned many things that will help impact my life and show me future pathways to follow in my future. When I first arrived at Chientan Activity Center, I was thinking that my stay in Taiwan under this program would be dull and solely focused on the subject of teaching. However, I discovered that I would meet many great people and also grow as a human during the program. When I heard about the first workshop that all of the applicants were supposed to attend, I thought it would be very dull and not interesting whatsoever. However, I discovered that the workshops were very enriching in knowledge and a great way to meet new people. Even though the workshops were very enriching, they were also extremely repetitive and exhausting at some points. One of my favorite activities was the ice-breaking activities that we had to go through during the beginning of the program. I thought that the ice-breaking activities would be boring and useless since we would be meeting up with people that we might not be partnered with. But I found out that I had the opportunity to meet up with some outstanding people with great character and personality. I now know that these very people could be life-long friends that I would be able to associate myself with even after the duration of the program.
When leaving Chientan Activity Center, I felt a sort of depressed feeling knowing that I was temporarily leaving behind some great friends/roommates that I met up with since the beginning of the program. But when I stepped on the bus with my partners, I knew that I would have some more great people to stand beside me and help the youth of Taiwan learn English.
As soon as my group arrived at the house of the principal, we were a little uncomfortable because we did not know our host family that well and they were acting extremely hospitable. As time went on however, we grew accustomed to their great hospitality and appreciated every single effort they made to make us feel more and more at home. The host family had invited their son over from his trip in Taiwan and he was sort of a brother to our group. Overall, the host family experience in Yunlin could not have been any better than what it was.
During our time at Yunlin Elementary School, the students were extremely better than what we expected they would be. Our group had an idea that there would be a couple students that might cause trouble in the class. But as time passed on during our time in the elementary school, we discovered that all of the students were great and were eager to learn more about the American culture and the English language. We had no problems with the students during our stay in Yunlin. After our two weeks of teaching in Yunlin, we were amazed at the students’ reaction to our departure. Despite the short stay in the city of Yunlin with the students, most of the students gave us their contact information and were very sad about our leaving.
Overall, the whole program was great and an experience to remember. I will miss all the people that I’ve met during the trip and will be grateful to the counselors that helped to keep everything in the program organized. It is sad that we are only able to participate in this program one time in our lives because of the lack of opportunities to meet up with people that we have claimed as friends, but life goes on and we will find a way to meet up in the future.
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Ng, Tiffany (吳琳琳)
When I first heard about this program I became really excited that I could not only help out with disadvantage children but also explore what Taiwan has to offer. But this trip was so much more than that, I made new friends, tried new foods, and got to learn more about the Taiwanese culture. This trip has been life changing and I will never forget it. I volunteered at Dong Rong Elementary and in the beginning I was not so sure about teaching there. Honestly I was terrified of meeting the children even with the training the real thing was nothing close! They were so sweet and funny but there was a struggle with the language barrier due to the fact that our school required us, volunteers, to only speak in English to really enhance the English experience for the children. During training everyone told me not to teach more than 8 words because these kids can only remember so much leading me to believe the kids I was going to get were probably really behind. But was I wrong! My students were absolutely brilliant even if not in the beginning, they have learned so much within the two weeks I had with them. They we're seriously learning up to 10 to 12 words a day and during post test there was such drastic improvement.
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Ye, Diana (叶迪)
AID Summer was a life-changing experience for many reasons. Previously before coming to the program many people had suggested to me that AID Summer would probably be the best summer of my life, and I have to agree that they were correct. AID proved to be undeniably the greatest thing that has happened to me as of this day. Although I was skeptical and uncertain of whether or not I would like to forsake having air conditioning, a comfortable bed of my own, and a sitting toilet, I soon realized that these were all small matters in comparison to the greater components that I would be gaining while at AID. Not only would my Chinese proficiency increase greatly, but most importantly I would be able to affect children who had poor levels of English literacy and help them to build a new interest in English. I remember vividly on the first day of class, my children were all mute and peering at me with large, scared eyes—all of them were afraid to speak, let alone raise their hands and give me a direct answer. Yet over the course of two weeks I would see all of these little inhibitions disappear. Silence would soon turn into gleeful and active participation. Hands started to wave in the air, all seeming to poke and prod their neighbors, while the children fought to have the highest hand that screamed, “pick me” among the sea of others that joined them. By the end of my two weeks of teaching these children had transformed in more ways than one. And the smallest change that occurred was their advancement in English, since the most important difference was that their attitude towards learning had changed from intrepid, nervous glances to bright faces.
For myself, AID summer provided me with several great individuals who come from different backgrounds and gave me their own personal experience which provided me with a diverse outlook. I met many special and talented individuals, but most importantly I met eight people who would prove to be my best friends the rest of the program. These individuals took care of me when I got sick for nearly a week. I will always cherish the memories I had with them and all the moral support they gave me.
I would also like to thank all of the counselors, teachers, and administrators who made AID summer possible. There are many times where I have been in desperation or had medical situations and they have always been there in my time of need. On behalf of everyone, I could gladly vouch that everyone here at AID is safe and healthy because of the care and guidance that all the overseers of this program have established. AID summer is therefore a large community that helps everyone collectively.
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Sheu, Jackson (許杰升)
AID summer was truly a once in a lifetime experience. At first I was skeptical about spending a month of my free time volunteering in Taiwan, but as the program comes to an end, I can truly say this was the best month of my life. From interacting with the students to touring around southern Taiwan, my immersion in Taiwanese culture has left a lasting impression on me.
My students were definitely the highlight of my experience. Over the course of two weeks, I discovered the unique personalities and qualities of my nine students. Each day we grew closer and closer as we bonded through classroom activities and break time banter. The respect and admiration they had for us teachers was so great that I was truly touched. Their never ending curiosity and enthusiasm made teaching a joy. In two short weeks, I made new friendships with the students that will last for a long time.
Living at Dahu middle school was a shocking difference from what I am accustomed to in the US. At first, I was shocked by the stark difference between the rural town and my usual home. However, that impression quickly changed for the better. Life was simpler, and I found that it made me happier and much more appreciative of little things. With limited access to technology, we entertained ourselves by playing basketball, dancing, telling stories, and eating shaved ice. The weekly night market was the highlight of the week, and our students joined us for the food and fun. This change in lifestyle made me realize that I had been missing out on the simple joys of life, and I will be more conscious about it in the future.
Our counselors completed the AIDS experience. The “little grays” are some of the friendliest, most enthusiastic, and most caring people I have ever met. They were always at our side, whether it was to help us through a problem or to be our friend. They were always looking out for us or engaging in friendly conversation. Over the course of two weeks, they have become my role model for many years to come.
These four weeks in Taiwan have flown by; the days felt like weeks, but the weeks felt like days. Even though I came here to teach, I leave Taiwan having learned many new things. The most important lesson I take away from the experience is to live in the present and take things day by day. Hopefully this mindset will allow me to appreciate little things in life more once I head back to the United States.
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Huang, Yiing-Jye (黃穎傑)
The past few weeks I have been participating in the Summer Aid program. The first week was all classes that I found very long and tedious. In the classes I learned quite a bit of things though. Because of the classes, I was able to come up with things to do in the classroom on the fly when all the planned activities were finished. I am also glad that during two of the classes, the teacher taught us some words in Taiwanese. I really want to learn how to speak Taiwanese so I can communicate with other people in Taiwan that randomly start speaking it to me.
The second week, in my opinion, was very interesting. We hadn’t planned our opening ceremony yet so we spent the weekend before the first teaching day planning it out. The first week of teaching was very interesting and challenging. I was teaching the youngest children at the school. Every day some of the students would physically fight each other. After the very first day, we revised our entire teaching plan. We taught the students as much as we could and included as much outside play time as we could. Many of our learning games involved going outside to the playground. We did this to burn of the energy the students had.
The weekend at the school was very interesting. We went to a place in the forest for a tour and we saw many large spiders. Some of the spiders were hanging so low that we had to duck to pass. We also went to a pottery place and another place where we dyed cloth with natural dyes.
The third week was a lot better than the first teaching week. The students were much better behaved. Also a lot of the more trouble making students were not allowed to participate in learning English any more. During the two teaching weeks, we also had college students in each of the classroom to help us do things like translate and control the students. During the classes in the first week of the aid program, we were told not to use Chinese and to only speak to the children in English. The first day, I knew that that would not be possible. The children did not know any basic English to even be able to communicate with them. We ended up using quite a bit of Chinese ourselves.
At the end of the two teaching weeks, all the students left the school knowing a lot more English than they did coming into the school, as can be seen in the results of the pre-test and post test administered to the students. This makes me feel very accomplished. I am very glad I had the opportunity to participate in this program. It was very fun and it was a very educational opportunity as well as an opportunity to gain many hours of service learning. I am now currently enjoying the tour and had a great time at the talent show. Thank you AID!
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Chen, Alex (陳力安)
I stepped off the plane and immediately felt the change in temperature. My clothes started to stick to my skin and the jacket I had worn on the chilly plane ride started to feel cumbersome and unnecessary. I didn’t really know where I was going, so I followed the crowd of people towards the baggage claim and met my aunt on the other side. I was in Taiwan.
My cousin dropped me off in Chientan and I didn’t know what to expect. Would everyone’s Chinese be better than mine? Would I even meet any friends? Then I saw the crowd. Young people my age in the auditorium waiting for their room keys. I quickly checked in, receiving my bag, booklet, and name tag. I didn’t know what t-shirt size to get, so I played it safe and chose the large size, even though I was a medium back in the United States. As I introduced myself over and over to countless numbers of people, I found that many were from California, and some were even from Canada. There were so many people to meet but there was little free time to be had as classes started and our day was meticulously controlled by the ever cheerful little gray shirts. As we counted down the days until we could leave the comfortable prison called Chientan, we became close friends with our teammates who we would teach with for the next two weeks.
Our school assignment was Zi You Guo Xiao, a small elementary school in the mountains. When we arrived, we were pleasantly surprised by the living accommodations, each of us had our own room and even our own bathroom, and pleased by the mild temperatures and the decrease in humidity compared to Chientan. Even though we had prepared for two weeks worth of lesson material, we were not at all prepared for the first day. Back at Cheintan, the teachers had told us that we should use primarily English to communicate with the kids, but when we started talking, the blank stares on the childrends faces indicated their confusion and bewilderment. They were thinking to themselves, “ These people look Taiwanese, yet they are not.”, four our English was perfect, but our Chinese gave our true identity away.
Eventually we got into a rhythm, wake up in the morning, teach the kids and have fun activities with them, meet with the school administrators, and play with the kids and prepare for the next day’s lesson. Even though we had planned each day out, some kids would make the day hard for us. Some of the children had gone to English cram school and would shout all the answers out while all the girls would never answer or participate. This made it challenging to make sure everyone was on the same page. We had trouble teaching the kids the closing ceremony, so we taught them a simple song and dance about animals, but after they performed it, some kids were frustrated that we didn’t do something more complicated which was ironic because they had enough trouble paying attention and learning the more simple song we taught them. All in all, I had a great time with the kids and hope they learned not only more English vocabulary, but discovered the fun in learning English.
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Ge, Diana (葛楚楚)
I heard good things about AID Summer from a friend who participated the previous summer, so I decided to apply. Needless to say, this program both has lived up to and exceeded my expectations.
Sure, training week was a bit rough. The wi-fi was spotty, the food was less than spectacular, and the freedom was limited, but my group and I all really learned a lot from our coach and the workshops that we attended. The speakers prepped us well for the daunting task of teaching English. Coach Kurt gave us plenty of helpful feedback after we each went through our teaching demos.
When we all departed for our schools that Friday afternoon, I felt a strong sense of excitement for what lay ahead. I was especially nervous for the first day of teaching. In my mind, I harbored a lot of insecurities: Would I be a good teacher? Would the kids like me? Would they actually learn any English? Would these two weeks encourage them to work hard and continue to further their English skills?
We were told to pretend like we didn't understand Chinese in an effort to force the students to try to communicate with us in English. Sometimes the language barrier was difficult to deal with--we had to speak very slowly and use lots of hand gestures. On the first day, some of the kids weren't even willing to speak. As the kids grew more comfortable, however, they also became rowdier and more spirited. At times it was hard to calm them down and make them pay attention. Despite this, the kids were still incredibly lovable, and we really bonded with them over the course of the two weeks. They all felt so betrayed when we revealed that we could all understand and speak English at the closing ceremony!
It was very hard saying goodbye to the kids, the staff, and our coach as we set out for tour week. Now, I can say that the two weeks of teaching were undoubtedly the best part of the entire program. Everyone--主任, the principal, and the various teachers who stayed with us and took care of us--was so warm and welcoming. They treated us so well, feeding us tons of delicious food and taking us to lots of great places to visit. It felt incredibly fulfilling to be given the opportunity to teach the students and watch them improve day by day, changing from kids who didn't open their mouths to kids who participated with energy and excitement. Hopefully, we instilled within them a love and interest for learning English.
So far, tour week has been going pretty well. We visited many cool and interesting places; I just wish that we had more time at some of our stops. I also had the opportunity to interact with and talk to a lot of great people that I wouldn't have been able to meet otherwise. The counselors were always there to help us out, whether it was introducing us to our next tour stop, recommending what local eats to buy, or just being available to help or answer questions.
Altogether these four weeks have been unforgettable. I'll miss everyone that I met and everything that I experienced!
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Ku, Katie (古媛媛)
Over the course of the past 4 weeks, this summer AID experience has been quite unforgettable. In the past 4 years of my college experience, I have been pursuing a degree in education back at home. Thus the opportunity to be part of this teaching program has been very useful and insightful for me.
The main reason why I applied for AID initially was to gain a different perspective of teaching and working with students from a different country. In addition, because my degree is in secondary mathematics education, I thought it would be interesting to see what it was like to teach a group of students completely opposite to what I am used to (teaching a younger group of students English). Having taken many education courses, most of the teaching training received at Chien Tan was repetitive. The basics of teaching were similar to what I have heard before as I think the training did a good job covering the basics of teaching in such a short period of time.
During the course of the two weeks, I worked with the 5th and 6th grade students at Fu An Guo Xiao in Shi Lin. Because this was the first time Fu An participated in this AID Summer program, the faculty at the school suggested that all of the teachers to pretend that we could not understand nor speak any Chinese, thus really requiring the students to interact with us teachers in English only. This proved to be extremely difficult as there were so many times in which explaining things in Chinese would have been easier (rather than acting), or wanting to defend ourselves when students would say things about us teachers behind our backs in Chinese because we “didn’t understand” what they were saying. Though 5th and 6th graders understood more English than younger students, it still required a lot of effort from us teachers, as we had to talk very slowly and exaggerate and act out everything that we said. Nevertheless I do think this worked very well for our school in particular, as it really forced all the students to speak English to all of us.
Through this entire time, I think what made my experience with AID so memorable was the group of other teachers that I was with along with the amazing school that we were placed at. As a whole, our group worked very well together. At the end of each day of teaching, we would all go around and share our highs and lows and try to come up with solutions as a group. In addition, we were able to go and sit in each other’s classes to observe one another’s teaching strengths/weakness (which proved to be extremely helpful). As for my two other co-teachers, we worked extremely well with one another, as we were all able to contribute equally and differently. More importantly was the fact that we were able to read each other very well during class so we could easily transition from one person to the other and help each other out without having to stop in the middle of class. Our coach, Kurt, who was with us from the very beginning at Chien Tan provided us with much insight into his own teaching experience as well as the students and faculty at Fu An. All of the staff there were so helpful and welcoming and took care of all of us extremely well. Looking back, I don’t think I could ever be more thankful and blessed to be placed with such an amazing group of co-teachers at such an extraordinary school.
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Liao, Kristie (廖詩涵)
As I arrived at the Chientan Youth Activity Center, I honestly did not know what to expect. I was nervous and extremely excited at the same time. From the countless praises I had heard about the AID Summer program from previous participants, I felt nothing short of exhilaration and honor. However, a week of hard work and communication was to come…
To be completely and utterly honest, the first week at Chientan was a slight struggle for me. During lectures in the infamous Room 318, I felt like our team was one of the more uncreative ones, one of the more “inferior” ones. Being the only 4-person team in Group C definitely hit me harder than it was supposed to. I watched us struggle in being creative when it came to making posters and coming up with song lyrics that the kids could learn. “Oh no… What are we going to do?” I thought to myself, countless times. However, I live up to my long-time motto: You don’t really know what’s going to happen until you experience it. And, that is exactly what happened.
On the flip side, the few hours of downtime we had during non-instructional hours at Chientan were used effectively in making friends, playing so many card games that I can’t even count, doing magic tricks, telling stories, chillin’ on the roof, and just talking about life to random people from all over the states and even the UK to whom I now call my friends. Being able to connect with people in such an interesting way was definitely an experience to remember. Friendships like these last for a lifetime. I felt the lump in my throat and the holding back of tears and the tug at my heart as the last day at Chientan approached as we departed for our separate buses. I am forever grateful for the privilege to be able to make the friendships and unique connections that I made.
Now comes the real deal: arriving at Li Shin Junior High School. As I met Official after Official, Principal after Principal’s friend, I still did not know what I was getting myself into. After dancing Just Dance 4 What Makes You Beautiful for 2 ½ hours, practicing and singing the Anna Kendrick’s Cup Song for 3 days in a row, and preparing an excerpt of a violin piece, I was pretty pumped. But, getting to meet the kids was the best part.
From absolute dead silence and shyness on the first day to energetic attitudes and active participation on the 4th day, it was amazing to see the transformation that the students went through in our presence as they learned English in a fun manner. The major different in the way American students behave in the classroom versus the way Taiwanese students behave was the most interesting part. The way language was spoken, body language, and attitudes were all so different and intriguing in the best way. As they took great interest in American culture and the way my teaching partner and I interacted, it made me feel great inside. I flashed back to my time at Chientan. Why was I so worried about my 4-person group? Is it really quantity? Or quality… As aforementioned, you don’t really know what’s going to happen until you experience it.
If I were to say anything about AID Summer, I would say it is a spectacular, once in a lifetime opportunity to be a teacher and learn not only more about yourself but also more about Taiwanese education and culture while doing good for the community. I cannot wait to see where this program is a few years down the road. I am definitely recommending this to all my high school friends who speak Mandarin. Go AID Summer!
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Wu, Joanne (吳婕穎)
As an AID volunteer, I came in not really knowing what to expect. I walked into Chientan afraid I wasn’t going to make friends and terrified of the oppressive humidity and bothersome mosquitoes I would have to face in the upcoming weeks. However, as ice breakers began to start in the uncomfortably full room filled with volunteers I quickly began to meet interesting people from exciting new places. There are very few other Taiwanese in South Carolina, so it was incredible to see so many Taiwanese ABC’s in the same place. When I met my team members, we almost all clicked immediately, except for friendly Philos, who spent most of his first day sleeping as he came in very early that morning. All of us were anxious yet enthusiastic about teaching children, as we were all unsure how they would act. The first week at Chientan was full of classes, eating, and sleeping. With such little free time, we all began to go slightly insane. The visit to the Shilin night market was a fantastic release, our team spent some of our time gorging ourselves on delicious Taiwanese food including shaved ice, oyster pancakes, and stinky tofu; some of our time also went to watching Alex destroy the balloon shooting games while Emily haggled down the amount of balloons he had to shoot to get a prize. The next day, we gave the good friends we had made at Chientan hearty farewells and headed for our school, Zi You Guo Xiao. The long and winding bus ride to the school was made enjoyable by really awful Disney sing-alongs and even worse Chinese karaoke including a rousing rendition of Muo Li Hua sung by Emily, Rebecca and I. The first weekend at the elementary was very relaxing, and gave us a lot of time to settle in and prepare. This was not enough preparation. The first day came, and as Alex and I introduced ourselves, we realized that our class- which was comprised mostly of boys- was wild. They would not sit down, and would not pay attention, mostly because they already knew everything we were planning on teaching. Even though the boys already had very good English- one boy could spell extremely well and another was almost fluent in speaking- the girls seemed to know nothing, and most could not even say the alphabet without pausing. As the week progressed, the kids grew closer to us, calling us Brother (Ge ge) or sister (Jie Jie) instead of Teacher (Lao shi). This all seemed very endearing, but after school, the kids that lived in the neighborhood would come over to our dorms, and ring our doorbells and knock on our doors so we would come out to play. Of course we were busy, but many times we would go out anyway to play as they were all very cute and convincing. Cute as they were, in the classroom they were wild. We had two boys, Ken and Andy, who were incredibly smart; they could take classroom items and make almost anything out of them. They spent most of their time goofing off in the back of the classroom and not learning English. One day, they made bows and arrows, with the arrow being a nail taped to a chopstick. After recess the boys returned triumphant, holding 4 dead but still twitching lizards with multiple puncture wounds. They then proceeded to skewer 2 of them through the head and hang up their trophy on the railing outside. In hindsight, the classroom management class could have been slightly more detailed on how to handle 5th and 6th graders. After a lot of patience and yelling, the kids began to listen to us in the second week, resulting in a very well rehearsed and exciting closing ceremony. We were all sad to go, but glad we left the kids with better English and fond memories of us.
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Lung, Michael (龍立恆)
This AID Summer 2014 trip has been the best summer of my life. From the night market visits to the teaching of little children, I could not have asked for a better summer. I was honored to have been put into an unforgettable group (A1-5) consisting of Jason, Anne, Lily, Dixon, Ben, Tiffany, and my helpful teaching partner, Lisa. Also, this program would not have been the same without the help of our coach, Queena Lin. Starting with the beginning of the program, Queena wanted to try and meet up with our group so that we would know each other before AID actually started. Although only 4 of the 8 members we able to show, I already felt confident and comfortable with the group. After meeting the rest of the group the next day, I was a bit worried that training week would hold up to be what it had been infamously deemed, the worst week due to all the lectures about repetition, games, and etc. However, once the actual teaching began, everything was fine since I had my group, teaching partner, principal, and coach all behind me constantly supporting me. Before we started teaching, our coach sent the group a picture of the area in which would we be living which was a library with the 9 of us together. Personally, I was worried since I snore while sleeping and was afraid that I would annoy the rest of my group. Ultimately, the teaching week went perfectly fine not including the day that the typhoon hit. Also, the weekend tour was perfectly planned since we were able to buy materials for the following teaching week. During teaching week, problems included: lack of motivation, the language barrier (our teacher urged our group to only speak English), and trying to get students to choose a English song for the closing ceremony. Also, teaching got progressively harder because we were not allowed to speak Chinese to the students. This made giving instructions, enforcing rules, and overall teaching much more difficult than I had thought it would have been when other previous AID volunteers told me about the program. For tour week, we were so lucky to have overcast during the whole tour. Overall, this has been the best summer of my life and I really hope this program can give the same amazing experience to other volunteers.
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