Week 6 #Day 38

Today was the day I returned back to 健行国小 after spending a week at 南投草屯北投国小。Many of the kids and teachers thought that I have returned to Singapore after not seeing me for a week. And the students seem to have gone back to being shy in greeting me just like when I was here during my very first day. ):

Similarly, 健行国小 is preparing for their graduation ceremony as well. They too have the stands of flowers placed outside of the school. In Singapore, such flower stands are used only during opening ceremonies of shops or funerals. This is something new to me. The flower stand is placed outside of the school at least 1-2 days before the graduation ceremony and then collected back the next day immediately after the ceremony is over. A flower stand costs NT$300 and they can be reused by the company as the flowers are artificial flowers. The only thing that needs to be changed would be the red piece of paper that has writings on it.

In the picture below, a class from Grade 6 representing the entire level in pinning on flowers to teachers who have taught them before.  In the second picture, remaining Grade 6 classes are on the left while Grade 5 are on the right. Here, the grade 5 students will present flowers to their seniors.

After this portion, Grade 5 and 6 students are then required to return back to the hall while the remaining students will have to resume lessons as per normal. Let the pictures do the talking for now.

白校长 also took this opportunity to present to me a gift of appreciation and also a 奖状 to the students of the families that I've stayed with.

I got the chance to meet 李大哥 as well. The man that has been taking care of the school's pond, mini garden filled with fruit trees and vegetables and also fruit trees found all around the school for 7-8 years. After speaking to him briefly together with the 主任, he mentioned to have Japanese lunch together. During lunch, he kept mentioning about how he loves Singapore's environment and its cleanliness. He has visited Singapore twice and plans to visit Singapore again.

And after school, I was brought to meet 赵主任's daughter. I was suppose to be staying at 主任's house during my last week here but I've decided to move back into 曾老师's place. So Yu Pei was a little sad that I wasn't staying at her place. But everything was fine. Together with a friend of hers,we went out for dinner at this pretty cosy cafe that specializes in burgers. We started chatting and  I shared with Jiahui about the various places that she can visit in Singapore when she comes over in September. We talked like as though we were old friends and they kept mentioning about how we should create the opportunity to be tour guides for each other the next time round when we visit each other's countries. I can feel how sincere they were in wanting to bring me around Taiwan. So let's hope the trip materializes.

We then went to this park called Qiuhonggu. A pretty interestingly shaped park with its centre of the park being dome shaped like. A park where couples are seen strolling the park. A singer performs at the amphitheater as well. Beautiful scenery and soothing music. Perfect place for a date.

Overall, I'm satisfied with my dad as i got to make 2 new friends and gave a proper farewell to the Grade 5 and 6 student.


Overall I'm really happy to have meet these 2 girls who are of the same age as me too! Looking forward to the day where we can realize our trip!

Week 5 ( 南投草屯縣北投国小)

After a fun filled and hectic weekend living and experiencing life with the aboriginals, I was brought over to another elementary school in 草屯，南投. The school is located in a village and there were paddy fields that were surrounding the four faces of the school. This is something that I can never get to see in Singapore. 周校长 was telling me how the school plans to get their students into planting/ growing crops in these field around the school and getting them to reap what they sow at the end of the 学期 (semester). There's no chance students in Singapore will get to experience a school life like this unless if they study overseas.

Similar to 健行国小，I was required to enter each class and share with them the culture of Singapore. While conducting the lesson, I saw the difference in the level of English of students between Taichung city and Nantou. I spoke to some students personally and they told me how their parents wish their kids to speak more of their Min Nan Yu (taiwan language). Also, the school's population was much less than the one in Taichung. Excluding the teachers, the school has a population of 146. Being a smaller school has its plus point, one of it being, I feel that students teachers ratio is smaller than in Taichung, making it easier to manage every single person. Students from the village tend to be a little more innocent too. Their view/ opinions are even simpler than the students in Taichung when asked about their ambitions.

Overall, my week in Nantou was truly an eye opener to how life is like staying in a village in Taiwan.

I shall let the pictures do to the talking for now (:

This is what greets you upon entering the school

Maize that surrounds the 4 sides of the school

An oven that took an army personnel of the school 4 months to build this

Barbecue time

P1 students having their lesson

Graduating students rehearsing for their graduation ceremony

彩虹妈妈 (Rainbow Mummy)

I've decided to dedicate a post to a group of people known as 彩虹妈妈.

So who are they and what do they do?

They are basically a group of mothers from church getting together and conducting classes for students in the form of story telling sessions which focuses on the values and the upbringing of the children. For the past 3 weeks that I've been here, I've sat in for 3 lessons with these mothers watching them conduct their lessons.

I'm not too sure as to how big the group is but during the third time that I sat in for their lesson, I was told by a 彩虹妈妈 from the group that they aim to reach out to all schools in Taiwan, be it elementary school, junior high or senior high school. However, they had been facing the problem of  not being accepted by some schools as they see them mothers as preaching/ forcing their ideology on the students.

During the very first lesson that I sat in for, I was having mixed feelings. I am definitely not up with the idea of using such a platform in recruiting more students' into converting into Christians but yet at the same time, I feel that there is definitely no harm in children having a belief if it means that they are well guided during their growing/ learning process.

彩虹妈妈 uses the form of story telling sessions to drive learning points into them. Each story will bring across to students certain values. For the first lesson that I sat in for, the mothers were talking to them about learning to appreciate what their mum/ family have done for them and to show their appreciation to them. So the students were tasked with observing the everyday movements of their mothers and to think about what their mothers would like/ need the most and to give it to them. Students can either make it or buy it. After a week, they were asked to share what they have observed and what did they give them. Some students gave their mothers a massage, some bought flowers while others helped out with house chores. The usual form of learning through listening to stories is further enhanced by the fact that students are tasked with follow ups, enabling them to remember better the lessons learnt.

Story telling session by Rainbow Mama

Sharing things they observed from their mums

Students eagerly wanting to answer questions raised

After getting to know about 彩虹妈妈, I started comparing how different the education system is in Singapore. I feel that schools in Taiwan, apart from focusing on the academic aspect of students, they also focus more on character building of students than as compared to Singapore. Although the schools in Singapore do have lessons like 好公民，I honestly don't remember (blame it on my bad memory maybe) attending any lessons that actually touched so much on character building of students. Or maybe it could be that I do not have much opportunity in learning about the curriculum of Singapore's education. Whichever the case, I feel that this is another takeaway that maybe the education system of Singapore can learn from.

PS: Rainbow mummy comes to each class only once every 2 weeks as they enter classes of the same school on a rotational basis.

Week 2

Week 2 is a pretty interesting week. I was given the opportunity to conduct lessons for grade one students for 3 consecutive days, one lesson per day. So on the first day, I did the usual introduction of Singapore that I did for the past week (in mandarin, yes :/ ) Being only in Grade One, it was necessary to simplify the usage of words used such that they can understand what I'm trying to bring across. The next 2 days, I taught the kids the song 'Head, shoulders, knees and toes' and played Hangman with them. Having gone to 3 classes consecutively in a day, I could tell the difference in the way the teachers 'manages' their class in the way the children behaved. It's amazing how teachers play such an  important role in students when it comes to their upbringing. Then again, this makes sense since students meet their teacher half the time in a day.

So while conducting lessons with the Grade One students, there was something that I felt was an obstacle among students when it comes to learning English, not only for the Grade One classes but for the entire school.
1. They are too shy to speak English.
2. The proficiency of English among students in the same class is different among the individuals.

In school, students start learning English only in Grade Two. Before that, some parents will prefer to send their children to tuition classes to learn English. As such, they are more familiar with the language than some of their peers resulting in them being more outspoken than the others, leaving the rest with little chance of wanting to learn.

Overall conducting the lessons for Grade One students was fun and it allowed me to experience firsthand challenges that teachers face.

One of the Grade One class

This week was also the week where I began conducting English classes for students with higher competency level in English. It was opened to grade 4 students and above and each class will send about 2-3 students. So I was expecting a class of about 20 students. In each lesson, I will pick out newspaper articles that are relevant to the students, pick out keywords and let them watch videos before asking them to share their views on the topic before the end of each lesson. Hoping that by the end of my 6 weeks with them, they will be more brave in speaking English.

Home stay family #2

So this is the second time that I'm moving in a week (it will be the same routine the next 5 weeks, sadly) and I was told that I'll be spending it at the principal's place. Upon learning about it, I was pretty nervous and stressed out. The image of a principal in me has always been that he/she is strict and well, not that fun to be hanging out with. So while packing my baggage for the weekend stay, I was really conscious in making sure I packed clothes that looked "more decent" (if that makes sense). And that would mean no shorts, only jeans. No slippers/ sandals, only covered footwear. And with that, I was ready for my weekend staycation at the principal's place.

Turns out that she actually arranged for her nephew to bring me around to explore Taichung! What a relief. Else I would be feeling all nervous and tense the whole day. Her nephew, Will, brought me to several places on Saturday. We started off by visiting this place called Qing2 Mei3 Cheng3 Pin2 (a mall). This mall contains an eatery/restaurant called Chun Shui Tang. I was told that they are the inventor of Bubble Tea. So we dine in at this restaurant and gave their bubble tea a try. Verdict: Not too bad. Wasn't exceptionally special or tasty to me. After which, we visited a traditional park called Ming3 Su2 Park before heading over to Xin1 Zhi1 Fang1 Ting2. It's a place that's decorated with the theme of flowers, etc. A perfect place for couples to head to for a date. It's also a famous location for wedding ceremonies and wedding photo shoot. It was pretty crowded when we were there so I took really little photos. Then we headed for dinner at Ding3 Wang3. It's a place that serves hot and spicy hotpot and it's quite a famous place for dinner among the locals here. Finally before the day ended, I was brought to do a leg massage around the area. Really comfortable and something that I didn't expect myself to be going for in Taiwan.

Sadly it rained on Sunday and we stayed in almost the entire day before heading out to a night market in the evening after it stopped raining.

Again, pictures shall do the illustration! (:

A famous Yu Yuan stall in Taichung

Steamboat at a place called Ding Wang

Ming3 Su2 Park (Traditional Garden in Taichung)

One of the flower themed building in Xin Zhi Fang Ting

Week #1

It has been 2 weeks since I first landed in Taoyuan Airport and I'm finally starting on my first blog post. I remembered leaving Singapore with almost an empty mind not being too sure of what to expect for the next 6 weeks even though I had been mentally preparing myself for this trip before the flight. But I must say that things are going great so far despite the many unforeseen circumstances that appeared along the way.

So upon arrival at Taoyuan Airport, I was greeted by 2 of Fengchia University LC's members welcoming me with a board which has my name written on it. And soon we were on our way to Taichung, the place where I'll be at for the next 6 weeks.

JianXing Elementary School (健行國小)

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Stepping foot into Jianxing Elementary School on my first day, I was greeted by students sweeping and cleaning the school! I was pretty surprised and later learned that every single morning, students will spend at least 20 minutes cleaning the school compound, which even includes washing of the toilets. Classes are assigned to different parts of the school to clean at the beginning of their academic year. The school does not engage the service of outside cleaners at all. I thought the practice is really good as it helps enforce the idea of shared responsibility among students in keeping the school compound clean, instead of just pasting posters around the school reminding students to keep the school compound clean. So the brief timeline for a student in JXES goes like this:

Before 7.50am: Cleaning of school compound
After 7.50am: Late
0800: Free time (settle unfinished business, play videos, story-telling, etc)

0840: Start of first lesson for the day

0920: Break

0930: Resume lesson

1010: Break

1030: Resume lesson

1110: Break

1120: Resume lesson

1200: Lunch

1240: Noon nap

1310: Break

1320: Resume lesson 

1410: Break

1420: Resume lesson

1500: Break

1510: Resume lesson

1600: End school

So basically the entire school will have a break time (either 10 mins or 20mins) after every lesson. And they have time allocated for the entire school to take noon nap after lunch! That definitely caught me by surprise (maybe because I was never aware that such practices exists in other parts of the world, such as Taiwan) And the practice of noon nap continues all the way up to different levels of the education system till before university level.

Students and teachers taking their noon nap

(continuing with the cleaning of school compound)
Students do not arrive in school just few minutes before 7.50am on purpose just so they can spend lesser time cleaning. By 7.30am, most of the students would already be in school and starting to clean. And for the past 2 weeks that I'm here, I actually do not hear any students complain about having to clean. Instead, they are happily catching up with their friends while cleaning and their faces were beaming with smiles.
I find it amazing how students of such a young age are taking up the responsibility of being responsible. They may not be aware that they are actually being responsible but the way the school enforces it is a good practice. This may be something that schools in Singapore can slowly adopt and there are so many things that schools in Singapore can adopt from the elementary schools in Taichung.

I was briefed by a teacher-in-charge about my basic workload during the 6 weeks here and that includes entering classes and spending about 1 lesson to share the culture of Singapore with them, conducting morning classes for students with higher competency level in English, doing voice recording of English stories which will then be played over the radio system every Tuesday afternoons and basically interacting with students in English

The classes that I started off with during my 1st week were mainly students from Grade 2. They were all amazed by the fact that Singapore will not experience natural disasters such as earthquake and that it is summer season all year long for us. And! Local Jack Neo productions such as "I not stupid" is so popular here in Taiwan that every class that I went to, there will be at least either a student or a teacher who mentions about the show and asks if receiving caning is a legal form of punishment in Singapore. On top of that, bak ku teh seems to be a dish where most teachers will always associate with Singapore.

Overall, my first week in Jianxing Elementary had been great. Every other day I will be learning a new culture that the school practices which differs from that of the education system in Singapore. Let the pictures do the talking.

Introducing myself to the school during their flag raising 

Grade 4 students

after a cultural sharing session with grade 2 students

Gearing up for distributing lunch

Queuing up for lunch

First day's lunch (Vegetarian lunch every Monday)

Home stay family #1

Left to right: Yi Xiang, Me, Wen You, Shu Pen, Shu Pen's husband

This is the first wonderful family that I stayed with for four days during my first week here in Taichung. A very sweet and fun family with 2 very well brought up children. So I was very curious each time before I got to a new family as to how the families are and so far among all the 5 times I've moved within 3 weeks, they turn out to be pleasant experiences that I will never want to forget.

So Wen You is in kindergarten school while Yi Xiang is in grade 2 and their house is just 5 minutes walk away from school making it very convenient for them to go to and fro school.

Playing snake and ladder

This is Wen You wanting to play board games with me. We played a game that was similar to snake and ladder except that he was the one throwing the dice and moving the block for both players (himself and myself) during the entire game. How cute of him.

Us fooling around after they both completed their homework

During the last day that I with them, Shu Pen brought her sons and I to this lady's place where we did some
handicraft.This lady is a professional in creating art pieces as in the following pictures. I didn't dare take many photos of all the many art pieces that she did as she mentioned that she does not like her art pieces to be shared randomly among other people. She prefers keeping a low profile about her art work.

It may not be clear in the picture above but all the pieces hanged up are orinigal pieces of hers. They are either acrylic painting on canvas sheets or frames already containing designs on it and further enhanced by her either by painting or by adding on some colored clay/dough on it.

Yi Xiang's!

Wen You's !

Mine!

So these were the final products that the boys and I completed. The ones that the boys did were called Tie(2) Gu (3) Ba(1) Te(4). I'm not too sure of its Chinese characters but in terms of hanyu pinyu, that is how it's pronounced. As for mine, there's no specific name to it I guess. I just started off with a wooden photo frame. The rest of it were actually made of dry clay/ dough that was added on to the frame.

Teacher, Shu Pen and I

Adding details to the bricks

(blur) Group shot

This face shows how excited I am riding on a bike.

Staying with Shu Pen's family also gave me the opportunity to sit on a motorcycle for the first time!Cheap thrill indeed but it was really exciting! Motorcycles/ cycles are commonly seen on the roads of Taiwan. It is the main mode of transport for getting around places within the city. It is even more commonly used than bus and train services in the city.

My last morning with the boys

Four days with Shu Pen's family zoomed passed faster than expected. Very soon it was my last morning with them before leaving for school. I felt like I was fated to meet Shu Pen. We had so many topics in common that we just talked non stop each time I returned back to their home from school. It was a pity the school only opened up 4 days for this family to host me. If not, I would be more than willing to stay for a longer period of time with them.