Shortly after we arrived in Taiwan, we learned that we would be attending a training on the north part of the island in the biggest city of Taiwan sponsored by the Ministry of Education (or MOE). We needed to spend a week in New Taipei City at the National Academy for Educational Research and receive a 27-hour pre-service training for foreign English teachers from August 19th-August 23rd. I was incredibly excited to spend a week in the city but I knew nothing of what to expect from the training or anything of what I would be doing there. A coworker of mine from the junior high I will be spending this year kindly drove both Anthony and I from Puli in Nantou County to New Taipei City, about a 2 and a half hour drive. I want to note that a drive like that seems like nothing to someone from the United States where it takes sometimes 9 hours to drive the length of one state but to someone from Taiwan, this is FAR. (I did look up and see that all of Taiwan is a little bigger than the state of Maryland for land area comparison). I was very grateful for his hospitality in making sure we arrived safely and on time, and like I have said previously, people here are ridiculously accommodating. He insisted on helping us check-in, carrying my luggage for me, even before I could get the chance to do it myself.
The Campus
This place was AMAZING, nothing I have ever experienced before. All of the rooms opened to the outside which was nothing short of a tropical paradise but most importantly the place that all of my learning would happen this next week. There were three buildings that we would be using the next few days, one for eat, one for sleep, and one for learning. All were very close together and immersed in the beautiful, serene landscape that is Taiwan. Fun fact: I worked as a florist for almost 10 years so all the plants and flowers had me giddy. I had never seen some of the common houseplants I’ve come to know so BIG before! I made it a point to take in all the breathtaking scenery and remind myself, wow, I’m really doing the thing I talked about doing for so long.
The Accommodations
We stayed in dorm-style housing with each room holding two beds, two desks, and a shared bathroom. Since they host this training several times a year and this was a later session, everyone that attended got to have their own room, Anthony and I having our rooms next to each other. (This was one thing they did stress, regardless of relationship, the dorm accommodation had a strict rule with gender separation in the accommodations. But this didn’t bother us…when in Taiwan!) Upon walking into my room, I will say I got the opportunity, to kill my first cockroach here in Taiwan (and my second one the next morning 😒). Other than that, the rooms were air conditioned and had some pretty comfortable bedding so there’s no complaints here. The shower was pretty nice but since most Taiwanese shower at night, the hot water was usually turned off by midnight. Luckily, the weather has been so hot that the water tank was overheated and if I ran the water long enough, I usually had enough for nice showers in the morning.
The Food 🍜😋🥘
All of our meals during our training was served “family style” on rotating tables, and we got served breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Since I do not eat meat, I sat at the Vegetarian table where there was no storage of others there for environmental and religious reasons, a practice common in Taiwan. They emphasized that all of our meals would be traditional Taiwanese, served with chopsticks and limited to one bowl and one small plate per person, meaning that we could have as much food as we wanted, but we could never get a new, clean bowl during the same meal. In Taiwan, they are very “waste-conscious” and careful not to use too much water, a concept that I am not familiar with but admire greatly. As you can see by the pictures, food was plentiful and fruits that are exotic to me like dragon fruit were served pretty regularly. The only thing that I can say I honestly didn’t love that was served was the bitter melon, because it was well, very bitter. When we were done eating, there were places to put all our dishes and leftover scrapes that I learned are taken to the local farms to feed the pigs, allowing for little to no waste of food on the island and creating hardly any garbage.
During this week, we also got treated to a plated meal where the food again was incredible, served traditionally with an after meal hot or iced tea or coffee. Something I learned here: all the bread is sweet, even the bread that may have some cheese or broccoli on it, seriously. Sometimes this is off-putting, but I’ve been liking everything I’ve been eating even if the cheese has nothing on my cheese back home in Wisconsin.
Fun activities we did throughout the week
Yingge Museum of Ceramics
On Wednesday of the training, we were taken to the Yingge Museum of Ceramics where we got to learn the history and cross-cultural influences of Taiwan’s ceramics. We were able to go through the museum on a guided tour in English to learn about the different techniques and how Taiwan used it for necessity, later exploring ceramics as a form of artistic expression. As a group, we also got to make our own ceramic pieces, a cup decorated with leaves and a custom design wheel. I will get my piece back after its been fired and glazed when I return to Taoyuan City for our mid-year training with MOE in January so stay tuned for that!
Exploring the City
One of my most favorite things about moving to this new country has been the ability to explore and see what the different areas have to offer. New Taipei City is much larger than Puli so any chance that some of the other teachers wanted to explore the city to go on a beer run, grab something from 7 Eleven, or check out the nightlife, I joined. We also checked out a temple that was close by that I unfortunately don’t think it was appropriate to take pictures of the inside, so that will remain a mystery… unless you come to Taiwan and see it for yourself!
Every night, we got to see a traditional Taiwanese puppet show that was impossible to understand, even for Anthony, but entertaining it definitely was! You can even sneak around the back and see the puppet masters and how they do effects which is how I saw that when they made a fire ball, they literally took a lighter to a can of Lysol 😲
School Visits
Part of our training allowed us to watch experienced foreign teachers teach a lesson to a brand new group of students, one at the junior high and the other at the elementary school level. All of the teachers in this program are assigned to schools in rural areas so these are maybe not what we will experience but the schools here are wild. Like the accommodation, a lot of what happens in the school is both in and outdoors and is surrounded by the enchanting city and natural scenes of Taiwan. Some of the classrooms were HOT which is something that I will have to get used to as a foreigner but it didn’t seem to phase the students one bit. I enjoyed seeing both approaches to teaching with different relationships with the Chinese co-teachers (something that I will also need to get accused to but I’ll touch on that later).
In the end…
This experience was like nothing I have ever done before but I am so grateful that I got to be apart of it. I met some of the most amazing teachers from all over the United States, South Africa, Australia, and some native to the island. Some were returning teachers to this program and some, like me, this was the first week they stepped foot in Taiwan or left the country. It was very comforting to know that I am not alone here and that I now have friends that I can call on and visit all over the island. I will admit that I left the program feeling a little homesick, my home country calling to me because of its own need for ESL teachers, but also so excited to get started working at my own junior high school here. The whole reason I set out to do this was to become more culturally responsive and bring my new experiences to better myself as an educator. I am assured that this program with definitely do just that. I look forward to my time here and if I happen to only stay a year, I know that every second will be worth my while and worth all the effort I pour myself into my teaching.
Thanks for reading! Let me know what you’d like to see from me in the next few weeks as I start my teaching schedule and get more comfortable with my living arrangements here in Puli. I started a new page where I show all the funny English things I’ve seen around here so check it out! It’s all in good fun and maybe we’ll all work to help with some translations here! 😂 Thanks again!
Until next time, this has been
Emma Eiden, An ESL Teacher Abroad
An ESL Teacher Abroad 