I keep getting asked “what makes your second year in Taiwan different from the first?” I think there are two ways for me to answer: that I have now changed my location and school which has altered my responsibilities and community here, but also that I have changed. I am not the same person that originally came to Taiwan all those months ago. I have become more confident in myself. With little experience teaching before, I have been able to teach successful lessons that help my students find the fun in the language. Through practice I can now get by on my own Chinese skills to accomplish my day to day activities (although I still have a long way to go with speaking Chinese). I have even noticed myself getting more confident in my own filming and photography. That’s not to say that my photography is superb, it’s far from it, but now I am more comfortable trying. In taking a chance and playing around with settings to get the perfect shot rather than being too embarrassed to even try.
This past week I was able to enjoy one of the many upsides of living on an island who took Covid seriously, I enjoyed the long weekend to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Moon Festival. Having taught the story of the Mid-Autumn Festival in English to my students I still have many questions over the holiday. It stems from a time when there were 10 suns in the sky. An archer who was so good at archery shot down 9 of the suns with his arrows. To thank him, the ruler gave him an elixir to become immortal, as any emperor just has lying around. The catch is that he was only given enough elixir for one person which means he couldn’t take his wife, Chang’e with him if he drank it. As a result, they decided as a couple to continue living the way they were until a bad man came to try to steal the elixir. Not wanting the bad man to become immortal, Chang’e drank the elixir to keep it safe. She in turn rose to the moon where she now lives with her jade rabbit. The archer, so distraught at loosing his wife to immortality, gives food to the moon every year on the day Chang’e left the Earth.
I know no one believes the story is true and it emulates Greek mythology, but it still impacts life today. On the 15th day of the 8th lunar month, everyone gets the Moon Festival off from work. Families get together, sometimes traveling across the island, to barbeque under the moon and to eat moon cakes. Seeing as I don’t have family per se in Taiwan, I took the Moon Festival as a welcome 4 day weekend to celebrate my anniversary with Sean. We traveled to Yilan, a neighboring county to Taipei, and surfed all day long. Waia’o Beach, a black sand beach, is what I picture Hawaii or California to be like. A small town that is literally built around the chance to surf. Sean got us a great deal with a woman owned business so we not only stayed in her B&B a 25 minute walk to the surf shop, but also got a discount on our boards. I use the term B&B loosely because it did not provide any such food and after the first day, as much as we tried to prevent it from happening, the room had sand everywhere.
Our ability to surf improved greatly over the couple days we were there. The first day I felt like I was in a washing machine, getting tossed around by the waves. I think in the entire day I only stood up maybe once or twice. We got so frustrated that Sean and I both ended up trading our boards in for body boards instead. To make up for the first day’s waves we decided on the third day what better time to go surfing at sunrise than when you are just a short walk from the beach? I regretted that decision the next day when we got up at 4:30. However, once we hit the sand and got our surf boards I realized it was worth the early wake up. Sean and I were the first ones on the entire beach, let alone the first ones in the water surfing. The sky was magnificent and gave off Lion King vibes when the sun glowed bright pink. With the waves a little more calm, Sean and I had a blast actually surfing waves in. I even got confident enough to try paddling further out to catch the bigger waves too!
A friend of ours from Taipei was joining us so we stayed out surfing till around 8 or 9, came back in and headed back to the B&B for some breakfast. The day with Casey was a lot of fun! We surfed for another 4 hours by which time Sean and I had amassed many bruises and “rug/board burns” from the grip on our rental boards. With stinging cuts from the salt water we headed in early and like children, had fun burying Sean in the sand.
Although we never did a bonfire on the beach as Sean had wanted, I couldn’t have imagined a better and more fun filled weekend. Even without surfing on Sunday, sitting on the beach eating breakfast was so peaceful. I think if I didn’t live in Chicago and actually had access to a beach back home I would consider buying a real surfboard I like surfing so much. I plan on making the best of living on an island by surfing as much as I can before I leave, but maybe waiting for my board burns to go away first. Before returning back to the school day grind I made sure to enjoy some of Taipei’s excellent food. We ordered vegan burgers, surprisingly good just too big for one sitting, potatoes, and of course made a box of mac n’ cheese my parents sent. It’s weekends like this where there are no surprises (or at least no bad surprises) that I can relax and enjoy myself, not worrying about my future.
Vegan lunch minus the Mac n' cheese with the view of Taipei
Now all this paints my second year in Taiwan as sunshine and daisies. It’s true, I enjoy myself here, but the change of school has kept me on my toes in how to best teach these students. Unlike last year, my students are a little older, ranging from 12 to 16 years old. More than that, as an experiential school, Chulu Junior High tends to draw students that don’t succeed in regular classes. Chulu draws students that may have more difficulty learning or on the other hand, students who don’t do well with the strict behavior in typical junior high schools. Last year when I was having trouble with classroom management, I just had to clap my hands to get the students to settle down and bring their attention back to me. That is not the case this year.
My desk is located in the Student Activities office which also doubles as the office of any disciplinary action. I think I have gone two weeks in which at least one student has been in the office during break times writing lines as punishment for something they did. Commonly the stories involve the students who live on campus in the dorms. From what I hear there are countless “pranks” in the boys’ dorm which involve dead cockroaches and other bugs. Fights have broken out at times (all before or after school so I have never witnessed them personally) and students don’t finish their homework. All these infractions usually end in a call to their parents and writing lines or if you happen to be on the basketball team, the director who doubles as the coach just has you run laps for a week during practice. I feel like these attitudes and instances can change and improve. Sometimes the fight and attitude in the students go deeper than some choice words.
I’ve grown to understand some of my students’ reactions by learning more about their family lives. One student, who often gets bullied based on his learning challenges, has a hard time controlling his anger which often leads to fights. I recently learned that when that student was growing up their step-father would physically abuse them. Knowing this their attitude at school makes more sense, it doesn’t justify it, but it’s more understandable. The teachers at my school are attentive to the students inside and outside of the classroom, so upon hearing the step-father will be released from jail, a meeting was already called to discuss how best to help that student. In other cases, students are growing up in broken homes, with struggling single parents, or parents arrested for drunk driving. I had an activity in my 7th grade class where I asked the students to draw their family tree. I hadn’t thought of preparing how to show divorce, passed away, or those who left the family on a family tree. Through all of this the teachers at my school stand by the students and help where they can. The new addition to my office has been a punching bag. The director hopes that with a different outlet for anger, the students will less likely turn to each other. So far, this idea has worked!
By being more attentive to my students in this way I am able to not take their actions and responses to heart, that there can always be something more going on in someone’s life that doesn’t reach the eye. I wish I had been this observant and willing to ask teachers about different behaviors I saw last year because I think it would’ve helped me be a better leader to those students that were having a hard time outside of school.
Teaching more students with troubled home-lives and students who find it harder to achieve in a normal classroom has also motivated me to be more creative in the classroom. I think in bringing creativity into the classroom I can not only make the learning less of a chore, but also help the student forget maybe for a little bit about everything that is happening outside of school, to offer a little reprieve from any worries as they play jeopardy or act out a dialogue. Their age also allows me the chance to be their friend. I just figured out that the last period of class on Wednesdays is an activity period which sometimes lends itself to outdoor games like basketball and badminton. I sat with the cheering squad watching a basketball game between students. I felt like I could talk to them, check that my Chinese makes sense, and listen to them talk about their lives outside of school.
I think that everything in Taiwan from learning to surf, photographing more, to learning about my students’ stories and lives will help me be a better storyteller in the future - the reason I came to Taiwan in the first place.
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