Over spring break, twenty-six students and three faculty members flew halfway around the globe, to and from Taiwan, to experience a completely new aspect of global culture, society, and language.
Over fifteen days, the group first stayed in Taipei, Taiwan’s capital, before moving on to experience rural Taiwanese culture in Yilan and Hualien, two tiny cities on Taiwan’s east coast. The group then returned to Taipei before proceeding to Puli and Sun Moon Lake, where students experienced a local paper mill and an amusement park specializing in aboriginal (local) culture showcases.
The students culminated their trip in Tainan, one of Taiwan’s oldest cities, located near Taiwan’s south coast. In Tainan, students stayed with homestay families from Taiwan First Senior High, where they experienced a more in-depth view of local everyday life.
Upper school Mandarin teacher Ms. Yi Lee shared her observations from the trip.
“I think it was an eye-opening experience for many of the kids who have maybe never been abroad in general,” Ms. Lee said. She noted that traveling to Taiwan “definitely motivated some [students] to try harder [with their language skills.]”
Ms. Lee observed students gaining confidence in their skills as the trip progressed. Students’ Chinese proficiency was vastly better than their in-class proficiency, suggesting that speaking a language outside of the classroom improves skills. Students tested their abilities by practicing speaking with locals and learning local phrases.
Many students, however, gravitated towards Americanized commodities, including Taiwanese McDonald’s, instead of pushing their comfort zone to the fullest.
Spanish teacher Mr. Javier Lluch also served as a faculty advisor on the trip.
Mr. Lluch came into the trip not knowing much about the history of Taiwan, and left with significantly more knowledge of Taiwanese history and culture. He is hopeful the trip pushed students.
“If nothing else, it should be just something out of your comfort zone,” Mr. Lluch said.
A large part of what the students accomplished in Taiwan came from their willingness to seek unique experiences.
Mr. Lluch also hopes that traveling to Taiwan plants the seed in many attendees to travel again in the future. He noted that Taiwan, in particular, was a unique place to travel to because it was so different from the culture in America, and from the culture of his birthplace in Europe.
Mr. Lluch had a unique perspective compared to the rest of the group, as one of the three people who were neither fluent in Mandarin nor learning Mandarin.
“It was the first time that I traveled with students where I was in a country where English or Spanish was not spoken,” he said. He enjoyed relying on the students to understand what words or signs in Mandarin meant.
Perhaps that is why we travel, to reflect on how other people live, and from that, how we live.
Ceramics teacher Mr. Jacob Raeder, another advisor for the trip, also did not speak any Mandarin.
On the language barrier, Mr. Raeder said, “There were not a ton of situations where students had to kind of figure out or navigate a situation outside of their native tongue.” According to Mr. Raeder, many people in Taiwan, especially in big cities, speak English to some degree.
“It’s almost a fallacy that we, being Americans, living on the East Coast, living in Pennsylvania, living near Philadelphia—yes, we are kind of exposed to global society, but we aren’t always participants in it,” Mr. Raeder said.
Reflecting on the structure of the trip, all three faculty advisors agree that they wish students had the opportunity to spend more time living in homestays.
“Kids were talking about how that was the best part of the trip,” Mr. Lluch said.
Mr. Raeder observed that many kids were nervous or fearful beforehand, but quickly grew into the homestays being their favorite part of the trip.
According to Mr. Lluch, traveling to foreign places is often a unique and eye-opening experience, and it’s something that helps one reflect on how other people live.
Perhaps that is why we travel, to reflect on how other people live, and from that, how we live. Perhaps, in order to reflect upon ourselves, we need to be able to reflect upon other peoples, cultures, and countries first in order to form genuine cultural connections.
