Dinner at the Grand Hotel

 I am unsure what I concluded from the dinner at the Grand Hotel.

It was definitely a chance to see how hard the students in Taiwan worked. As Dr. Liu described, his students would often get up at 5:30am and go to school until 9:00pm. Then they would go home and do homework until about midnight. Much of the work they did until 9:00pm was outside of the normal school day. This work consisted of workshops and classes to improve on their English – literature, drama, conversation, art, music, etc. Further, parents often do not get to see their children—and they simply accept this fact. If their children work hard, they will be better than the other children thus bringing honor to their families and saving face. Parents believe that their children’s long hours and hard work are necessary sacrifices in for this honor. They want their children to be the best that they can be.

I also couldn’t help but feel a little out of place as we continued to talk. I am a theatre major. Although I am taking management and Spanish language courses, I am planning to go in to the entertainment business. I sat at a table of other students who had prospects in Taiwan. Teaching students, nursing students, law students, business and accounting – they all seemed to have some degree that they could pursue in Taiwan or some way in which they could benefit from coming to teach in Taiwan. I didn’t feel like the same applied to me and the career I am pursuing. Ming Chuan in Taiwan didn’t even really have an art program. There were other universities that had art programs, but we didn’t hear much about them. It was simply something Carol mentioned in passing. Perhaps I was making myself feel uncomfortable by thinking too hard about what was being said or trying to find too much meaning in what was happening, but either was I found it difficult to dive in to the excitement that the others seemed to be feeling about studying abroad in Taiwan.