Our interactions with the students have been my favorite part about the
trip so far. This is the first time that I have really felt like I am in Taiwan and truly learning something.
The history is important and it is extremely interesting to study, but seeing
and experiencing modern dynamics has been equally insightful. It helped me to
make connections between what we have been learning about and what is really
going on.
At Ming Chuan, our interactions were intricately planned. We began at a
formal meeting between professors, administrators, and students at Ming Chuan
and our own students and faculty members. Formal words and introductions were
exchanged between each party; we watched a video about Ming Chuan; and had an
opportunity for a question and answer session with the students. Following
this, we went on a formal tour of the university to see the various artifacts,
cultural rooms, and other elements that Ming Chuan had to offer.
I spent a lot of my time at Ming Chuan with a student named Nina. As we
toured the various locations of Ming Chuan, she continued to tell me that she
was unfamiliar with these areas. The culture rooms were mainly used for tours
that came through and educational workshops with students not from Ming Chuan.
The museums and artifacts were simply extra (like Marshal Fredericks Museum at
SVSU). She talked about how busy she was with her program and how she didn’t
spend much time at extracurricular activities like the museum.
As we continued along, I asked her about her travels to the United States
and the things he was most excited about. She really wanted to be able to
site-see in Michigan and spend time on campus meeting students and become much
immersed in our university, but she was very concerned that she wouldn’t have
time. She was expecting to be in class from 8am to 5pm and then have homework
until late in to the night. Although I understood that she will be
participating in a brief, month long intensive summer program at SVSU, it
seemed so strange that she was expecting to be in school all of the time. It
reminded me of the intensity of schooling that Dr. Liu talked about
at the Grand Hotel.
This look in to the intensity of schooling in Taiwan continued as we
watched the Ming Chuan video. There was a point in the movie that stated Ming
Chuan was comparable to Columbia and Pennsylvania State University. Saginaw
Valley is not in the same league as those Universities by a long shot, and yet
we are still a sister university to Ming Chuan. We have students coming to
Saginaw Valley expecting rigorous school work and hard schedules—students who
are excited to come and learn and become fluent in English despite the fact
that Saginaw Valley may not be on the same level as their home university. It
made me think about how much the universities like Ming Chuan are able to
achieve when they have such a hard working base of students to draw from – and
how far schools like Saginaw Valley in the United States have to fall if we
aren’t careful.
At Shi Hsin, however, the environment was very different – it was more
relaxed and informal, but still informative of Taiwanese culture. We met with
the Shi Hsin students very briefly in their home university. Enough time to
reconnect with Mimi and Timmothy (students who had visited Saginaw Valley
earlier in the year) and meet the new students planning to travel to SVSU. We
saw very brief presentations on Shi Hsin and food in Taiwan before parting to
change and prepare to travel for a night out with the students in Taiwan. We
were finally moving away from the schools and seeing what students actually did
in their free time.
I spent most of my time with a student name Beatrice who would be
attending a college in Wisconsin rather than SVSU (but despite this, she still
wants to visit SVSU when she travels to the States). Beatrice was a lot of fun
to talk to and get to know. She was really excited to show me her favorite parts
about Taiwan, the shopping, the food, and the night markets. But what really
stood out was how accommodating she was trying to be for me. We didn’t just
walk around talking, she let me chose which stores we went in to. She was
hesitant to choose where she wanted to go or what her favorite things were,
instead waiting for me to say something looked interesting or tasty. I had to
really push her to take me to her favorite locations and show me the things she
personally recommended about Taiwan. This was most apparent at the night
markets. Rather than showing me her favorite stations to eat or shop at, she
took the time to call a friend and learn which stations had the best version of
whatever cuisine we were about to try. She got the names of a few dishes that
were extremely popular for tourists and extremely famous in Taipei. Along with
these, we stopped at a few of her favorites too, but she was dead set on
showing me the best parts of night market we were visiting. Although our visit
with Shi Hsin was more relaxed, they were still planning our outings to show us
the best parts of where we were going, just like Ming Chuan showed us the best
parts of their university in the organized tour.
After receiving such wonderful hospitality and the concentrated accommodation
of the students in Taipei, I began to realize how important it will be for us
to return the favor when these, or any students, come to Saginaw Valley. We
were extremely taken care of and extremely welcomed everywhere we went in
Taipei. We owe it to these students to show them the best of Saginaw Valley
when they come and try our hardest to make their stay worthwhile. I’m even more
excited to greet these students over the summer and in the fall as they begin
to come to our university. I can’t wait to reconnect with new friends
and show them that we, too, can be great hosts.
No comments:
Post a Comment