It has been two months since I last spoke with you all, and I am very sorry for that. I have many things I want to tell you, I just have a problem with writing everything down. BUT! Thanks to my fantastic Papa, I now have an application on my iPad that reminds me to journal everyday. With this app cracking the whip, I will write something down everyday, which I can than transfer to this blog! Super cool, right? You can always count on my Papa to know about the coolest, hippest apps.
This also means word of the day will be back, as well as picture of the week.
So, the entry for today: School
Education is taken very seriously in Taiwan. School starts at 8 and goes to 5. Some students are not completely satisfied with just 9 hours of learning, so they they supplementary courses after school for 2-3 hours, or they get together with other students and study at a coffee shop or library for the same amount of time. This is repeated from Monday-Saturday.
Classes are very straight forward. The teacher comes to the classroom, instead of the student going to the classroom, teaches the content of the class, the students take notes and listen, and then the bell rings and the teacher leaves. There are no questions or discussions, just hard facts and lectures. Being introduced to this kind of learning and teaching was a great shock for me. What if I don't understand? What if I want to know what everyone else thinks about the topic? here, those are things that you discuss outside of class, on your own time. Class time is for teacher lecture only. It really was surprising to me, and I still don't completely agree with it, but that is what this exchange is about, gaining a bigger perspective of the world to better understand its people.
While all of my classmates work hard, I work out of my Chinese textbook, read books, journal, write, and even skip to the library for some computer time. I am not required to take the courses that my class does, so I am mostly free to dictate my own schedule. It is pretty nice. And this semester, we get to leave school at 4 instead of 5. Things are getting better.
What else can I say? My host parents are often surprised by my lack of homework; I am thrilled by it!