When Tucheng Junior High School was assigned an English teacher from Canada last year, its parents' association pooled together the funds to buy a bicycle for the new teacher.
But after Kim Whidden, leaves Taiwan next month when her one-year contract ends, the bicycle will probably rust before the voice of a native English speaker is heard in this remote location on the outskirts of Tainan City again.
The junior high school is not likely to get another foreign English-language teacher from the Ministry of Education, which has been carrying out a program to install foreign English teachers in 3,300 rural schools since 2004.
PHOTO: HUANG WEN-HUANG, TAIPEI TIMES
After working for one year as an English teacher sponsored by the ministry, Whidden plans to return to Canada and continue with her career as a teacher. But she enjoyed her time in Taiwan.
"This has been a once in a lifetime opportunity for me," Whidden, a 29-year-old teacher from New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, told the Taipei Times last week.
Despite encountering some difficulties during her stay, Whidden thought that the program had been beneficial to her and the around 700 students she teaches each week.
Both sides learn
She said she had noticed an increase in the willingness of the students to try out their English.
"I've been able to learn a little" about the languages and culture in Taiwan, she said.
She has also been impressed by the efforts the school's students, parents and staff have made to make her comfortable. These included installing a computer system for her to use during her stay, complete with a Web cam so she can more easily communicate with her friends overseas. And of course, there was the bicycle.
"People here have been very helpful in trying to make things better," she said.
But there was still an element of culture shock that she had to overcome.
"For me, being the only foreigner [in the area] is the most difficult thing," Whidden said.
She said that although she was prepared for life in a remote location, she was surprised at how she was initially received.
"I hadn't expected to be treated like a star, with people taking pictures of me," she said, laughing.
Prepared
The difference between her expectations, based on the scant information provided by the school and the Ministry of Education before she arrived, and the reality of her situation did not faze Whidden, she said, but more could have been done to prepare her for her job.
"Finding foreign teachers to come [to remote locations in Taiwan] is difficult," she said. "There should be more communication, more clear information available about the schools."
For those teachers who are considering applying to the MOE's program, she had simple, straightforward advice.
"Be flexible. Learn some Chinese," she said.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Instead of focusing solely on the threat of a full-scale military invasion, the US and its allies must prepare for a potential Chinese “quarantine” of Taiwan enforced through customs inspections, Stanford University Hoover fellow Eyck Freymann said in a Foreign Affairs article published on Wednesday. China could use various “gray zone” tactics in “reconfiguring the regional and ultimately the global economic order without a war,” said Freymann, who is also a nonresident research fellow at the US Naval War College. China might seize control of Taiwan’s links to the outside world by requiring all flights and ships entering or leaving Taiwan
The next minimum wage hike is expected to exceed NT$30,000, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday during an award ceremony honoring “model workers,” including migrant workers, at the Presidential Office ahead of Workers’ Day today. Lai said he wished to thank the awardees on behalf of the nation and extend his most sincere respect for their hard work, on which Taiwan’s prosperity has been built. Lai specifically thanked 10 migrant workers selected for the award, saying that although they left their home countries to further their own goals, their efforts have benefited Taiwan as well. The nation’s industrial sector and small businesses lay
RSS