One of the favorite memories Deanna Laforet will take home with her to the UK will be her participation in the Mandarin Training Center’s dragon boat team last month.
“It was so much fun training for the race, and it was even more fun participating in it,” said Laforet, who has been in Taiwan for almost a year now. “Where else would I have had such a chance to take part in a cultural festival this way?”
PHOTO COURTESY OF DEANNA LAFORET
Laforet, in her mid-20s, came to Taiwan to improve her Mandarin after receiving an undergraduate degree in Chinese at a British university.
“I wanted to brush up on my Mandarin and also take the opportunity to live in a different country and try to understand it, at least a bit,” she said. “I enrolled in classes at the Mandarin Training Center at National Taiwan Normal University, and it was also important to take advantage of being in a Chinese-language setting and environment.”
“I was able to meet lots of Taiwanese people, speak to them, get to know them as individuals, go to movies, lectures, read the local Chinese-language newspapers,” she said. “It was also important, I felt, to leave the university language school bubble and go off campus and walk around, visit museums and parks and get out of the city when I could. The 10 months I’ve spent here have been great.”
In her spare time, Laforet did volunteer work at the Taiwan Environmental Protection Union (TEPU).
“I wanted to get a better understanding of the country’s environmental situation and get some work experience in this field,” she said. “I feel there is certainly too much of a throw-away lifestyle here in Taiwan.”
“In terms of environmental awareness and policies, Taiwan unfortunately is not as developed as one would hope,” she said. “Fingers crossed that this changes in the near future.”
Laforet said two of the things that were particularly important to her this year in Taiwan were “my volunteer work at TEPU, seeing the NGO [non-governmental organization] sector here, being part of it and making a small contribution — and being on that dragon boat race team.”
Her time in Taiwan this year was well spent, she said, adding that “the Taiwanese are very friendly and welcoming, and living here has definitely been easy to adapt to and a lot of fun.”
When asked what she might tell people in the UK about Taiwan, she said: “That it is worth considering coming to Taipei. I believe Taiwan is a very underrated travel destination and a fantastic insight into Asia.”
“It has beautiful scenery, vibrant cities, interesting Aboriginal cultures and has done some great preservation of Chinese cultural heritage,” Laforet said.
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Monday called for greater cooperation between Taiwan, Lithuania and the EU to counter threats to information security, including attacks on undersea cables and other critical infrastructure. In a speech at Vilnius University in the Lithuanian capital, Tsai highlighted recent incidents in which vital undersea cables — essential for cross-border data transmission — were severed in the Taiwan Strait and the Baltic Sea over the past year. Taiwanese authorities suspect Chinese sabotage in the incidents near Taiwan’s waters, while EU leaders have said Russia is the likely culprit behind similar breaches in the Baltic. “Taiwan and our European
The Taipei District Court sentenced babysitters Liu Tsai-hsuan (劉彩萱) and Liu Jou-lin (劉若琳) to life and 18 years in prison respectively today for causing the death of a one-year-old boy in December 2023. The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said that Liu Tsai-hsuan was entrusted with the care of a one-year-old boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), in August 2023 by the Child Welfare League Foundation. From Sept. 1 to Dec. 23 that year, she and her sister Liu Jou-lin allegedly committed acts of abuse against the boy, who was rushed to the hospital with severe injuries on Dec. 24, 2023, but did not
LIKE-MINDED COUNTRIES: Despite the threats from outside, Taiwan and Lithuania thrived and developed their economies, former president Tsai Ing-wen said Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Saturday thanked Lithuania for its support of Taiwan, saying that both countries are united as partners in defending democracy. Speaking at a reception organized by the Lithuania-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Group welcoming her on her first visit to the Baltic state, Tsai said that while she was president from 2016 to last year, many Lithuanian “friends” visited Taiwan. “And I told myself I have to be here. I am very happy that I am here, a wonderful country and wonderful people,” Tsai said. Taiwan and Lithuania are in similar situations as both are neighbors to authoritarian countries, she
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) is to visit the UK during her ongoing European trip, which originally included only Lithuania and Denmark, her office said today. Tsai departed Taiwan for Europe on Friday night, with planned stops in Lithuania and Denmark, marking her second visit to the continent since her two-term presidency ended in May last year. Her office issued a statement today saying that Tsai would also visit the UK "for a few days," during which she is to meet with UK politicians and Taiwanese professionals, and visit academic and research institutions. Following Tsai's stop in Denmark, she is to visit the
RSS