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Sixteen overseas students get a look at life in Taiwan

A special scholarship program is giving 16 high school students from abroad an inside look at Taiwan.

Those in the scholarship program are entitled to study at a high school or vocational school in Taiwan for one year, during which they live with a Taiwanese family.

One of the students, Coline Poissonnier from France, said yesterday she likes Taiwan’s night markets and that oyster omelettes are her favorite local food.

Poissonnier is studying as a sophomore at National Taichung Girls’ High School.

Like her 15 fellow students from the US, Australia, France, Germany, Japan and Sweden, she is in Taiwan as the recipient of a scholarship offered by the Ministry of Education.

Poissonnier, who had studied Chinese before arriving in Taiwan, said she came here after being told that Taiwan is a fun place.

After spending more than two months here, she can already have simple conversations in Mandarin with local residents.

Poissonnier said her favorite natural site so far was Sun Moon Lake. After visiting some night markets, she said she’s taken to oyster omelettes but finds stinky tofu awful.

Morgane Bouillot, also from France, said her most unforgettable experience in Taiwan to date was shooting off fireworks and taking part in a barbecue contest. Bouillot is enrolled in Tainan Girls’ Senior High School.

The international students attended a tea party organized by the ministry in Taichung City yesterday to promote contacts with the representatives of their countries’ liaison offices in Taiwan and share their local experiences with each other.

The event also aimed to introduce the scholarship program and Taiwan’s efforts to globalize its senior high schools, ministry officials said.

The ministry said it hoped the countries from which the students originate would provide similar scholarships to Taiwanese students to boost bilateral cultural exchanges, the officials added.

The scholarship program was created in 2007 and first implemented last year.
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