Twenty-five-year-old Tyler Rosso went to Taipei Songshan Sports Center on a Tuesday morning and headed to the indoor pool directly, not for a swim, but to teach swimming lessons.
Before serving as a swimming coach at the pool, Rosso, a New York native whose mother is Taiwanese, was an English teacher at a cram school and freelance model since coming to Taiwan two years ago.
Being half Taiwanese, Rosso came to Taiwan after graduating from college to “learn about his roots” while carrying out his goal of working in another country. Having worked as a swimming coach in the US, Rosso said teaching swimming was more rewarding than being an English teacher, and the sports center agreed to open a swimming course for him about a month ago after he approached the sports center for a job opportunity.
For the sports center, Rosso’s background as an American who spoke only basic Mandarin was a great selling point, as the center promoted his “-English-only” swimming lessons on posters and the center’s Web site.
“Swimming is a very important skill to learn, and to watch your students improve every day is rewarding ... And I think it’s a good way to learn English with conversation through English swimming lessons,” Rosso said.
Inviting foreigners or English-speaking people like Rosso to offer English sports lessons is one of the Songshan Sports Center’s efforts to attract more patrons and distinguish itself from the other 11 district sports centers in Taipei City.
According to the sports center, foreigners account for between 5 percent and 10 percent of the people who work out at the center.
The center’s pool manager Cheng Chin-ren (鄭欽仁) said Songshan Sports Center is the only district sports center with two swimming pools and an English diving course, which is taught by Canadian coach Shaun Payne.
Another Canadian diving coach will join Payne to offer English-speaking diving lessons from next month, he said.
English sports lessons with foreign teachers, including water ballet and yoga, are also available at the sports center.
In addition to recruiting foreign instructors, Cheng said the sports center has also worked hard to create a bilingual environment.
“We have English pamphlets and brochures at the center, and everything, even pool heights and warning signs, are in Chinese and English. I don’t think you can find a better bilingual environment at other sports centers,” he said.
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