A Foreign Meeting
Today was a very interesting day. It started off rather diverse because everyone showed up to class at different times. Ben and I were the first to arrive at class, followed by Mitch, Michelle, and Hannah.
Tiffany was out sick for the day with a cold. After our routine of going to class for four hours, it was time to meet our Taiwanese Fu Jen students for our first session of English tutoring. We all drew letters out of a hat to see which group of students we would be paired with; I chose group C. We introduced ourselves, had some lunch, and asked each other questions about one’s culture.
When everyone was finished getting to know each other, we traveled to different classrooms to teach other simple songs to sing for Tuesday’s presentation. I taught my group how to spell Mississippi that southern way. I told them to say, M-I-crooked letter-crooked letter-I-crooked letter-crooked letter-I-humpback-humpback-I. They got a pretty good laugh out of it and after some translating what a crooked letter and a humpback was, they accepted it and agreed to present it Tuesday at the presentation.
It was time to give them a challenge after spelling Mississippi. So I taught them the very first song I remember learning, “The Itsy Bitsy Spider.” I showed them the hand motions, taught them tempo, and the correct pronunciation of each word. Taiwanese students are very, very smart so they caught on to the song and hand motions fast. Then, it was my turn to learn how to sing a simple Chinese song. To my surprise, I already knew the song because it was a spin-off a very popular American song, “When We All Get Together, the Happier We’ll Be.” After being pumped up about learning this song in Chinese, I soon found out that I had to perform it solo Tuesday in Chinese. But I don’t mind, it’s good that we challenge ourselves everyday. Upon returning to class, we were informed that we were about to play a very famous game of paper, scissors, rock. It was fun to play a game we use to make conflicting decisions between two friends half way around the world with people that are a different nationality. It was then time to move into a big group question and answer session. I did not realize how much influence America has on other countries until today. One of the questions I asked the Fu Jen students to answer was what they thought about America.
Many of their responses were shocking. They all thought that Americans were friendly and smart. But, being an American and knowing our ways, I totally disagree. The big difference between people in America and people in Taiwan is that the Taiwanese people are so much friendlier than people in America. I thought I knew what southern hospitality was residing in Mississippi, but there is no one more hospitable than a citizen from Taiwan. Also, I was amazed at how much English they can speak and how long they have been studying it. Most of them start studying English when they are juniors in High School while others start when they are in Kindergarten. Here I am, one year into Chinese and these students have been studying English for six or more years. The work ethic in Taiwan is a lot harder than it is in America. The people here think very highly of Americans. Some said we were very handsome and beautiful, others thought of America as the most powerful country, while some thought our professional sports were the best around. People don’t realize just how good we have it in America until you hear it from someone of another nationality. These people work hard everyday to make a decent living and gladly accept us from a country they look up to into their country. These people are cool in my books, and are welcome to America anytime they want.
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