From Tiffany - July 22

Service Learning Project

Today we visited two of the last scheduled schools where we suppose to teach English. I
n the beginning we were afraid to implement the curriculum Tanaka and I developed because we never considered ourselves English teachers.
Weeks before going into the classrooms, the social workers in Taiwan were constantly asking us to change our plans until we came up with a concrete lesson plan that can be implemented at all of the seven schools.
I remember the first day we visited the schools. The kids, aging from 5-12, were so happy to see us. Every time we walk in the room we would hear them say “Mei Guo ren”.
We’ll smile because we know that means “American” in Chinese.
For some of them, this was the first time in their life that they have ever seen a real American outside of TV. We received a total of 170 smiles as we walked in the hot sun all around Taipei County visiting school after school.
Even though the sun was scorching our skin, we never complained because we knew that this was strictly for the kids and we knew that this experience would impact their lives forever. From the first school to the second to the last, we enjoyed teaching. Majority of the kids knew most of what we taught them but they don’t use the English terms very often. This cross culture opportunity impacted both of us.
We were able to share what so many people take for granted which is our education. If you didn’t know it or not, majority of the students in Taiwan have to pay for a public school education when we get it for free.
It’s the little things like this that make you appreciate where you come from and why we say “I’m proud to be an American”. I never knew what this slogan stood for until I traveled outside of the country. We are being exposed to so many things that people on the other side of the world have no idea of. One thing I can say is that we’re blessed to have freedom. That term is so broad but no other country can truly define this word like the United State of America.

In the U.S., we were groomed with English. In Taiwan, you are considered educated and fortunate because of the English language. It felt good watching the group come together to teach all these kids American games with English structured into the rules.
I like it when I see the kids in my class write on the board the words and numbers I ask them to write. Sometimes they know it and sometimes they don’t but the beauty of the project appears when you see them helping out each other. I consider that progress. The shy kids and kids whose English wasn’t good really touched my heart.
On the first day they didn’t even want to stand up and introduce themselves or communicate with their other class mates. After our visit, you’ll see them talking and playing the games that we taught them with each other. It puts a smile on my face when I see them excited about being able to read and recognized words that I say and words that I wrote on the board.
Since I had my own class besides working with another person, I was able to utilize my hour to do a variety of activities so they’ll have something to remember. It’s not everyday that an American comes to teach you in your class. This was a special opportunity for all of us. Even though these kids were at the bottom half of the academic roster, they will be the blessed ones because they were able to meet us unlike the rest of the school.
When school starts, they’ll be the talk of the day because the group picture that we took at every school will be on display so the other students can see them. Yesterday the social worker almost made me cry when she told me that the students have been waiting on us for days to come see them. From that moment I realized that we are changing their lives forever.
Maybe this experience will one day inspire them to study in the United States because we were so welcoming and humble. At the end of the day we all feel good because we know we have touched dozens of lives even though it took a lot of work to get this project on the road. Sometimes after we visit a school we will say to ourselves that we should have had cameras because this is just like the real world. In my mind I knew that this was better than real world because they don’t change lives for the better on a daily basis like we have been doing. When they’re given projects, its for competition to eliminate a team player.
We need all our team players because it takes motivation and a group effort to successfully carry out a big project like this. Real World could never produce a project like this because they wouldn’t know what to do, how to do it, and it wouldn’t be in the best interest of the students. We sort of made history for JSU and Fu Jen Catholic University Language Center because this is the first time foreigners have ever participated in a Service Learning project.

This really motivated us to do a fantastic job because we are representing two profound universities. What we do will affect other students participation in future. I’m glad we were given the ground breaking ceremony. We put our hearts into the work we produced because we were in their shoes once in our lives.
This is something we learn from JSU, “Challenging Minds, Changing Lives”.
We definitely changed lives. To be honest, this was one of the best things I have ever done in my life besides growing up.
Mei- Chi always said that this experience will enlighten not only the students but us as well. I really didn’t know what she meant until we started teaching at the schools.
One special thing I did for the students so they’ll always remember this day, remember us, and remember this experience was create a certificate that stated that they completed Jackson State University Summer English Camp.
It was so cute and impressive. After each class we’ll all unite and present the certificates to each of the students. The smiles that they give us really touches our hearts because its a smile of joy and appreciation.
I bet they never thought that their summer school experience would include some Americans teaching them English. At the end of the day, we’ re all blessed to have each other. This experience will take us on a very long journey in life because we placed our hearts into our work.

Tiffany