Eat a lot, Chinese a lot Past Review

Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc.

What the university could control was great- we could only use Chinese in our language classes, and none of our work was busy-work, it was all necessary. I feel like my language learning has improved tremendously. I didn't, however, enjoy the way my teacher encouraged competition within the classroom regarding grades. Our grades were not private- she would often call out who got the highest or lowest grade, not only on major tests, but on every paper that was graded. Some of the students in my small class really got competitive and were often snobbish and rude about it, which would have been easier to ignore if I wasn't stuck in the same room with them for three hours a day. Because I couldn't ignore it and constantly felt under pressure and scrutiny, I feel like both my learning and experience were affected.

On-site administration of your program

I never really had any issues with the administration personally, but I know many of the students in my program did- with some of the administration lying to them and being rude to them when they had problems that needed to be resolved. I was often in the administration office studying, and other students would often come in to discuss problems they were having with housing, reimbursements, schedules, and even personal health problems. Instead of leaving to go somewhere private, one of the administrators, Christy, would talk about the issues in front of me. Not only that, but she would talk about the person right after they left. Confidentiality was practically nonexistant there, and neither was a professional atmosphere: information about "required" events and meetings (like date, time, and location) were often emailed to use the day before or the day of. We would have to drop all our other plans, or explain to them why we couldn't go and upset them.

How satisfied were you with your living arrangements?

For the first month in the International House, my roommate and I lived in a room behind the bathrooms. We often had large spiders (size of a tennis ball), la yas (large arachnid that eats cockroaches), geckos, cockroaches (once found three in my roommate's bed), beetles, and even a wasp. Having all these creatures in our room wasn't just scary and distracting, it actually stopped us from studying a few times (the wasp kept flying over our desks and we didn't know how to get rid of it for a few hours). In September, during midterm week, I came home once, and one of the ladies working at International House told me I had to move into a different room because the bathrooms on our floor weren't working. The location of International House was also extremely inconvenient. We were literally on a mountain, which although was beautiful, was not an appropriate commute. There was one store near us further up the mountain, but if we wanted a quick bite or anything else, we had to wait 20-30 minutes to take a small, rickety bus down the mountain, and then another bus to get anywhere else (including school). The commute to school or back could take up to 1 hour and 45 minutes. The International House should not even be an option for student housing

I always love the food in Taiwan. It is so cheap, and so delicious. Breakfast foods are numerous: buns with fillings, flatbread with toppings, and sandwiches literally inside of sandwiches. The average cost for a meal (street food cost) is about 30NT to 70NT (1-2USD). Even the more "expensive" meals are still pretty cheap (about 100-200NT, or 3-5USD). Pretty much everything is fresh, and because it's an island, seafood is significantly cheaper (especially sushi!)

How integrated did you feel with the local culture?

I have family in Taiwan that I stayed with both before and after the program ended and started, and that I would often see during the program. They helped me a lot getting around. One of my favorite things to do in Taiwan is to go to night markets, and you really get to mix with the culture there- haggling, buying foods, and just walking around, you interact closely just watching people.

How well were health issues addressed during the program?

For physical health issues (scrapes, colds, fever), access to help was pretty easy to get. However, there was one student in our program who must have had serious mental health issues. She sometimes pulled out a knife when she felt like she was in danger (she wouldn't be), and got kicked out of clubs for it. She would get extremely angry with people in the program, grab them hard by their wrists and shake them, and storm away. We were all scared of her, but had to include her because she would get upset if she found out we went somewhere without her. I feel that she should either not have come abroad or been talked to more.

I always felt safe walking around in either the day time or night time.

(1 = not very easy/$200+ on food & personal expenses/week, 2.5 = $100/week, 5 = very easily/minimal cost)

0 = No encouragement, 5 = frequent encouragement to use the language

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• Other

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• International Students

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• International Students

• Food
• Opportunities
• Language

• mental health standards
• housing options
• administration

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