Taiwan, Taiwan, Taiwan Past Review

Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc.

It is a true abroad experience. You are immersed in the culture of Taiwan as a student at Shih Hsin. The main focus of the program is teaching english, which may not appeal to everyone at Emerson. But you do get a small pay and its how you make friends. You will be very busy during this program. About every day is like this;; 2 hours of Chinese class, 4 hours of English Corner, then 2 hours of regular class. The regular classes are way too easy, which can be good or bad depending on how you see it. Then you have the weekend to adventure around the country.

On-site administration of your program

Good accessiblity, and getting things done. Some stuff we were told before going to Taiwan did not come out true, such as people in Taiwan do not expect gifts, we were told to bring small gifts but whenever we gave them to people they were weirded out and confused. Also Shih Hsin internet wireless connection sucks. Other than that, all the expectations were met that we were informed about.

How satisfied were you with your living arrangements?

The dorms flat out suck. But it made me a stronger person which is why its hard to rate. I think after living in such a terrible dorm, everything else is wonderful, which is a good thing. I wouldnt want the dorms to be too nice because maybe then I wouldnt want to leave Taiwan. There are two dorm buldings, one for boys and one for girls because of how traditional conservative they are. There are four people in one room, about an average sized room. There are clean bathroooms but have squatting toilets. You have no privacy. You cannot bring girls into your room. Many students hang up their laundry to dry in their rooms so it smells like mold. Its best just to use the dorm as a place you sleep at night, go to the library to do anything else. The housing is free though.

Taiwan's food is satisfactory, but the cafeteria food at the campus is disgusting. The menu never changes. There are restaurants near by with some good food but they arent open long, so if its 10pm and you're hungry for dinner, its difficult to find good food. Also, the dorms dont have refrigerator or microwave so you cant store food which creates a lot of frustration. The nightmarket food is okay, but it made me sick alot. There's just not much variety. Its always vegetables and rice, I lost about 10 pounds because of that. Lots of tofu and soy. The food is always cheap though. You have to be a fan of Asian food. The food was the hardest thing about this program for me.

How integrated did you feel with the local culture?

This is the best stuff of the program. The city of Taipei alone is full of stuff you can do, it almost never ends. We went on many field trips to museums, different cities, parades, mountains, temples, etc. A lot were planned for us, and a lot were planned by us. I would say they were all memorable and exotic. If you make friends with Shih Hsin students, they will invite you to do things and go places. They will take you on their scooters which is great fun. On campus the Americans are like celebrities and everyone wants to be friends with you. Its great to have people always say you are handsome.

How well were health issues addressed during the program?

Taipei is very safe. You could walk around at 2:00 AM naked and screaming "I love Bush" and still not get into trouble (not that you should). The entire time I only saw about 5 beggars/ homeless people. The healthcare was okay I never had a health issue so I dont know how to rate it.

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

The CHinese classes need to be improved because none of us learned much Chinese. I would say I mastered 2% of the language. Then again, Chinese is a very hard language. If you are really into it, then maybe you can learn but I felt the class was too boring and ineffective. You take the class for 6 hours a week.