Day 33 (Day 22 in the school) Thursday 9 June 2011

Again, a lucky day. Picked up by Brandon not long time after I went off from the bus.

I am a little frustrated with the VISA issue of EPs. On one hand, I have to make sure the EPs have at least 6 weeks internship and on the other hand I have to make sure there are people around to accompany to do VISA extension. This bugs me especially when the VP is not around for advice. Even though previous term VP appreciates my work especially I am still doing my AIESEC work when I am abroad, I think I am not doing great for the EP reception part. This is definitely something makes me feel bad. Luckily, when I think of AIESECers and EPs from CTLC and especially the messages from my beloved VPICX, I can finally tell myself I am still doing fine.

Just enjoy whatever I have now. By the way, the EPs are leaving soon one by one.
I am not sure whether I can cope with my emotions but I am sure I appreciate every single second I spent with them.

1120 – 1200 Grade 1 English Class

I taught 2 simple daily sentences:

May I go to the bathroom/toilet, please?

May I wash my hands, please?

The students were enjoying role playing of teachers and students. =D Glad to see that.

I can see there are 3 types of students out of the 6 students in the class.

1^st type: know how to pronounce and confident with it.

2^nd type: don’t really know how to pronounce but still confident in doing it.

3^rd type: don’t really into the atmosphere of the class but yet somehow due to the participation of the whole class, they have to do it.

I am worried of the 3^rd type.

Day 32 (Day 21 in the school) Wednesday 8 June 2011

-->ShuiBianTou $23, picked up by Brandon.

0930 – 1010 Grade 2 English (with Judy) Total phrases : 10

Learning Passport: A book they have it long time ago, with both the English and Mandarin translation of daily language. There is also a column after each phrases to let the teacher to verify their pronunciation. They will only get the signature either from Judy or me if they could make it for the pronunciation correctly.

Outcome: Most of them can pronounce the phrases correctly. Great. Some of them are eager to learn English after the class.

1030 – 1110 Grade 3 English (with Judy)

Learning Passport: Refer above.

Outcome: Obviously Grade 3 proceeds faster compared to Grade 2. However, Grade 3 syllabus covers longer sentences, thus it took more time to teach. I asked Jason, the cute boy to teach his friends. He’s so kind to lend me his hand. Love him. =)

1120 – 1200 Grade 6 English

Graduation Speech practice

Overall, no doubt, they put in their efforts and it paid off. They could read it so smooth and without my correction. Well done. Just that there is always an exceptional case, as there is a boy who didn’t even open his mouth either for English version or Mandarin version. I wonder what he is thinking… All in all, they really start to think of their future as I asked for their ambition and steps to achieve. They are really into it. =)

12pm Lunch

After lunch, I am a bit upset of the matching progress of my AIESEC work as well as the change of the weather. The weather makes me feel sleepy. No doubt, I slept for 1 hour in the office!

No one was there. Everyone was off for their leave and their project learning. Oh yeah, the teachers here they have to attend learning for further promotion.

I had an interview with an EP from Taiwan. His hometown is in TaoYuan. It’s so amazing that I sms him to arrange for interview time!

Today is a really hot day. That’s why I immediately do my laundry. =)

After dinner, again à Sleep…

Nothing could be done except sleeping in this hot weather.

Day 31 (Day 20 in the school) Tuesday 7 June 2011

àShuiBianTou $23, picked up by WeiZhen, the pricipal’s wife. Yes, she is. She works in the school as teacher. =)

0800 – 0835 Malaysian Cultural Class to the whole school (57 students only la… =D)

Finally, I have the chance to finish my cultural class after got interruption last week. This time I conducted the session with 80% Mandarin with the slides 96% English. The kids could remember what I’ve said in Mandarin but couldn’t recall for the English words presented on the slide. Luckily, there is always a student who can say it out after I asked for so many times. I discover that the students like to answer questions so much in order to get the gifts from the speaker. This is one of the cultures I discover in Taiwan. Most of the speaker, hmmm, no! It should be all of the speakers I met here are using the same method!

1030 – 1110 Grade 4 English

We revise the textbook dialogues. Again, I went to their side, one by one, teach them how to pronounce the words and phrases. This really works! They are willing to raise up their hands to participate in the game. =)

1145 -1210 took a nap in the health centre.

Lunch. Then facebook, AIESEC mails follow ups, photos uploading of the Trainee Conference and NanLiao trip. Trust me! This could take you a whole afternoon especially when you’re back from a super tiring weekend!

04:30 Went back to the convent by JinFang’s ride. Nap till 7:00pm.

This is so ridiculous! I took so much nap!!!

Then I went to Jinfang’s house for dinner. Medha was too tired to go along while Huikey has a post-Nanliao effect (short say—headache la XD), so can’t go with me too. Jinfang came to pick me to her house to have porridge. She cooked sweet potato porridge and together we have some dishes to eat with. It was so hot yet I am lucky I am here with the teacher to enjoy the dinner with her kids, brother-in-law and her father-in-law.

After the dinner, we ate honeydew and then we were off to the mini night market in GuanXi.

It wasn’t far away from her house. I can see that the stalls were selling almost the same things like clothes, foods and games as in Malaysia. Just that they have a slightly variety of games could be played by the children.

We’re back to the convent then. Jinfang seriously is a good mother. Her kids shall have no regret to be her kids. Before going to the 7 Eleven to redeem the Doraemon fan, they went into the convent and have a look at our rooms. They get the chance to meet up with Sister Maria (孫修女) too. By the way, they share the same feeling as ours. We all feel that the convent is definitely much or more creepy, especially in the nights when lights off. After all, it’s convent right? So it wouldn’t be anything special or creepy. =D

Day 30 (One Day trip in Nan Liao)

Before we depart, we shared some thoughts in the room. I was so surprised that Madelyn was not picked up by her TN Manager in the airport. It was definitely a tragedy for me, an ICXer. She even can’t have her luggage settled down for the 3^rd Day in Taiwan! I am truly surprised by the efficiency of the Local Committee in Taipei. I feel sorry for her. Fortunately she is now with us. Moreover, she can’t get her VISA done because of the miss of action of her host LC in Taiwan. I truly feel pity for her.

Nan Liao, a place where you can cycle as far as you can and have a sight see-ing of fresh seafood, it is part of Hsinchu county. NTD 15 could take you from the city centre to the place.

We experience the strong winds and hot sun there as well. Well, I think it worth as we get to see the scenery that normally could only be seen in brochures.

I managed to catch the sunset there and it was definitely a must seen view by couples. Love it. =)

We have chatted so much on the bicycle (I’m not sure whether it’s a bicycle as it was a combination of 2 bicycles which could be rode by 2 persons.) Definitely I chatted a lot with Kar May. Ming Foong, Michael, Hunsa and Huikey are on another bike. They had a 4 person bike.

After the sunset, we went back at 7pm. I dislike the feeling of saying goodbye. It was really a miserable one when thinking of the EP leaving.

Day 29 (2nd Day of Trainee Conference) 5 June 2011

I have a lot to write for this. Stay tuned.

Day 28 (1st Day of Trainee Conference) 4 June 2011

Will update you a detailed one as soon as I get the schedule back. =)

Day 27 3rd June 2011 (Day 19 in the school)

0800 – 0835 Grade 5 & 6

I taught 4 types of sentences that they could use in the class:

May I go to the toilet?

May I wash my hands?

Could you please lend me your pen?

Could you please do me a favor?

I picked their number randomly and pair up between Grade 5 & 6 accordingly. They have to pick their sentences later to finish their short sketch. For the 35 minutes, we managed to let everyone of them to have the chance to practice. Hopefully they will use it in English class. =)

0930 – 1010 Grade 6

They practise the graduation speech for a while. They so much improvement on this! I am really glad even though they still need some practice. I told them the story of independence of Malaysia, my journey of learning English as well as my backgrounds and education system in Malaysia. Hopefully I could make an impact on them.

1010 – 1030 Grade 4 à cancelled

Both teacher and I forgot about this class. By the way, it seems like they have their own homework to follow up too. Hmm…

1030 – 1110 Grade 3 (Alone)

I revise the vocabulary for the Spelling Test with them. This time, I am alone. I have to reveal the truth that I am able to speak Mandarin to them. Some of the kids shocked. Haha… It’s funny to see Kevin’s expression as he did like he got a heart attack. Some other kids said: I knew Teacher Sun could speak Mandarin. Of course in Mandarin. =) A beside Kevin said: Teacher Sun, please don’t speak Mandarin any more, he is going to get heart attack very soon. LMAO!! They are so funny. There is another girl who sat at the middle back, I remember the first time when I entered the class, she was the first one who said “Why she speaks Mandarin? I can’t understand at all!” but now, she says “Teacher Sun, speak English please.” In fact before this, she already took her initiative to ask me to pronounce this and that sentence. I am so touched by her. She’s really interested in English now, I guess. =) (Look into the sky for one minute to celebrate for this.) This makes me feel like I am more energetic to work harder to get them to like English.

1120 – 1200 Grade 3 (With Judy)

We did the introduction of the shapes. We took the advantage of the online computer in the class to teach them. They are into it. This is the website: www.starfall.com

1310 – 1350 Grade 4 English (With Judy)

Again, we used the web site to teach them the vocabularies in the stories. They have to jot down the words they saw and say it out to the host (also student) on the stage to get their marks. Once there is a person accumulates 3 points, we will end the game.

1450 – 1525 Grade 5 English (With Judy)

Story books from the web site. I can see that they show less interest on English compared to cultural class and lower grades. Hopefully I can do something on it.

After school: Oops, now only I know that I left my money in the room. = =

I have to ask Teacher Judy to send me to the convent to take it. Fortunately it was along the way to Dong An Elementary School to pick Huikey and Medha. This is the 3^rd time Judy offers us a ride to Hsinchu City.

We didn’t manage to go to NCTU or the trainee house. There is no one in the trainee house to open the door for us. I brought a huge cake from the principal; actually everyone in the school has it. Unfortunately I was too full with the rice dumplings. I even forgot to take the photo of it. = =.

Finally, we asked Teacher Judy to drop us at Dong Men Elementary School, which is near to the Che Kai’s Mum’s restaurant 御香凉麵. This time we manage to pay for the “cold noodles” made by Che Kai. We waited for Hunsa (LeHui) to meet us. Then we had fun with facebook crazily. Haha… The restaurant is full with customers while it was dinner time. Che Kai has to lend his laptop for us. Or else, we will bug him with our camera while he’s serving the customers. He’s really the “catalyst” to boost up the noodles sales rate as the girl students always look at her while he was busy serving for other customers. ;)

After the dinner time, Che Kai finally can free himself to take us to the Glass Museum. I went there on foot and we could have a snap on the train! =)

By the way, it’s a little creepy to walk along the way to the Glass Museum as there are a few areas that are quite dark and with fewer crowds. Hu~~~ (Wind) Luckily there are five of us. =)

We went to the Glass Museum to snap photos and of course our favorite, chatting. Haha… Since Che Kai is the BTG team leader, we talk about our teaching experience in the school. BTG (Bridge the Gap—The project’s name) Gang. Now only I realize.

Che Kai’s mum was really kind. She served us very well and kept feeding us with yellow watermelon. Medha was so amazed with the yellow watermelon. LoL…

As a whole, we had a really crazy time that night as we did prank call to Bill, as what we plan by Che Kai’s phone. Haha… This is definitely something unexpected for Bill, I guess. Nothing, we just want to express our gratitude towards the CTLC AIESECers. At the Glass Museum, we jumped for Don’t –Know-How-Many times to take the photo with everyone jumping. Finally, we failed. =.=

We reached the trainee house at almost 12am. We met up with Ming Foong, Kar May, Lokesh as well as David, ChienLin (aka Xiao B), Mike and Charles. Mike was acting very funny that day. This is something amazed me again! =O

Day 26 (Day 18 in the school)

I have to mention that the bus driver recognized me! I was searching for my coins to pay the bus fare and the driver already finish keying in my destination without me telling him! I’m surprised!

The bus driver starts recognizing me.

0800 – 0820 A short introduction of Malaysian Culture.

I am still blurred whether how many percentage of Mandarin I should include in the presentation. I can’t do it much for the whole session which covers till 0835 as there will be another presentation done by the national bird park and they have to decorate the place before the 0900 presentation.(國立鳳凰谷鳥園) Even though it was a short presentation, I feel finally I can do at least once, the Malaysian cultural session to the whole school students. I got a few feedbacks from the teachers, I shall include more Mandarin as the teachers couldn’t even understand my speech well, at least the version of Mandarin after every English sentence. With the feedbacks, I think I’m able to do better next time.

0900 – 1200 National Bird Park Show Time

A video was played during the session and hosted by an officer from the park, 蚊子哥哥 Bother Mosquito. Haha, I don’t know is this the correct translation. By the way, just take it temporarily.

I knew a lot from the video played. I know that the magpie is the significant animal in Taiwan. It’s blue in color and it has a lot of habits which other bird types don’t have. Want to know more?

Wikipedia it then. =D By the way, the kids start to feel weird that I am able to understand the content of the video.

1310 – 1350 Grade 6 English

à Cancelled as Director Chung has to cover the discussion of their test paper with them.

1450 – 1525 Grade 5 Cultural Class

Grade 5 is the only class that I manage to talk so much about the Malaysian and Penang history. I told them about our people, artists, story and so much of other related things. This is the only time that they are able to listen to me quietly. I feel definitely 40 minutes are not enough to express all I have known about Malaysia to them. I love Grade 5 class, especially the cultural class. I use Mandarin to tell them the story of Malaysia as they knew it long time ago I can speak Mandarin. Haha… Only lower grades are not really sure of it.

It’s a rainy day. We can’t go to the night market. We ate our dinner brought from the school after Jinfang sent me back to the convent. Sleep early today.

Day 25 (Day 17 in the school)

0755-0815 An English class with Grade 3&4 students.

This is one of the classes that I enjoy the most to teach. This probably due to the age of the students as they are considered mature enough and most important thing is they have the curiosity to learn new things. I am so happy that they could give me big response when I was teaching. I must say they are so cute. Apart from that, some of the students knew that I could speak Mandarin. This is interesting, hey.

The class ended early because there was an accident happened yesterday in 六福村Amusement Park, and Brandon, the 科任gave a speech on that case. He asked the students to be careful while playing in the playground or amusement park, and don’t ever cross the line. They are totally not allowed to play along the river too. Director Chung came up too and mentioned a case happened in the school yesterday; the kids shall not cross the line while making fun of their friends.

0930 – 1010 Grade2 English Class

I did the class alone as Judy was called to accompany a nutritionist to the kitchen to have a look.

It was not a great one as the kids are not really paying attention when a kid was asked to present in front. I shall thought of other ways to improve their interests of English as well as the atmosphere in the class.

1030 – 1110 Grade 3 English Class

Again, we did the Guessing Game in the class with Judy and a short sketch in the book.

However, the kids are out of control and they couldn’t help with shouting to have their own characters. Judy asked me to talk to them, I told them not to shout as it hurts our vocal cords.

Definitely they didn’t understand what I’ve said. With the translation of Judy, they seemed they understand. Hopefully they will behave better in the next class.

1120 – 1155 Grade 6 Graduation Speech (Judy + MeiZhou)

After few classes of practicing the speech, three of them in the class (3 out of 10 in the class) finally can get to read the speech very well. However, there are words that they can’t really pronounce correctly. Their home teacher, MeiZhou even called to the office to ask me to correct their pronunciation. I tried my best to correct them one by one. I really hope the students can speak English with energetic eye contacts one day. For now, I could only see 4 to 5 of them who are willing to learn to speak.

MeiZhou thanked me for correcting their pronunciation. I am so happy but yet I wish to tell her this is the reason I come to Taiwan. It’s my main job description. I didn’t manage to tell her anyway as she seemed busy and rush to her work after she told me this.

1200 Lunch (again)

Afternoon: The teachers went for an event out of school. This is an event in charged by our elementary school so most of the teachers went out for the event. A few teachers stayed back in the school. Director Tian sent me back this time. Thanks him. =)

0430 Dinner with Medha and Huikey again.

We did a very crazy thing starting today as we edited the photos and finally did prank calls to people from CTLC. I would say this is the craziest thing I have ever made in the internship while you don’t have any Internet access and other entertainments. We did this, basically because we thank them for spending their time with us.

How lucky we are to be matched to CTLC.