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.

Day 24 (Day 16 in the school)

See how lucky I am. I was picked by Director Chung at the roadside too.

0800 – 0835

A pretty CID together with the director from the branched police station in Xinpu town came to our school to give a talk on the violence crimes, including some sexual and oral harrasment. The students here are lucky as they are exposed to this knowledge formally.

Time flies. I can’t imagine that I’ve been here for that long period already. One week passes after one week.

1030 – 1110 Grade 4

Flashcards + Game (Guess Guess Guess) 6 vocabs

I love teaching the children especially those who are willing and able to do it but don’t know how to. There are 2 girls sitting at the back there. I know they are not really good in English pronunciation, but I am pretty sure they want to do it, with the textbook open. I pronounced 2 times the 6 words and asked them to repeat after me. They are willing to try after that and most important thing is one of the girl looked happier after she managed to try and guess the right answer and got the chance to stand in front of the class to hold the flash cards. Proud of her.

12pm Lunch

Afternoon: Of course some facebooking as well as blogging and replying AIESEC mails. This could take the whole afternoon, trust me!!

1730: We went to JinFang’s house on foot to eat Bak Kut Teh. Guess what? The Herbal Soup Bag is brought by Huikey! =)

We cooked the Bak Kut Teh together and we start to eat dumplings. The Hakka and MinNan dumplings taste slightly different. After all, they are good taste.