It has now been a little over 4 months since I first set foot on Taiwanese soil. For the most part, time seems to be flying by. In fact, pretty much the only time it seems to drag along is when I’m in Chinese class or waiting for a bus. So far, the most challenging aspect of living here has been, believe it or not, teaching English.
Teaching, I’ve learned, can be very exhausting. Besides the standing and talking aspect of teaching English, there is also lesson planning and the task of teaching a lesson to children who have different levels of English comprehension. All told, I teach between 23 and 26 classes each week and quite often I come home and collapse. However, despite the hard work, teaching English can be very fun and at this point, there is absolutely nothing I would rather be doing.
Yesterday was a great example of why I love to teach English here in Taiwan. At this particular school, I teach the 4th, 5th, and 6th grade English classes. The 4th grade class has some of the cutest kids and they all really enjoy the class time that I teach. I played a game with them the second week of school that they all enjoyed so much that every time I get near their classroom they drag me inside and keep repeating “one more time”, meaning play the game again. The game is really quite simple; I divide the class into two teams and have one child from each team come to the front of the class. After answering a language question, usually a word or phrase from their textbook, the two students play “paper-scissor-stone” and the winner selects an empty space from a grid that I have drawn on the blackboard. Each space is worth 100, 50, or –50 points. The team with the most points at the end of the game wins. This game becomes really fun, as most of the students in the class get EXTREMELY involved in the game. From dancing up and down and falling to the floor when playing paper-scissor-stone, to chanting –50 whenever the other team is selecting a square. Although in the end, I’m not sure who has more fun, me or my students.
Zack Feig
Nantou, Taiwan
