Three months studying Chinese in Taitung University

Writing by 譚戴華、白曉熙

     We were looking online for the best place to study Chinese when we stumbled across an extraordinary picture of Taitung University Library. We picked this University, and as soon as we arrived there last September we knew we would not have to regret our impulsive choice!

    Taitung University is located in a beautiful environment, surrounded by mountains and green fields, with a stunning ocean view.

    Taitung city centre is barely 20 minutes away and it offers a variety of restaurants, from very local and delicious aboriginal food to italian and japanese specialities.

    During the week ends you can easily go swim in the ocean, bike around in the mountains or just have a walk on the coastline.

    Life here is peaceful and sweet!

    But what stroke us the most is how welcoming and helpful the people from Taitung are. From our very first encounter with Yiwen Liu (assistant of CLTSC) we could feel that we would be treated with great care. Yiwen’s kindness is only matched by our teacher ‘s daily positive attitude, making the whole studies at the Chinese language Department a really fulfilling experience.

    As a part of the program we got the opportunity to get assigned two University students as language partners, which helped a great deal in improving our language skills.

    On top of that, there were day long trips and activities organised to prompt us to engage with people and discover more about the taiwanese culture.

    Our program consisted of 3 daily hours of learning in class with Fang Laoshi. She had her own creative ways of teaching, completely taylor made to our learning capacities, and with an ever lasting smile on her face that made classes time both fun and really interesting. She engaged us in diverse stimulative conversations, whether it is about current environnemental issues, Chinese culture and traditions or art history.

    She was always so energetic, enthusiastic and so supportive in our learning process. We always felt driven by her passion for teaching and her great patience. Thanks to her, in addition to the academic text book learning, we even got to experiment writting Chinese calligraphy. In this context we made progress in no time. This 3 months-long program was an unforgettable experience and we are grateful to everyone!