We had seen so many dramas and programmes made in Taiwan but people around us seldom take the initiative to visit the places that usually shown on TV. Hence, this pushes Hor Ling Hong to explore Taiwan further by involving in the AIESEC Global Community Development Programme (GCDP).
Frankly, she was attracted by the famous Bubble Tea and night markets there, So, she told herself that she wants to drink Bubble Tea every day through out her time there and it should be cheaper and tastier compare to those available in Malaysia.
Before leaving Malaysia, Ling Hong was very excited and nervous at the same time as she never ride an airplane alone. She had the thought that the airplane might fall into the sea or anything bad might happen to the plane. Thus, the four-hour flight was extremely long for her, compared with the bus journey from Penang to Kuala Lumpur, which took five-hour-time relatively. However, she calmed herself by imagining the Taiwanese AIESEC members that she will be meeting when she reached there, the response of the teachers and children in the schools to meet her as a new member and etc.
Ling Hong felt so relieved when she finally met with the team leader of her project. She tried all her best to get used to the traditional Chinese characters there. Even she knows Chinese, it is still hard for her to read the traditional Chinese characters sometimes. As she departed from the airport to the university, she was amazed by the traffic and the public transport in Taiwan. It was well-developed and very convenient to the people around.
She was involved in a project called "Bridge The Gap" in Taiwan. Her responsibility is to assist the English teacher to teach English in Nan He Elementary School. Mainly, she was responsible to aid and guide the children in pronouncing English in a proper way. Sometimes, the teacher also practiced English with her. Apart from teaching English, she played her role as an ambassador of her own country and introduced Malaysian culture to the locals there.
Over her 6-weeks exchange in Taiwan, she experienced several culture shocks. The most shocking experience - Ling Hong was required to have an English name in the school. She tried to explained that she had a Chinese name and would like to continue using it. However, they explained to her that it is a must to have an English name to speak English there. Furthermore, all the students there have their own English name as well. Thus, Ling Hong chose an English name - Sun since her coursemates had been calling her this name for quite some time). Of course, she did explained to them that this does not happen in Malaysia.
Ling Hong continued with her unforgettable moments there: "... the principal asked me to pretend that I do not know Mandarin at all, as this creates a better environment to encourage the children to speak English in the class. However, another problem arises, which the children do not understand what I was trying to deliver to them. As a result, I did not manage to keep the discipline in the class. Luckily there was an experienced teacher came and told me that I am allowed to use Mandarin to conduct bi-lingual teaching in some classes. This definitely helped me to resolve the challenge that I faced."
During Ling Hong's journey in Taiwan, she lived with three other girls in a convent as it is said to be safer than to livd in the school alone. Together, they had a lot of fun moements - took a lot of funny photos, composed a lot of crazy videos and did prank calls to other AIESEC members! Rather to say it's funny, she would say they are the CRAZY gang! Even their host told them they are the most playful and craziest Exchange Participants they had ever have there!" XD It was indeed a fun and priceless journey to them!
She could not believe that she could meet so many Exchange Participants with different nationalities throughout her programme in Taiwan. Those crazy moments to them were - whenever they were hesitating to do something, it had become their culture to say: "Just F*** DO IT!". It is a total different culture that she had been exposed to all these while.
“Sometimes things might not seem right for us,
but it’s the most suitable solution at the moment.”
The moment that she appreciated the most is the moment that they got to meet with all Exchange Participants from the same Local Committee in the Trainee’s House. They shared their funny stories in the school, their home country stories and many other interesting stories.
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