Teaching at Fazhi Elementary School and Dinner with Local Teenagers

 June 13, 2024

Playing Tee-Ball with Fazhi students on their beautiful baseball field!

Today Hudson and Emma will be writing the blog. Because Hudson Wrote the second half yesterday, he will write the first half of the blog today.

After we departed from the hotel, we took about a thirty minute van ride to Fazhi elementary school. When we arrived, we were warmly greeted by a small cohort of students, who graciously offered their umbrellas and walked us to Fazhi’s recently built library. Laying our bags and teaching materials down, a mixed group of fourth to sixth graders performed a traditional Bunun song and dance, which utilized harmony and call and response as a result of a rich hunting culture. To return the kind gesture, some of our Poly students performed a song that we had earlier presented to Fuhsing high school. Following a short preparation break, we were then directed into our teaching pairs in order to teach English songs to the Kindergarten class at Fazhi. My song was the Itsy Bitsy Spider and my partner and I included easy hand movements along with light translation to teach the song to the students. My favorite part was watching their faces light up when they got the correct movement or word. In total, we taught 5 groups of about ten students, who had very little if any English proficiency. After finishing up with our last group, we learned an original song about a busy ant in their Bunun language and took a big group picture. Next, the school treated us to a delectable lunch of traditional aboriginal foods. Returning to the library, we took a brief rest period during the students’ nap time. Reuniting with our teaching partners, we began teaching our English story books. My book was Brown Bear Brown Bear, a story containing beautiful illustrations of animals with colors and unique style. Using Chinese we learned in class, we asked about the colors of the animals and translated the color and animal names into English. My favorite part was watching the lightbulb moment for the students who all quickly picked up on the rhythmic and simple structure of the book.

                                                   

At night, we ate dinner with some local teenagers at a buddhist temple. At dinner I (Emma) sat with Theo as well as the principal and vice principal of the local vocational school. We had a very enriching conversation with them about the differences between the United States and Taiwan. The vice principal told us that he has lived in Puli for 14 years and although the temperature is hot and very humid he actually got used to it. We also discussed the difference in economy between Taiwan and America. In America Theo and I shared that the process for tax is very complicated, expensive and long; while in Taiwan it takes a much shorter time because it is all digital. After we got food, I ate noodles with rice, and later I was informed it was vegetarian. I was very surprised because I have never had vegetarian food taste good in America. After we ate, the vice principal taught all of us martial arts. We learned different skills ranging from self defense to attack. I partnered with Chloe, and we each took turns on each other executing these new fighting and defense skills. The vice principal then showed us a tutorial of more advanced moves using Theo as his partner. It was very scary to see because he was demonstrating movements that would throw Theo around his back and side to side, but thankfully the vice principal was very skilled in what he was doing, and Theo of course did not get hurt. We then were allowed to interact with the local teenagers and made arts and crafts lanterns with them out of bottle caps, string and beads. Overall I very much enjoyed the day and was happy that we were all able to make friends with people our age! 

谢谢您，

美宁和颜博文