Teacher Sunny

Sunny is an outstanding cooperating teacher, I feel completely privileged to have the opportunity to work with her. She has already taught me so much, not only about teaching, but about Taiwan and the culture of the country. Without Sunny, my experience here would not have been so positive thus far. A little bit more about ‘Teacher Sunny’, she is 34 years old, and got her undergrad degree from the teacher college here in Taiwan, and received her graduate degree in TESOL (Teaching English to speakers of other languages) from the UK. She is married, and has a five year old son in Kindergarten. This is her second year teaching as an English teacher at NeiWei Primary School.

Sunny was originally born in Taipei, and lived there with her mother and father. In Junior high, when we was around twelve years old, she moved to Kaohsiung with her mom after her parents separated. She attended Junior High, Senior High, and College in Kaohsiung. After living in Taipei while growing up, she was more motivated to stay in Kaohsiung for the rest of her education, unlike many others her age who were living in Kaohsiung. Taipei is also a much more expensive place to live and go to school, so she benefited from staying here. After graduating, she taught two years in a Kindergarten classroom. However, the interesting part about this is that it is apparently illegal to employ full-time English teachers for Kindergarten in a public school in Taiwan. She was technically in the classroom as a co-teacher, and not the lead teacher. Since this was really a part-time job, she was able to have another job that was an after the school day education program. Like I said, she did this for two years. Then she became a substitute teacher here at NeiWei for one year. After that, she took a few years off after getting married to have a baby. When she returned to work, she found employment through the university in Kaohsiung; she worked as an international affairs representative, putting her English degree to use, working with college students like me traveling to different countries. She spent two years doing this and then came back to NeiWei to start teaching English. The has about twenty classes a week that contain first, second, and sixth graders. This is her second year holding this position; she enjoys teaching the higher grades because of the challenge and their ability to have higher level conversations, but enjoys the younger grades for their innocence and motivation. She has had so many different experiences, her knowledge and view on various concepts are very insightful.

Sunny really started to find her passion for English when studying it in Junior high. Once she was in Senior high, she had decided that she wanted to teach in an English related field. I learned form her that in Taiwan, you have to pick a major you take your college entrance exams (that are similar to our ACT or SATs). Many colleges do not offer many ‘general education’ classes, as we would call them. Senior highs also do not offer many opportunities to become exposed to available occupations, so deciding what you want to do for education seems like a leap of a decision here. Additionally, one you are in college and studying towards your degree it is not as common for people to change their major. Sunny attended the general college in Kaohsiung in teacher education. While studying for her graduate degree in the UK, she moved there for a year and a half; one year for school, and another six months for travel. She visited over twenty-some countries surrounding the UK during her stay. Her favorite places were Germany (because of the genuinely nice people) and Iceland (for the scenery and adventures).

I have learned so much from Teacher Sunny, I do not even know where to begin. I have learned everything from concepts and norms within the schooling system, but also about the Taiwanese culture in general. I want to tell you everything I have learned from her, but I might have to leave a few things out for the sake of time! Haha

When it comes to being a teacher, they always say the hardest part of the job is dealing with the parents, at least that holds true to us teachers from the US. I have always wondered how that idea would differ in different countries, or if it did at all. I’m not going to lie, prior to this trip, I thought the schools would hold extremely high expectations, be filled with obedient students, with strict parents. However, I quickly learned that kids will be kids, and they are all squirrely and rowdy! The school does hold high expectations for the students, and they know to follow them or their will be consequences. I am not so sure that the teachers hold students to as high expectations, they are very more applicable to be talking and causing distractions during instruction, which took a while for me to get use to and manage in a balanced way. Parents, though, are just as a big ‘problem’ here as they are at home. We are teaching in English classrooms, which do not see as parent involvement because they are equivalent to a ‘special’ that students attend once a week. The homeroom teachers, on the other hand, experience the same difficulties. Sunny was telling me how Taiwan just recently started making moves towards student-centered classrooms (which you probably heard more about in one of my last blog posts, but this is something that most of the schools in the US have been doing for a while, at least the ones that I have been in). They honestly do not even do much partner and group work until the students have reached third grade, which is crazy! Some of the younger teachers coming out of college, are using some of these new student-centered strategies, but the parents are pushing back majorly because it was not the education that they received. Something as simple as the teacher organizing the desks in the classroom in a ‘u’ formation or in groups, causes push back from the parents because not all students are stationed facing the front of the classroom/board. This makes me wonder how long it will take for the classroom environment to make the switch from teacher-centered to student-centered if parents are pushing back that much, especially in the general classrooms.

Every child has an English name, just like we had Spanish names when learning Spanish, except these names are a bigger deal because they will use them for the rest of their lives. It is cool that it is norm for everyone to have an English name, even if they do not necessarily know that much English. Something interesting that I found about them is, if your parents do now give you an English name, students just get to pick one or their teachers just assigns them one. It wouldn’t be so funny if they didn’t use the names so much, and using them more and more as more of the youth start to learn English. I couldn’t imagine letting someone else pick one of my Child’s names. I bet as generations learn more and more English, it will become more common for parents to pick the English names for the students.

More than anything, Sunny has taught me a lot about the Taiwan culture, from old traditions to habits of a native living here. Something that I found to be the most interesting was hearing about how it is so different when you settle down and start your family. Every aspect, from an engagement to having a child, is so different; and those are things that I wouldn’t have guessed would have been so different. When you get engaged, it typically lasts anywhere from two to six months, maximum; I mean there are probably always exceptions. There really no emphasis put on any bachelorette or bachelor parties. There are no bridal or wedding showers before the ceremony, there is a tradition in which the bride will bring a cookie or cake to the houses of her close family or friends to sit down, have a snack and tea, and just talk about anything. Sometimes this is done after the ceremony if not before. It is typical for a bride and groom to have two people standing by their sides, sometimes there will be 6. The reasoning for such a big gap is because they like to do things in pairs or even numberings, and number four is extremely unlucky in their culture, you often even see the fourth floor in building skipped. It is very popular of people to get married between November and January, leading up to the Chinese New Year. There are usually no weddings in June or July because of the ghost traditions, depending on the lunar calendar for what days it actually falls on, there is a day that the Chinese people will worship the “ghost door” while all of the ghosts are released. This seems to be a big deal, and celebrations typically last for 7 to 10 days. When and if couples decide to have children, the norms for that is even so different. Before the baby is born, there are a ton of rituals and traditions expecting mothers are suggested to follow, like not drinking cold beverages, or eating certain types of foods. A baby ‘shower’ is held prior to the baby being born, where family and really close friends come to the hospital to congratulate the new family. Depending on where you work, mothers typically get two months off of work, unless requesting more. One of those months the mother and baby typically stay in a maternity room at the hospital that is above the floors where the baby would have been born. Mothers can stay here and relax and recover while nurses assist in taking care of the baby. Women are not allowed to leave the hospital itself during this time, however long they have requested to stay. Not everyone does this, as it is very expensive to do. They say that this is why Chinese women look so young, is because they take so much time off after having a child to care for themselves. After the baby is born, one month after to be exact, the mother sends cake (usually celebrating a girl) or frozen chicken and rice (generally celebrating a boy) to friends and family. Another traditional that some mothers follow, is not washing your hair for one month after the baby is born; I am not sure where this comes from or why it is a tradition, I just thought the whole process was so differently interesting.

I was able to learn a little bit about the Chinese and Taiwanese government tensions about whether Taiwan is considered part of China or not. It was interesting to get a native’s view on the matter, who at the same time had enough experience and calm enough perspective to not get defensive or one-sided about the topic. I learned about how over populated Taiwan had become over the years, most of which were people traveling from China. Not only were tourist attractions becoming overpopulated, but so were the everyday living areas. Recently, with the newly elected president (which happens to be Taiwan’s first female president, not that it matters, just an interesting fact) Taiwanese natives have become happy with the decrease in mass amounts of visitors from China staying in their country. With the change in presidency came an extreme change in freedom to pass between the two countries. Don’t quote me on any of this, politics are not my game as you all know. Travel agencies now regulate the amount of visitors allowed to enter Taiwan from China, and there cannot be over a certain amount of people from China in Taiwan in the same times. The locals enjoy it because it is not so crowded and they are finally able to go places and do things without being taken over by visitors. This is also an idea Taiwanese are really supportive of because it is a move in the right direction, dividing themselves more from China.

Two more interesting facts about Taiwan that I have had the luxury learning about from Sunny is the whole cold water issue. There is this huge stigma that cold water is bad for you and your development because it is colder than your bodies inner temperature; therefore, they drink warm water. I think it is interesting because they will drink cold beverages like teas and juices, but not water. This is more strict when it comes to the children, because they growth and development can be effected more. Like I have said before, some people live by these odd traditions, and some think they are just as crazy as the foreigners do. Sunny had said that she almost feels embarrassed talking to foreigners about some of the traditions the culture holds because they are a bit silly in her eyes. All the schools, especially primary schools, only have warm water dispensing machines, none with cold water.

One last interesting thing that I have learned about and experienced at some level is the health care process. Going to the doctor and the dentist here is so incredibly cheap! When I was sick the first few days I was here, I ended up going to the doctor and it was $15 USD without any form of insurance at all. Locals typically pay $3 USD to see the doctor, to be treated, and to receive medicine. They visit the dentist about every six months as adults, similarly to how we do it; but pay only 100NT per visit…which is about $3 USD. Children visit the dentist every three months, which I think is a great thing to be doing with young kids. Sunny made the joke one day, but come to find out it was no joke, it is more expensive to go to the car wash than it is to visit the doctor or dentist. I don’t know about you, but it seems to me we have something to learn from here. It has been so awesome learning about all the big and little things that are done differently here in Taiwan, I cannot wait to learn more with the rest of the time I have.

Teacher Sunny has been one of the greatest contributors to why I have enjoyed this experience so much. I would not know all of the things that I do now about teaching here in Taiwan or about the Chinese and Taiwanese culture without her. My highly positive reviews so far, have got to be credited to her. I think very highly or her and value her wide range of knowledge and suggestions. I feel very fortunate, yet again, to have been placed with not only such a wonderful teacher, but person.