Oof. I haven’t had the motivation to write anything as of late. But with the school year is slipping away (less than 2 months to go!), I wanted to record our second-year experience at our school in Taiwan.
Students in elementary school have the same teacher, classmates, and schedule for two consecutive years, so there were no changes there. O is in 2nd grade, comes home at noon on most days, and homework is still about 20 minutes each day. This schedule is great because it allows him to relax and pursue his interests. For awhile he was into Rubik’s cube, and now he’s into reading (current favorite genre is fantasy) and coding.
Coding on Scratch.
O also participates in a lot of after-school activities like swimming, Lego, balloon modeling, and Go 圍棋. He enjoys Go so much that we signed him up for a competition outside of school and he won 2nd place in the beginner’s group!
We’ve also been able to tutor O in English and math more at home due to his relaxed schedule. He is progressing a lot faster than C in this regard.
On the contrary, 4th grade for C has been filled with homework, homework and more homework. Even though he has the same teacher as last year, the volume and difficulty has increased. It also doesn’t help that 4th graders have school until 4pm on most days, and then C has badminton team practices and after-school activities until 5:45pm everyday. By the time he eats dinner, showers, and finishes homework, it’s already time to go to bed. C doesn’t have a lot of free time to relax and just be a kid. If this is what school is like in 4th grade, I’m nervous about what’s to come in 5th and 6th. 😬
Surprisingly, C hasn’t complained much about the long hours of Chinese homework—or even when Baba and I try to squeeze in extra math and English. I’m grateful he’s so diligent, but we still wrestle with how to balance the endless grind of schoolwork with simply letting him be a kid.
We’ve had to postpone projects because he’s busy all the time. Most weeknights, there’s no time for reading or playing because he’s doing homework right up until bedtime. And when he does get a sliver of free time, I feel guilty asking him to do more. Sometimes, people just need the space to switch off.
We’ve considered working with his teacher to reduce homework, but C didn’t want to. He wants to complete every assignment, and do it as well as he possibly can. (Honestly, he spends more time than necessary perfecting every stroke and sentence!) And so we find ourselves stuck again: we don’t want to temper C’s desire to excel, but we also want to make sure he doesn’t burn himself out.
Going to school in Taiwan has undoubtedly been a life-changing experience for the boys, but sometimes I can’t help but wonder how much more carefree their lives might have been if we had stayed in the U.S. No homework, no midterms and finals, just free time to explore. In the end, we’re still trying to strike that everyday balance between homework and happiness.
This summer, Baba’s sister (my SIL) came to Taiwan and stayed with us for 2.5 months. Prior to her arrival, the boys excitedly came up with a list of places to take her around Taipei and beyond. This is one of the few times we get to play host. Since most of our friends and family are from the Bay Area, we never had to take anyone around until we moved here.
Luckily, my SIL was down for everything. Even though we didn’t sign the boys up for any full-time camps, they still had a busy and productive summer! This is just a snippet of the things we did, in addition to Alishan and Indonesia (which I’ll blog about next!).
Zongzi Cooking Class. We had such a fun time learning how to wrap zongzi 粽子 at CookingFun Taiwan. At the time, the Dragon Boat Festival holiday had already passed so it was just the four of us in the whole class!
Making zongzi is extremely labor intensive since each ingredient needs to be prepared separately and in advance. The process can take days. Our teacher had already prepared some ingredients for us beforehand, so we were able to make 26 zongzi’s during the 2.5 hour class and take them all home with us!
Fencing. Fencing always looked like sword fighting to me so I thought the boys would enjoy it. I found a one-day trial class and signed the boys up. The class was really fun, but it’s quite a journey from our place and I’m not sure if we want to manage another extracurricular during the weekend. But how adorable are the fencing uniforms? 😍
Monkey King Chinese Opera. The Monkey King opera is put on by Taipei Eye Performing Arts. The show was really entertaining but I’m also glad it was only an hour. 😅 While there were English subtitles displayed on the side of the stage, Chinese opera can be rather hard to follow! The pre and post show activities were so much fun. We got to dress up in traditional Chinese costumes, participated in a print-making activity, and even met the actors.
Shrimping. Believe it or not, one of Taiwan’s pastimes is indoor shrimping. You rent fishing rods for about $13 an hour, and can catch as many shrimp during that time. The first time we went, we only caught 5. This time, we caught 9! You can then grill and eat the shrimp onsite. Despite how peculiar this all is, we always get a thrill whenever we catch a shrimp. The shrimp pool we went to this time was called Fun蝦休閒釣蝦場. It was clean, had AC and the staff was kind – highly recommend!
Tainan. Baba and I already took the boys to Tainan last October, but my SIL wanted to visit the city with the boys. They went for 2 nights, which gave Baba and me some much appreciated time off! 😊
Staying Active. It’s absurdly hot and humid in Taipei during the summer, so we had to find ways to stay active indoors. We played badminton, ping pong, swam, and went to the gym at the nearby sports center. On occasion, we would join a group of visually impaired people at Sun Yat Sen for a run at night. (Ok full disclosure: I did it once and couldn’t stand the humidity but Baba, my SIL and the boys went a few times!)
Glass Blowing. It never occurred to me to try glass blowing, but I wanted to find indoor activities to avoid the heat and this popped up on a blog. Guests get to take part in the entire process, from gathering molten glass from the furnace to forming the glass with the blowpipe. It was a fun, educational experience – but didn’t come cheap! Depending on the shape you want to make, the cost can be $30-$100 per person. Initially, we weren’t sure if we wanted to do it, until we realized the same experience in SF would cost around $200! Gotta take advantage of the benefits of living in Taiwan while we can. Our glass blowing experience was done at Kun Crystal.
There were more activities we did but I don’t want this blog to get too long. We had a pretty fun and productive summer, right? Except I’m sure if you asked the boys what we did all summer, they’d say, “Nothing. We just sat at home and played with our tablets.” 😒 Why do I even bother? 😂
Happy New Year! It’s been awhile, so thought I should recap our first holiday season in Taiwan.
Thanksgiving was pretty low-key, but it always has been. Even while in SF, we’d just have dinner with our families. Thanksgiving in Taiwan is non-existent, so we spent the day at home just like any other day.
Christmas in Taiwan was interesting. There were many festive decorations and activities leading up to Christmas, but students (and workers) do not get any time off. Yes, the boys had school on Christmas Day! 😮 They were initially shocked but like everything else, they shrugged it off and went to school as usual. I’m constantly amazed at their ability to just roll with the punches.
Our school put together a little market on Christmas Day for students. There were booths from various countries – Japan, Germany, New Zealand, etc. – that offered activities or food commonly seen in that country during the holidays. I really like how our school is always mindful of other cultures.
Baba and I volunteered at the event and were assigned the snowball throwing booth. We basically had to run after balls and restack the snowball targets for 3 hours straight. 😂 Thankfully, a couple of kids later helped out and gave us old folks a break.
I opted not to get Christmas decorations this year. Decorations are quite pricey in Taiwan, and we have no space to store them. But the boys wrote letters to Santa (in Chinese because they believe the Taiwan Santa can only understand Chinese), and “Santa” brought gifts for them this year. C also bought O a stuffed dolphin for Christmas using his own money, which was really sweet.
Since we live very close to Taipei 101, our neighborhood was really festive on NYE. Apparently people park their cars in the area the night before, and start camping out in the morning for a good viewing spot of the fireworks show.
We met up with friends to explore the surrounding night market (built just for NYE), and then went home at around 9:30 to rest because there’s no way we can stay up the whole night!
At 11:30, we woke the boys up and went up to our building’s rooftop for a fantastic view of Taipei 101. By this time, there were a lot of people sitting on the streets waiting. And the fireworks did not disappoint! The firework show lasted five minutes and every moment was SPECTACULAR.
Baba and I don’t even remember the last time we stayed up for NYE countdown. When we did, it was probably spent at home watching the Times Square ball drop on TV. But ever since having kids, we just slept through NYE. This was the boys’ first time staying up for NYE countdown, and it was certainly a special one.
As we stood on our roof watching the fireworks, I couldn’t believe my luck. Here I was, spending new year’s with my loves in Taiwan, and living the life I always dreamed of. The boys are thriving in school and Baba is loving life here. Just a few years ago, I would’ve never thought this life was possible but here we are.
Wishing everyone a happy, healthy and unforgettable 2024! Cheers!
In my last post, I shared the differences between public schools in Taiwan vs. the US. After some thought, I realized there are more differences I wanted to share.
Classroom Setting. In the US, elementary school classrooms are usually pretty colorful and cheery, with artwork on the walls and bright rugs for circle time. Kids’ desks are usually pushed in groups to encourage teamwork. In Taiwan, the classrooms are not as cozy. There are rows of individual desks (though some classes may have two desks pushed together) and the rooms are bare except for teaching materials. There are no games, artwork, toys or books. Honestly, this brought back terrible memories of Chinese school for me. 😬
Tests, Tests, Tests. I knew beforehand that Taiwan schools are very focused on tests. What I didn’t know is how many there would be! O, even in first grade, has dictation tests each week. C either has a dictation or math test each week. There are also midterms and finals, and from what I understand, students are ranked at the end of each semester. 😬 In the US, there aren’t tests until the third grade. Even then, it’s just one exam taken on the computer.
Grades. Elementary school in the US do not use real grades. Teachers use a rating system from 1-4, 4 being exceeding grade level. Homework assignments are given either a ✔+ or ✔. Here in Taiwan, everything is graded. You get one stroke or phonetic symbol wrong, points will be deducted. Parents also have to sign off on the test results. Below is C’s first dictation exam but he’s had others that were not so ideal.
Health Tests. Besides academic tests, there are health tests that are administered at the school. So far, only O had to do the tests, so maybe they’re only for first graders. These tests require getting a sample at home. We’ve had to provide a urine sample and more recently, do a pinworm test which required getting a sample from where the sun don’t shine. 😂 I also read that students get a dental exam later on in the year. I can’t imagine US schools implementing something like this.
Staff. You often hear schools being short staffed in the US. I was surprised to see so many staff at our school in Taiwan! (Then again, our school has 700-800 students so they do need the manpower.) There is a Department of Academic Affairs, Department of General Affairs, Department of Student Affairs, and so on. Each department has a lead and then 4-5 staff. Then there are teachers for each subject. I remember at our old school in SF, we had one secretary who basically managed everything.
Saturday School. Last Saturday, the boys had school. This was a “make up” day for an upcoming Monday holiday. In Taiwan, if a holiday falls on Tuesday or Thursday, the government will give you Monday or Friday off to make it a 4-day weekend. But, you have to make up that extra day off by going to school or work on a Saturday. And yes, there is homework that day too. Again, file this under “things that will never work in the US.” 😂 There would be protests and riots, but the Taiwanese have such a strong work ethic!
We’ve been at a public elementary school in Taiwan for almost a month now. Our experience has been interesting, surprising, and eye-opening. I wanted to share some similarities and differences I’ve noticed between Taiwan schools and US schools.
Class Schedule. Students study pretty much the same subjects as in the US. There is math, PE, science, English, music and language arts (except we’re learning Chinese Mandarin of course). However, elementary students in Taiwan follow a period schedule, much like middle school and high school in the US. There is homeroom, followed by periods for the different classes. The homeroom teacher is the “main” teacher for subjects like math and language arts, but kids change teachers and classrooms for the other classes. Kids also have a textbook and workbook for each subject – totaling to about 15 books! 😮
Students at different grades also have different schedules. C, who is a 3rd grader, has three long days during the week, in which his classes go from 7:50am – 3:50pm. O, a 1st grader, only has one long day during the week. The rest of the days are short days, from 7:50am – 12pm. We had a hard time trying to remember their schedules at first!
Homework. Like in the US, there is homework and it’s usually on math and language arts. There is homework everyday, even on weekends. We were prepared for 2-3 hours of homework a day, but so far it hasn’t been that bad. O’s homework is really easy right now, because he’s still learning the basics of zhuyin. The math is just counting or very simple addition. He usually completes everything within 20 minutes.
C’s homework is more complicated solely because the questions are all in Chinese. But in terms of quantity, it’s manageable. I’d say his homework takes anywhere from 1-2 hours a day. If he could read/write Chinese fluently, I’m sure it would be half the time. We also lucked out finding a great tutor who comes to our place everyday for an hour to help him with homework. Otherwise, we would be struggling with Google Translate. 😅
Daily homework assignments are written in a booklet. The teachers review and make sure students wrote everything down correctly. Parents then have to sign it each night when the homework is completed. You can also write messages to the teacher in the booklet, but most communications are done via LINE.
Recess (or lack thereof). Schools in Taiwan mostly have 10 minute breaks in between classes. The longest break is 20 minutes. Unlike the US, students don’t have an official “recess” where they go out into the yard and play. They usually either hang out in the hallways or stay inside the classroom. They get a 40 minute nap time after lunch, but that just means they rest their head on their desk inside the classroom. At first, the boys were disappointed there was no recess and I was worried they weren’t getting enough outside time. But like with everything else, they’ve gotten used to it and don’t mind it at all now!
Lunches. The school provides lunches, but only on long days. The lunches are served and eaten in the classroom because there is no cafeteria, and students have to bring their own utensils. The boys have been loving the food, and look forward to it. Lunches usually consist of a rice, protein, vegetables, soup and fruit, and they try to serve different types of cuisines. The boys say it’s “SOOO MUCH BETTER” than the school lunches in the US. 😆 What’s also interesting is that students have to brush their teeth after lunch too!
PTA. Back at our old school in SF, Baba and I were pretty involved with the PTA. It was a great opportunity to help out the school while getting a glimpse into our kids’ day. I didn’t expect schools in Taiwan to have anything like that, but it turns out our school has a “Parent Association” or 家長會. Currently, Baba volunteers as a traffic control guard and I volunteer at the library.
Parents take volunteering seriously here! When you sign up for shift, you are expected to show up that day/time for the entire semester. (Unlike the US, where parent volunteers come and go whenever they please.) Baba had to undergo training for his job and the 家長會 had to buy him insurance. There are also group chats for each volunteer team, and there are multiple messages being sent everyday!
School Fees. In the US, public schools are entirely free (unless you join special clubs, teams or what not.) In Taiwan public school, there are fees. We have to pay for textbooks, school lunches, and bring all supplies. This includes pencils, markers, scissors, glue, and so on. It’s not expensive – we paid less than $200 per kid this semester – but it was a little surprising coming from the US.
However, what’s different in Taiwan is that there are zero school fundraisers. Everything is “paid for” in US schools because families raise funds to support the classrooms. Here, families are responsible for their own expenses. Neither is good or bad, just different!
Swim Class. Something really interesting at our school is that it has a pool! Many schools in Taiwan have a pool too, but not all. Students at our school take a 4-week swim class during the semester. I can’t imagine the logistics of trying to get 25 kids in and out of the pool, but I guess the school has figured it out. Kids are grouped by swimming ability. We don’t expect the boys to come out of the class being pro swimmers, but it’s neat that the school has this option.
Afterschool Care. Taiwan schools have afterschool care too, where kids can get homework help. But we felt like C needed 1:1 help in Chinese, so we opted out of this program. However, we were surprised to learn that our school offers A TON of after school activities. There is in-line skating, badminton, ping-pong, magic, track & field, Legos, taekwondo, and much more! We got a little too excited and signed the boys up for something everyday. 😅
But much like the school fees, there are costs to these activities and you have to supply all materials. So we had to purchase in-line skates and helmets, ping-pong paddles and even a deck of cards for O’s magic class.
School Teams. Back in SF, our school had one sports team (soccer) and that was 100% run by parents. Here, our school has several school-run sports teams: basketball, swimming, soccer, badminton, track & field and even theater. But unlike the US, where all kids are accepted into the team (at least in elementary school), there are tryouts here. Not everyone gets in. C says he wants to try out for track & field next semester, so we’ll see.
As I’m writing this post, I realized there are other differences between the schools in the US vs. Taiwan that I haven’t mentioned. Not glaringly different as the ones I’ve listed above, but still interesting. This post is getting too long though, so hopefully I can get to it next time!
Hongs Abroad 