Tag: Taipei

One of the best parts about living in different areas of the world is getting to experience the lay of the land. Each country has it’s own geography that dictates how people are able to commute. As we inhabit different places around the world we mold our surroundings to fit our needs.

The end of 2015 is fast-approaching, which means the holiday season is upon us. Expats are getting that warm, fuzzy Christmas feeling inside and memories of running down to the Christmas tree on the morning of the 25th are beginning to materialize; however, for the locals, life continues on as normal on Christmas day.

As teachers, all of us bring something of ourselves to the classroom, which comes from our socio-economic, cultural, education, and familial backgrounds. These experiences that we bring can create amazingly positive effects in the classroom and can, at times, create tension as well. In this article, I will detail a couple of the cultural differences between Western teaching styles and styles I have seen in Taiwan.

Jiufen is probably my most favorite travel location in Taiwan. The location inspired the setting to one of my favorite movies, ‘Spirited Away’. If you were like me, you thought this location must be some exotic Chinese or Japanese location– absolutely not! Taiwan has some of the best-hidden gems for travel!

Learning any language is hard! Transitions and translations between two languages can be particularly rocky– especially with Chinese and English. I’ve heard a couple of mistakes repeated by my students that have given me clues about what the translation sounds like in Chinese.

Oh, dear. It’s that time of year in Taiwan again. The weather is starting to chill just a bit, and you’re starting to see boys and girls pairing off into couples (not as religiously as it happens in Korea, but it still happens).

What I will say is that the type of green space you see, at least in Taiwan, differs from that of other countries, mainly based on its geography. Surrounded by mountains and the sea, Taiwan is able to retain so much of the islands natural beauty.

We caught up with Ryan, one of our latest writing interns, to talk to him about his move from the depths of the jungle in Borneo to the more concrete jungle of Taipei, Taiwan. Read his interview below to find out more about his experiences.