Beloved Zhong Xin (insert school anthem here)

I am an intern at 忠信, Zhong Xin: Private Junior High and High School where I teach English to 7th, 10th, and 11th grades. The English department is also changing its entire curriculum and teaching strategies, so I am helping them with this process. Instead of using traditional Chinese teaching methods of memorization and vocabulary drills, the school wants to adopt a Western approach to teaching language, namely Communicative Language Teaching. This approach focuses on the expression of ideas and thoughts, communicating and interpreting language. I am here to revise the curriculum, teach classes, and to encourage the students to learn English.

I work Mondays through Fridays (and a couple of Saturdays) from 7:20am to 4pm. I plan lesson, teach, and have lots and lots of meetings where we talk about Western pedagogy. I really like Thursdays and Fridays because I am in classrooms the entire day. But whether or not I am in a classroom, I interact with students constantly. They like me a lot, so they will always come talk to me in my office and say hi to me in the halls.

Six-thousand students go to Zhong Xin: three-thousand junior high schoolers and three-thousand high schoolers. The campus is really big; there are buildings everywhere, all filled with students. When I walk outside, students will open the windows and greet me from tall buildings. I feel like my name is being called from the heavens!

The students are all very sweet, much more well-behaved than in an American high school. The school is strict, but sometimes I wish that they had more freedom. But then again, they still have fun. It was raining one day last week, so all the windows of the classroom were foggy. I saw some 7th grade boys snickering outside, and wondered what was so funny. I went to look and saw that someone had written s-h-i-t on the classroom window. Boys are the same everywhere! These boys couldn't really speak English, but they definitely thought that word was funny. I started laughing myself until a teacher came by.

The teachers at Zhong Xin are also apt to scold. However, Taiwanese parents think that this is the mark of a good school. Many parents send their children here because of the discipline as well as good education. Chinese philosophy teaches that the best teachers and academic institutions are those that address all parts of the individual --not just the intellect. A teacher is supposed to me a mentor, guide, and confidant for their students, teaching them to live a more harmonious life.

Man, I hope I can live up to the challenge!