by Shaun Lal
When Senior Micah Simon had the opportunity to live and study in Taiwan last year, he recognized that chances like this don’t come around often. He overcame his trepidation and made the long flight to Kaohsiung, Taiwan where he would live with four different host families for ten months during his junior year of high school.
“Taiwan is pretty much like America just everyone is speaking Chinese,” Simon said. “I was expecting a much bigger cultural difference. Like I would do something and insult someone’s family, but everyone understood that I was American and our culture is different.”
After Simon’s return to Katy, his experience prompted his friend, senior Robert Fredrick, to spend his senior year in Taiwan as well. Fredrick was motivated by the possibility of learning a language with no similarities to English, which would be an invaluable skill for a future in either business or politics. Both students participated in the Taiwanese lifestyle and attended school in the country in an attempt to completely immerse themselves in a completely new culture.
“I saw it as a chance to learn about a culture completely foreign to ours and as an amazing opportunity to improve my language skills,” Fredrick said.
Simon was about a year ahead in high school. Therefore with his two years of experience in Chinese class, he was able to study in Taiwan, return to Cinco Ranch and will graduate on time with his senior class this year. However, Fredrick, who is still currently studying in Taiwan, will have to retake his senior year of high school when he returns after this summer.
“The school would not give me credits for any classes I took over here, so my choices were: take online courses over the summer at Texas Tech, get a GED or take another year of high school and get my diploma,” Fredrick said. “And I decided I would rather have a diploma.”
Both students spent their time in Taiwan with different host families. Simon had four separate host families, which ranged from the principal of the school he attended, a German-Polish family, and a very traditional Taiwanese family. Simon said that he did not feel homesick often because of Skype, which allowed him to stay in contact with his family in America on a regular basis.
“There was only one really non-western host family, who only had a CRTV,” Simon said. “They did not want me to use the computer and just wanted me to go outside. They did not even have forks in their house.”
The students were recommended to participate in the program by their Chinese teacher, Elise Chang. Half of the trip was funded by the Taiwanese government, which paid for school, housing and gave the students a $200 allowance for six months. Airfare and other expenses were provided by the individual students.
A major difference between the Taiwanese lifestyle and American norms are mainly in regards to schooling. For example, in the Taiwanese culture, the teachers do not mind if the students are talking while they are.
Additionally, instead of walking to other rooms for each period, the teachers come to your room, and students stay with the same classmates all day. Also students remain with the same 50 classmates all throughout high school. Currently, Fredrick is attending a Taiwanese college and staying in a dorm room which is more or less the same as a typical American university.
“I took twelve hours of Chinese class per week, which has helped with my fluency, with random cooking and circuitry classes,” said Simon. “I also took and English classes, which were equivalent to 5th grade English in America.”
The boys also had to grow accustomed to the different types of Taiwanese foods. Especially the stinky tofu, which has a notoriously foul odor and mixed reviews from Simon and Fredrick.
“It was not until I got here that I became hesitant about eating certain foods,” Fredrick said. “I would like to think I have always been open-minded about food, but there are some things here, such as duck, chicken head, and pigs feet that I will refuse to eat.”
On Simon’s last day in Taiwan, he spent the day at a church watching the A-Team. He watched American movies with English subtitles and a Taiwanese version of “Don’t Forget the Lyrics.” Both Fredrick and Simon spent their time much like they would in America, hanging out with new friends, going to the occasional movie, and roaming the streets of the city.
When Simon returned to America, he was so used to speaking Chinese that he often used the wrong words or the wrong tenses in English and continued to speak his own form of Chinglish. During his time in Taiwan, everyone stared at him because seeing a foreigner on the streets was a “special occasion.”
“Whenever I would ride the subway everyone would come and try to practice their English with me and they were terrible at it, but they were friendly and would ask why I was there,” Simon said. “People in Taiwan are even more friendly. “
Simon still keeps in touch with the friends he made and plans to attend grad school in Taiwan. Fredrick will be returning from his visit to Taiwan at the beginning of June and also hopes to go back and visit Taiwan.