Welcome to English Village—the pride of Yilan County. Every Tuesday, six of us gather in the morning to give some fifth grade students of Yilan County an unforgettable English experience. The entire building is designed to be a simulated English environment, complete with an airplane donated by EVA Air, a fake dance studio, bank, restaurant, etc.
After a group introduction, the students, in groups, run through the stations to practice interacting with us, saying things like “I want to exchange $200 NT dollars to US dollars” at the bank or “Do your eyes hurt?” at the health center. We also play fun games with them to get them to practice using English more. At the end of their crazy adventure, they write postcards in English.
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Every May, elementary schools from across Yilan County gather to compete in various English activities. Every school that has a Fulbright ETA placed there is required to participate in at least two of the activities. These range from Vocabulary King to Reader’s Theatre (reading/acting in English) to Sing/Dance to Improv. Our school decided to participate in Vocabulary King and Sing/Dance…since my secondary job title is Dance Choreographer at my school.
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On Saturday, we took a group-organized day trip to Turtle Island. It is named Turtle Island because from Daxi, it looks like a turtle in the water, literally. Turtle Island used to be a military base, and only in recent years was open to the public to visit, so you must apply in order to receive admission. The island was beautiful, filled with scary snakes and beautiful vegetation.
To reach the top-most part of the island, you must climb 1706 steps. After about 100, I was already tired. When we made it to the 1000th step, we were finally allowed a little bit of rest time before continuing on. Overall, it was a great work out, even though my legs ached for days after.
View from the highest point on the island
After hiking and walking around the island for a bit, we boarded the boat again to go in search of dolphins! We were really lucky and after about half an hour, we were surrounded by hundreds of dolphins. It was absolutely incredible and breath-taking. I had never seen that many dolphins before in my life and never seen them before in their natural habitat. Maggie, Deborah’s LET, even started crying because it was so beautiful! Some of the dolphins even did a few tricks for us, leaping out of the water and showing off their skills.
[Real time update: I know I’m really behind in my blog posts, but I wanted to post a current update]
This past weekend I went back to Kenting but on a totally different mission that last time for the Fulbright Mid-Year Conference. This time, I went with the student teachers that were placed at my school last semester to celebrate them finishing their tests. I felt so fortunate and honored that they had invited me to join their trip and was really excited to see them again after the long winter break. It also was an excellent opportunity for me to personally experience complete language and cultural immersion since all of them are Taiwanese locals that speak primarily Chinese.
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After spending a night in Taipei, we woke up early to take the High Speed Rail (HSR) to Zuoying on the southern end of the island. From there, we boarded tour buses to head to Kenting! In the afternoon, we visited the Kenting Aquarium and then had some time to head back to the hotel and walk on the beautiful beach before heading to dinner.
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