A Successful Meetup with a Korean English Teacher and a Japanese AIESEC Volunteer

Today, we really had a productive international gathering at the school, with a Korean English teacher and a Japanese AIESEC volunteer interacting with my students in the gifted class. On top of that, we went to a historic site nearby, and I proudly shared quite a few interesting views about how I love my country with such a diverse culture.

Thanks to a friend of mine, who is also a passionate and dedicated English teacher to promote cultural exchange, I got to meet these two wonderful ladies and invited them to come over and join the class with us. We did self-introduction, a simple introduction to gifted education and how I usually conducted my class with these two brilliant students, and a Q and A session for a variety of topics.

"With North Korea successfully testing the hydrogen bomb, how did that affect you?", "How did you learn English?", "Do you also have gifted education?", "What's the difference between Taiwanese students and the ones in your country?", "Would you like to study abroad in the future?", and these are some of the questions that were brought up during the class. Also, I showed my students' works of their edited English speaking videos, which is very helpful in providing opportunities to practice their writing, speaking, and editing skills.

During recess, some of my students who are pretty into K Pop came to the office and were encouraged to interact with the Korean teacher. Too afraid of making mistakes and lack of confidence, they didn't have anything to say. After questions like "Who is your favorite K Pop singer?" and "What is your favorite song from BTS?", they finally could manage to say a few simple words.

We came to visit the historic Martial Arts Compound, a famous Japanese legacy back in the Colonial Period over 80 years ago, to call it a day. Before getting off the car, I explained a little bit of the historical background. I think I really enjoy introducing the beauty of my city in English to foreigners, for I also get to appreciate it through their perspective.  

                                                                                                             

I hope today's meeting-up would create more potential opportunities for my students to use English and know more about Korea and Japan.