Immersing in the Language and the Culture

These past two days in Taiwan have been a huge adjustment for students. As they are working through jet lag, getting back into school mode, and getting a sense of the daily schedule, they have been enjoying being in the bustling city and practicing their chinese. Many students have been apprehensive about communicating in Chinese; however, we've already seen a boost in their confidence the more they talk with local Taiwanese folks in the community. Here's what Nevaeh had to say about the first days of chinese class

"It took us about 45 minutes to commute to class. The commute was by train and a short walk through a nature filled community. When I got into class things were pretty confusing at first but after some time I started to understand more and more. We were also given some snacks during free time which carried me to lunch where I had a really good meal. " --Nevaeh

Beyond the language immersion, students for the past couple days have had the chance to use their artistic sense to connect deeply with the culture. One of these activities was face painting. These face masks in which the students painted are a very important piece of cultural history in Chinese culture. They often show up on stage and their intricies tell a whole story. One student Kaiya remarked this about her experience face painting: 

"For todays activity we did traditional opera face painting. The instructor told us about the history of Chinese face painting and what the colors, patterns, and faces mean. For instance, white and black represent evil. Red is perceived as positive and blue can be viewed as good or bad. During the activity we got into groups of five and each had to paint a different characters face. While timid in the beginning I had lots of fun with this activity, playing around with the colors, formations/patterns, and how diluted the paint was (I added water to the paint to create a light blush). I also enjoyed seeing what others were creating."--Kaiya