This is my post for my first two weeks in Taiwan: one week before ICLP’s classes began and one week into classes. I explored Taipei City, found a good workflow when classes started, and tried lots of new food!
Before my classes started, my roommate and I (a fellow ICLP student) went to various restaurants and got familiar with some parts of Taipei City. I explored the NTU campus during ICLP’s orientation and signed their language pledge. With ICLP’s language pledge, four classes per student, and homework mainly focused on building speaking skills, I was looking forward to building my speaking skills in Chinese at a serious pace.
When classes began, I found it easy to adjust to classes and homework alike, thanks to the Chinese classes I had taken at Williams. With my experience speaking only Chinese in my previous classes, I understood my teachers and could respond without any problems. Some of my homework was written in Chinese characters, and I was able to read them fine. Most of my homework was memorizing dialogues or new grammar patterns, which I picked up quickly thanks to the memorization habits I had already built.
At ICLP, each student has one class in their schedule in which they are the only student. After attending some sessions of my one-on-one class, I can tell that there is some heightened pressure on me to know all of the content for the day, but I believe that this will ensure that I make quick progress with my spoken Chinese.
The first week of classes was shortened due to the Dragon Boat Festival. To celebrate, my roommate and I went shopping at Shida Night Market. As I write, I look forward to my continued conversations in class, and hope that the upcoming set of bigger assignments (short essays, speeches) are not too stressful!