第一周（Phoebe Pallesen, HTA)

大家好！我叫白扑惠（Phoebe Pallesen)，我现在在哈台班学习中文。
The first week here has been challenging, but also profoundly rewarding. The flight was long and tiring — I stepped out of the airport and immediately confronted the brutal Taipei heat and the sounds of 中文！The taxi ride into Taipei was one I am sure I will remember forever; our (I shared a taxi with two other Williams students) lovely Taxi driver told us all about his life and we tried (in our broken Chinese/English) to tell him about ours.

During our first Saturday, we toured NTU’s campus (it is beautiful) and visited a night market near our dorms. Then, on Sunday, we signed our language pledge! No more English for 8 weeks.

Classes this week were difficult and draining and also fun and — perhaps most importantly — remarkably effective. My teachers are all wonderful and clearly deeply care about our language progress. Our daily one-on-one sessions are often extremely frustrating (it is, as it turns out, quite the challenge to express yourself exclusively in Chinese 24/7), but also honestly extremely exciting. It is, I recognize, an incredible privilege to sit down each day with one teacher whose sole purpose for that hour is to help me improve.

I have already learned more than I thought I would in a month; despite the challenges of adjusting to a new place and new people and a new culture, I am excited to begin week 2.