My name is ChengKok. My friends call me CK and I come from this really small country called Singapore. I was sent to a beautiful country called Taiwan, Tainan and settled down in An-Ping Junior High School.
I was given a really warm welcome in school as I was there on Christmas eve. I was even given the task to give out sweets to random students who flock to me in great numbers. This was taken with the principal before the attack by the enthusiastic students (I'm the one in green).
Then on I prepared lessons on the culture of Singapore, the many common English mistakes made by Taiwanese and even played a game of running man with them. They were mostly shy to start with and refuse to say anything. But after a day or two, I was flooded by bits and pieces of amusing English.
Lessons never was the same back in Singapore as I was able to produce my own syllabus and teach key points to students in a way that was different. I hope they were able to take away those information from me. They were given work to do and I even brought along a representation of Singapore to share with the more outstanding students. Their creativity really exceeded my expectation as they were able to show me what they felt about Singapore in many other forms.
Being the first volunteer Chinese in An-Ping, I wanted to give the students a form of courage to talk more to people overseas and interact with them. Hence, I took part in their basketball games, their lunch breaks whenever I had the time to do so. I hope to inspire them that being Chinese, I was able to speak both in English and in Chinese. It is not as difficult as it seems.
I even participated in their annual camp whereby the 2nd grades had to go camping on a mountain. I felt that the camp really bonded the students after the trip. There was many tears shed during the last day as they left for the home. But these feelings never really changed. I hope their friendship will remain strong forever.
Time seemed to have pass so fast. With the clock ticking down on its' final moments, I packed my memories into a little box and left back for Singapore to celebrate Chinese New Year with my family. However, what was done during the past 6 weeks was like a fleeting dream with sweet memories. The abundance of warmth given by my host family and the bright future i see in every child often made my hair stand. It felt like I had given so little but received so much that it seemed unfair.
Every adventure eventually have to end at some point, my AIESEC journey has just ended. But I hope it started many little adventures that I have inspired the kids on. I always believe the world is like a book and those who did not travel only read a page. I hope the kids in An-Ping Jr High will see the world in the eyes I see them now. It's a start of a wonderful adventure of each on of them.
Signing off: るろうにCK
Feel free to checkout my project AIESEC: An inspiration for every day of my life in Taiwan.
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