Cost of living(individual)

When I visited Taiwan, my buddy mum said that their cost of living is still okay. The wet markets there are reasonably priced for an average household. However, for supermarkets that are in shopping malls are more expensive and may not appeal to the needy family. Due to the high price, my buddy's parents usually got to the wet market to buy fresh produce. For other luxury items, it depends on where you buy it. If the place has a lot of tourist coming to visit, the prices will be higher. In conclusion , the cost of living in Taiwan is fairly reasonable if you don't buy things in the department stores. 

Education(Individual)

Thoughts and observations 

In Taiwan, I attended a biology lesson. The teacher is very enthusiastic in teaching and the students seemed to enjoy it very much. We had like a little debate about whether we should keep animals in zoos. The teacher allowed students to go up and express their thoughts freely. The students were very proactive in expressing their thoughts. Even if their answer if wrong or irrelevant,  they are not afraid of making mistakes in front of their classmates and learn with their friends. I think that this attitude in learning is very good as it allows students to understand the lessons better by letting the teacher correcting their mistakes. In Singapore, when the teacher asks a questions, students seems to try to avoid and remain silent. Even if a teacher calls a students out to answer, the students will just shrug it off with a poor answer. I also observed that students also have a strong team spirit. They will do the discussions together and will help each other when they are in doubt. I also feel that the teachers have a strong sense a trust in the students. For example, students have the freedom of bringing snacks and drinks to classrooms. This shows a high level of trust given to the students. They are trusted to not dirty the classrooms and dispose the empty cans properly. I observe that the classrooms are very clean. In our class, we do not really care about the hygiene and cleaniness of our classrooms and it's often dirty. We should definitely learn from them. 

Life of a student in Taiwan 

I asked my buddy about their curriculum timetable and found out that they feel stressed and tiring. They start school at 7.15am and self study till 8.25am. They end school at 5pm and have CCAs every single day. Most of the students have tuition after school and usually sleep at 11pm to continue studying. The tuitions usually helps helps the students to understanding better what is taught in school or preview upcoming topics. They do not eat in canteen but eat in classes. They told me that the studying requires a lot of memory work and their topics are rather informative. For example, one of their history questions is when did the Chinese revolution happen. 1911. Our history questions requires thinking and inferring from the source. 

Monuments(individual)

We went to the eternal golden castle. It has magnificent walls and massive cannons in the castle. 

This is a poem that I written 

雄伟的大门

坚不可摧的围墙

抵挡敌人攻击

让百姓安心

Postcards for parents 

Monuments (Individual)

Picture of Postcard

b.  A poem about the monument of your choice.

My poem would be about Anping fort.

雄伟的古堡

炮台保性命

虽大部分炸毁

还坚强地站立着

Education (Individual)

b. Thoughts and observations on behavior in class and style of teaching.

When we visited the class, I've noticed that the students are extremely proactive. They raise their hands at every question, as if they will win a prize for every correct answer. This is unlike in Singapore when the students don't dare to answer even when the question is a simple one like 'What are the tests for congruency'. I think that Singaporeans should learn from them since with constant speaking up in class, the students will have their mistakes corrected and they will learn more from this.

I have also observed that the class runs by the students reading up on the topic before the lesson. This shows the immense amount of trust between the student and the teacher. The students are trusted to read up and the teachers would continue on the topic with notes that needs the prior knowledge from the textbook that the students are trusted to do. This is extremely different in Singapore where the teachers supply the students with notes that cover the content in the textbook since they think that the students would not read up on the topic. I feel that the trust between students and teachers are more prominent in the Taiwan case since the teachers in Taiwan are friendly towards the students, like the both of them are friends but in Singapore, the teachers and students only share a teacher-student relationship.

c. Write about the life of a student in Taiwan.

The life of a normal class student will be that they will wake up at 6.45am and get ready for school, reaching school at around 7am before the Self-study period that starts at 7.15am, which is their first lesson. They will have school till 5.05pm with 10 minute breaks in between lessons and a lunch break. They will have tuition from 5.30pm to 8pm where they will be taught on the topics in school, but more in depth. After their tuition, they will reach home at about 8.30pm where they will do their necessities like showering, eating and spending time with their families before heading to revise or do their homework till about 11pm when they will sleep. Some may sleep later due to revision or longer leisure hours. This schedule is based on the timetable of a Taiwanese net friend from Sacred Hearts High School.

History Notes of Taiwanese students

Monuments (individual)

The poem I wrote is about the Chihkan Tower. The reason I chose this monument as the subject if my poem is that this infrastructure leave the deepest impression on me. It's very magnificent despite its long history. Thus I wrote this poem to show my thought on this monument in Taiwan.

楼，

虽老，

拥有者悠久与古老的历史，

但永不会失去它雄伟的气势。

众知的赤坎楼。

Cost of Living (Individual)

When we visited Taiwan, I asked my buddy and my buddy's mother about the cost of living there and they said that the cost of living was quite okay since they were accustomed to it. I have heard that the average salary was about the same as Singapore with things sold being at a higher price as compared with their average salary. I believe my buddy's family is one of the richer ones since I was brought to a department store and got treated to food. They have also expressed their opinion on our school fees, which is about SGD15 per month since they had to pay NTD50 000 - NTD60 000 per month on my buddy's school fees since she is in the special music talent class. In Taiwan, there isn't much of government subsides since they were impressed by the impressed amount of government subsidies that the Singapore government has provided for us. But, they have adapted to this and accepted it. Hence, we can conclude that the Taiwanese has accepted the cost of living of their country.

Education ( individual )

Thoughts & observation

In Taiwan, I attended one of sec 4 math lesson. I observed that in Taiwan classes, boys and girls are all separated, tablemates are all of the same gender. During the lesson, we have an activity where we are separated in two groups and do a group test. The teacher expects us to work out the questions together. The students there are very friendly. They know that we are from sec 2 and thus the question standard is too high for us so the gave us the easier questions to try them out. I realize the students have a strong team spirit. They know what their classmates are good at and thus let them handle certain questions. It was very impressive as I think not many of my classmates knows what each other is good at. After this activity, the teacher went through the questions. The students are very attentive. I realize the students and the teacher has a very special relationship. They looks like friends and give the feeling of normal friends but yet, very respectable when the teacher is teaching and having lessons.

I think that the Taiwanese students have very good self control. They know when to have fun and when to be serious. Their team spirit is very strong too, working together has no problem at all. They know how to face the problem and come up with a solution. I think the students actually treat their classroom as their own house. There are snacks, drinks and little items. But even though they eat in class, their classroom is still very clean and in good condition. I think this is something we have to learn from them. Often, our classroom is very dirty as we do not care much about the hygiene and cleanliness of the class. The experience I had in this class was very pleasant and fun. It was unforgettable.

Life of a student in Taiwan

I asked some buddies about their normal school lives. They told me it was tiring but they got used to it. The homework amount is around the same as Singapore but they have self study period so they could get them done before going home. Apparently, many of them have tuition after school hours so having self study period actually helped them to cope with their amount of homework. For tuition, it's often late at night till 8 plus. It further explains the subject and at the same time, preview the upcoming topics, to make the students cope better in class. In school, they do not have canteen like ours in Singapore. Their meals are fixed and changed daily. Most of them do not like the food due to their tastes. As for sleeping time, some sleep quite early, some are quite late. Those sleeping late is either due to revision, or playing games. I asked them if their studies would help them when they go to the society. They told me in their opinions, it's not really useful at all since the thing they learn is just memorizing informations. I think that their school life is no much different from school lives of students in Singapore. Except, we don't have self study period and we have a better privilege of food since we have a canteen. We face the same problems and some of us also have tuition late at night. The tuition have the same purpose, understands the subject better and preview on the upcoming topics. In the level of tiredness, both are the same.

Some examples of the Taiwan students' homework