Fun at School?!

By Max Dill

From New Jersey, US 5 years in Taiwan English teacher at Ebenezer After School Program in Taitung

Five years ago, I arrived at Zhiben train station just days after one of the biggest typhoons in years. The air carried the smell of rain, and a summerlike heat lingered even as the mid-October sunset. I stepped off the train with an odd sort of emptiness about me. Twenty-something and lost, full of curiosity, and searching for new horizons!

to provide indigenous students in Taitung with a decent pathway through life. She offered me the opportunity to teach English at an after-school program in Taitung. At first, I was hesitant. Teaching English in the heat? At a church? Surrounded by farmland? It didn’t sound very enticing, but my PS4 was sick of me and my parents wanted their empty nest back.

So there I was, the only foreigner in the village with little knowledge of the rich indigenous cultures set amidst the mountains, plains, and coasts of Taitung. I spent the first months struggling to communicate, trying to find my place within the program. Established 20 years ago by a pastor from Kaohsiung, the Ebenezer After School Program provides supplementary education, homework help, dinners, and music and art classes. In Taitung’s indigenous villages, education is not a high priority for many families and as a result, students struggle to keep up with their studies and sometimes drop out before completing school. The program aims to provide the students with a positive environment where they can acquire the tools needed to build a better life, and ultimately somewhere to go that doesn’t ever let them forget that love is real.

Learning can be Fun!

In the beginning, I only had classes with teenagers that could barely write their ABCs, but I wanted to teach the elementary kids. Maybe I could help them build a foundation of basic English so that when they reached junior high school they wouldn’t be like their struggling older peers. Maybe they could keep up with their English classes and get decent grades. Maybe they could even communicate in English and use it as a vehicle for exploring the endless wonders that the world has to offer.

A mutual friend in the US, Ms. Chen, was a Taiwanese national who had recently returned home, determined

However, not everyone thought English was important; and worried that the language classes would impact time doing homework. And my teaching style was described as “childish.” How could anyone learn by playing games? Why should a classroom be fun?

A conventional English class in a public school consists of a teacher translating everything and asking students to memorize it all, which can lead to students being unable to pronounce the words or apply them to real-life conversations. Students make little progress and the idea that English is boring and difficult is perpetuated. A language classroom should be interactive, with risk-taking rewarded and laughter encouraged. We played tic-tac-toe with scrambled up words, Jenga with numbers and colors, red light-green light, and a multitude of other fun games which brought a little joy to the classroom, and simultaneously promoted learning.

When the next semester came, I secured a few more students. As before, they were motivated to finish their homework and came out of my classroom having made noticeable progress. When exams came, their improvement was clear to see. Soon, I was given a class schedule with time allotted to teach the majority of our students. Now, we don’t need to question whether they’ll pass their English tests. And we all have fun!

Fun Outside of the Classroom

I’ve been able to take the fun beyond the classroom, too. We’ve been in the kitchen making desserts, rolling out the dough for pizzas, and even cooking Mexican food, not only to introduce the kids to new flavors and vocabulary; but also because I miss my mom’s meals! The church’s instruments don’t go untouched either—as an avid musician I hope to pass some of that onto the kids as well. Before the pandemic hit and restrictions were introduce, we were able to take the kids out for day trips a few times a year. We couldn’t travel far afield during the pandemic, but we were able to enjoy the great outdoors in Taitung’s very own Forest Park. We rented bikes and rode the cycle path through the greenery down to Taitung Seashore Park. Once there, we did a beach clean-up and then enjoyed a well-deserved ice cream before riding back. I also built a sandcastle which the kids had lots of fun knocking down!

With limited funds and transportation, another great trip we did was to the movies. Taitung has recently gone through a lot of development and it was only in the last few years that the Showtime movie theater opened. So whilst you might think that sounds like a simple trip, for these kids it was the definition of fun!

Of course, living in Taitung, I also like to get out and explore by myself. When the sun is out and the heat is overwhelming, my first thought is to go to the beach, but with so many choices nearby I sometimes head to the Rift Valley. Surrounded by rice paddies and nestled between the Coastal and Central Mountain Range, Chishang is famous for its beauty (and quality agricultural produce). Here the heat won't get the best of you as the valley is known for its strong summer winds. You can rent a bike to ride out through the flat paddies, visiting the iconic Brown Avenue, Takeshi Kaneshiro tree, or even go on a safari looking for hippos and zebras... My students told me about the zebras and I thought they were joking until I actually stumbled upon them! In cooperation with Muzha Zoo in Taipei, Chishang Pastoral Resort is home to a small collection of exotic animals; and is free to visit.

I hope my time with the students of the Ebenezer After School Program has been as enriching and fun for them as it has been for me. I arrived a bit aimless, not sure if this was the right fit for me, and looking forward to time off, but little did I know how quickly that would change. During a trip to Singapore, I found myself counting down the days until I could return to the village and be with my students again. They make every day better than the last and remind me that hope is abundant regardless of one’s likely trajectory. As well as access to education, we all deserve to have fun, and if those two things can be combined, all the better!