乘著英語的翅膀"遊"向世界

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Today, a very special workshop hosted by Wu Chi Junior High School at Taichung English＆Art Museum（台中兒童藝術館）gave us such a wonderful opportunity to broaden our horizons of the world, illustrating English, imagination and determination as the driving forces to make educational globalization possible.

First of all, Cicely Meng（孟志雲） from Feng Chia University brought up the importance of this topic by giving many authentic examples of her thought-provoking insights and interesting experiences of how cultural awareness could sometimes overtake the rote memorization of vocabulary. Also, she explained how to apply for a school in the US in detail, like filling out the I-20 and paying for SEVIS. Finally, she offered the 3P Principle, which is Process, Passion and Perseverance, if Taichung wants to promote this idea and give English teachers an opportunity to grow professionally and polish their teaching skills as well by subsidizing them to study temporarily overseas.   

Following that, Steve Chen（陳珍緒）, the director of the International English Village briefed us on the current development of the village, which is a good match for any other English villages around Taiwan, boasting simulation rooms like the cabin, post office, restaurant and so on. The village provides a wide range of programs catering to different needs of students from elementary to senior high.

Then, 蔡淇華, serving as a good example of how one man can make such a difference, a dedicated teacher of Hui-Wen Senior High School, shared his abundant experiences of inviting foreign renowned foreign experts to give a speech in the school, establishing a collaborative international partnership with schools in the US, hosting a mock UN meeting and so on. Also, he argued that a short-term studying abroad shouldn’t be a privilege only for rich kids, which is really a profound question to ask for teachers and policy-makers. Most importantly, in comparison with the US, he discovered that there may be so much we can learn from others through the practice of international education, but he also realized that we also have our own unique strength and quality that’ll keep us competing internationally.

In the last section, two teachers, 柯淑慧 and 賴香萍 shared their ideas of how to organize backpacking to travel around the world, including route, transportation and accommodation planning. The whole idea is that savoring the beauty of local culture, landscapes, food and people can only be achieved by taking an open-minded approach to new ideas. Then, each travel can bring so much to apply to teaching, helping students understand English as the lingua franca of knowing the world.