East Meets West
On Monday, October 19th, our grade three classes had a special class speaker. But wait, first let us back up and talk about our unit of inquiry, so we can see why our guest speaker’s information was both interesting and useful to what they had been studying and reflecting on. In our unit we had talked about cultures and values, both in student’s lives in Taipei and in Taiwan and other cultures and values around the world. This is a challenging and hard concept to really grasp for grade three students.
Our guest speaker was a Taiwan citizen whose spouse is from England. She was in a perfect position to compare and contrast different cultures. She brought along a PowerPoint presentation that had a number of excellent examples of culture differences between Taiwan and other English people. In addition, she had surveys that she had found on the internet and this allowed her to back up her ideas with data. The whole presentation was done in Chinese. Students felt comfortable with the language and were equally comfortable asking questions and making comments. Students worked on reflections after, discussing what they learned.
-------------
How would you describe Taiwan culture?
We have to eat everything with chopsticks and without spoon and fork. We have to bow when we say sorry. We shower at night. We don’t like to play in the sun. When a Chinese child wants something, mom and dad will get it for them.
– Andie Yee依安娣, 3rd grade
-------------
How is Taiwan culture different from other cultures around the world?
In Taiwan, some people go to church, but in the U.S.A., many people go to church more than Taiwan. The same thing with my family is we go to church and we pray and sing songs. – Daniel Wu吳佑恩, 3rd grade
-------------
How is culture in Taiwan changing?
Taiwan’s culture is changing, for example, when the time of my grandma and grandpa, they need to marry a boy (or girl) that they didn’t know. Now, we can pick a boy (or girl) that we like, and marry him (or her).
– Joy Chang張愛家, 3rd grade
