黑料视频

In May 2025, Owen Vandivier (BS 鈥�25) graduated from 黑料视频 with a major in adolescent-to-young adult (AYA) education (specializing in integrated social studies), a history minor and an Asian studies certificate. After graduation, Owen spent four weeks in Taiwan teaching English with the .

This program, better known as the English Teaching Volunteer Service Program for Overseas Youth, is administered by the Overseas Community Affairs Council (OCAC). The summer program initiative brings international volunteers aged 17-24 to teach English in Taiwanese schools. Volunteers learn Mandarin and engage in cross-cultural exchanges, with sponsors covering expenses like accommodation, meals, and insurance.

Q: Why did you decide to teach English in Taiwan?

A: Well, I was doing the Asian Studies Certificate and had taken many different classes about Asian history and four semesters of language classes, three of which were Japanese and one semester of Chinese. I must say that It was daunting to think of going to a foreign country for an entire month without any friends or family to accompany me, and especially because this was the first time I had traveled outside of the United States. I was worried about adjusting to a different culture and having to communicate in Mandarin with native speakers. But then I thought about how lucky I was to have this opportunity. Teaching Taiwanese children English was a perfect opportunity for someone like me, an education major with an interest in Asia, who loves teaching. And I was also lucky that my girlfriend is a Chinese teacher from Vietnam, and so I was able to learn a lot of Mandarin from her before going to Taiwan.

Q: How did you afford the program?

A: One of the great things about this program is that everything is paid for, except for the flights to and from Taiwan. This means I did not pay for housing or food the entire time I was in Taiwan, which made the experience better, since I never had to worry about having enough money.

Q: What was it like when you first arrived in Taiwan?

A: I was picked up at the airport along with other volunteers and taken to the Asia University in Taichung to begin a one-week training on how to teach English. During this training week, I met many of the 500 other volunteers from all over the world who had come to teach English. They were from England, Turkey, America (mostly Californians), South Africa, France, Italy and Sweden. Most of the volunteers were Taiwanese Americans, surprisingly still in high school or just starting college, which meant I was one of the oldest volunteers at the camp.

Q: Tell us more about what happened in that first training week.

A: I stayed with three other guys in a dorm at Asia University during the first week. They were all younger than I was and they were all from California. We were first split into big groups. We were then split into different groups based on the school that we would be teaching at in Taiwan. My group had three guys and three girls. We also had an instructor from the school that we were going to teach at. Her name was Tiffany Lin, and she was an amazing advisor who gave us a lot of great advice during the first week鈥� helping us make lesson plans. She also bought us milk tea and different Taiwanese snacks to enjoy during the first week.

During the training week, our group learned about what topics we would be teaching to the students. how to teach English through different subject areas, and how to make lesson plans to teach those topics. The teacher also showed us how we can teach students vocabulary and sentence structure through subjects like science, physical education and health. My group made lesson plans during the first week and we presented these during our classes to other groups.

Q: What was YuYing Middle School like?

A: We built a strong friendship with each other, which made working with my groupmates much easier and made the overall experience very enjoyable. At the end of the training week, we got on a bus to go to the school we were going to teach at. Luckily for us the school was YuYing Middle School in Taichung, so it was a very short bus ride. Other groups went to many different areas in Taiwan, including rural areas in the south, big cities and the small islands

When we arrived at YuYing Middle School we were met by the principal of the school. She showed us around and showed us where we would be sleeping. The girls were staying in the library and us guys were sleeping in a ballet studio within the school. We had air mattresses to sleep on, and we had to walk to the school building to take showers.  Every night during the week we would meet up in the library to go over our lesson plans, come up with activities and make PowerPoints. We stayed up late each night making sure we had everything for the next day ready for the students. It was a lot of work, but in the end, it was worth it since our students were having such a good time in our class.

Q: Tell us about your students

A: We had a total of 22 students in the class. Their ages ranged from eight to 15 and they were at different levels of English proficiency. Any students who attended the elementary or middle school during the regular school year could participate in this extra summer program.  So that was why our classes were made up of mixed abilities and ages. This meant our lesson plans had to be varied so that faster students could be challenged while at the same time allowing less proficient students to go at their own pace.

Q: Tell us about a typical school day

A: We had to plan for a full school day (8:40 a.m.-3 p.m.), so we had to come up with a lot of activities that would keep students engaged throughout the entire day. Each volunteer was a group leader for three to four students. During class two volunteers would go in front of the class to teach the lesson while the other four would be with their groups, helping their students understand the lesson and guiding them through the activities. We played many games with the students throughout the two weeks we taught them. I had four students in my group... Over the two weeks I helped them learn English, I built a strong connection with all four of them. I saw them improve their English, which made me feel like we did a good job teaching them.

Q: What about your social life?

A: Outside of teaching during the two weeks at YuYing Middle School, our instructor Tiffany Lin took all of us to many different places in and around Taichung. We went to night markets, malls, restaurants, arcades, and parks. Mark, the principal鈥檚 son, would bring us different authentic Taiwanese food every day. I got to try amazing food that I would never have the opportunity to eat in Ohio, and I got to experience different aspects of Taiwanese culture. We also went to a theme park focused on educating Taiwanese people about the aboriginals who lived there long before Chinese people came to the Island.

Q: What special memories do you have of your two weeks teaching?

A: During the opening ceremony, we all had to do a performance in front of the kids. We choose to perform 鈥淧erfect鈥� by Ed Sheeran. We did a lot of practicing for this, and it turned out okay. During the final ceremony the kids were to sing English songs. We had to teach our students an English song during class time, and they performed it during the closing ceremony. We taught them to sing 鈥淕ood Time鈥� by Carly Rae Jaepsen and Owl City.  I also received a certificate from YuYing during the closing ceremony, and I have many pictures from throughout the two weeks to look back on and remember the great experience I had at the middle school.

Q: What did you learn from this experience?

A: This was such a different experience than what I was used to during college. I had never taught English, or students who were this young before. This pushed me out of my comfort zone and was a great way to gain more teaching experience outside of my specialty. I feel this experience made me a more well-rounded teacher and I will always be open to teaching outside of the United States if the opportunity arises.

Q: Did you have any negative experiences?

A: Yes, but it turned out positive. I lost my wallet during the training week at Asia University. I assumed after a few days I would not be able to get it back, but a week later they called me and said they had found my wallet. I was very happy to hear this and when I got it back, all the NTD (New Taiwan Dollar) was still in the wallet along with all my ID cards! This proves the kindness of Taiwanese people because someone could easily have taken money from my wallet or thrown it away instead of returning it. 

Q: What did you do for the last week of the program?

A: After the two weeks of teaching ended, everyone went back to Asia University. During that last week the organizers put all the volunteers on different buses, and they took us to different places all around Taiwan.  We visited Taipei, Taichung, Tainan and other places. We visited museums and markets and interacted with a lot of Taiwanese people during that final week. During the final week the organizers spoke mostly in Mandarin, so this helped me improve my Mandarin listening and communication skills. This final week, we stayed in very nice hotels and ate at a lot of different restaurants including a hotpot restaurant on the final day of the program. This last week was a lot of fun going to different parts of Taiwan and experiencing Taiwanese culture.

Q: What are your final thoughts about the program?          

A: This experience is one I will never forget. Even though it wasn鈥檛 easy, I still believe this helped me improve as a person and as a teacher. Having to leave my comfort zone really helped me grow as a person. I learned a lot about teaching strategies from the first week and gained helpful teaching experience during the two weeks at YuYing Middle school. I learned a lot about what living in a different culture is like, something I had never experienced. I have always been in America and around American culture and even though I talked to many international students while at 黑料视频, it was not the same as staying in a different country. I appreciate Taiwanese culture, and I have become more aware of the differences that exist between Western  and Eastern cultures. I will definitely be heading back to Taiwan at some point in my life since I loved it there so much. I will never forget my experience in Taiwan, and I am grateful for this opportunity to get out of my comfort zone and become a better teacher.

For more information click here:  or contact Professor Yi-Ting Wang wangy7@ohio.edu, Chinese Language Program, Linguistics Department.