We’re All In This Together

Marina Kang

I have never liked children. For that reason, it made perfect sense for me to apply for the A.I.D. Volunteer Program, where I knew I’d be teaching English to little kids for two weeks.

          When I arrived at Jian-An Elementary School after making it through a week of lectures at Taoyuan Training Center, with tons of teaching strategies and foreboding warnings freshly imprinted into my mind, the first thing I did was use the bathroom in the room I’d be staying in for the next two weeks. I was welcomed by a whole army of ants partying on my bathroom walls. My roommate and I became a lot closer over the next few days, spraying the ants off the walls with the showerhead and watching out for the lizards sprinting across the room.

          Even though I never became too comfortable having to deal with the bugs, giant spiders, and lizards every day, living at Jian-An was so much better than I could have expected. Our air-conditioned rooms became our sanctuary from the heat and the schoolwork during the school day. There were two convenience stores directly across the street from the school, so we could walk out the gate in between classes to buy a drink or stock up the refrigerator in our dorm kitchen. The school itself was about half an hour away from Taipei. Everything we needed was provided by the teachers and staff at Jian-An, who were all incredibly nice and generous towards us. Because I didn’t want to let them down after they’d done so much for us, I felt more pressure to teach well at the school.

          I can’t imagine that I could have been any more comfortable living at Jian-An, given our resources and where we were located. Teaching itself, however, was a completely different matter. That first morning, I was still setting up my classroom when all eighteen of my students ran in. Confused, I gathered all my stuff and left to find someone to explain to me why the students were sitting in their seats three hours ahead of schedule. We were supposed to have our opening performance first, where the students’ first impression of the six of us would have been of our self-choreographed dance to “I Want It That Way” by the Backstreet Boys—in other words, we would’ve looked really cool. Instead, we now had to go introduce ourselves and entertain our class for 40 minutes, even though we had no time to prepare. It was difficult to orient ourselves to such a sudden change in plans, and the first impression we gave of our teaching to both ourselves and the students was so different from what we all had in mind.

          The first day was somewhat discouraging. The English levels of my class were really mixed, as some could read fluently while others couldn’t sound out basic words. Some of the students were so shy, it took ten minutes to get one of the students to say “Hello, my name is ___ and I like ____.” The students got bored easily, and I ended up reminding myself of the elementary school teachers I had never been particularly fond of. We had to rethink our entire lesson plans, come up with new ideas, and somehow find ways to keep students entertained yet productive all day. It showed us just how much all those teaching strategies and lesson plans were going to help us (which was not a lot) and how much sleep we were going to get over the next two weeks (also not a lot).

          Over the following days, we all got to know our kids better and became more comfortable with them. From running around, playing stupid games with them, and dunking each other in the river to having them make fun of my terrible Chinese, singing songs together, and struggling with the barbecue grill, I wouldn’t trade the moments I spent with the students outside of the classroom for anything. I was right in thinking that little kids could be noisy, annoying, easily distracted, and disrespectful (especially during class), but the kids were more often than not overbearingly cute, generous, and upbeat, and every one of them was amazing in their own way. The other five volunteer teachers and I also became a lot closer, hanging out during our free time and always talking about our kids. I don’t think I would have survived if I had been teaching on my own.

          At the closing ceremony, I was really surprised to find a TV station’s camera shoved in my face, recording me shaking hands with my students and crying. I honestly had never expected to cry at the end of the two weeks, even though the kids had completely won me over. All I wanted to do after the ceremony ended was to take some of them to America with me. Teaching was definitely difficult and required a ton of effort, but at the end of it all I really wish I could’ve given the children more. Two weeks is such a short time to learn something as broad as English, and even if we were just here to inspire them to pursue the language, I feel like there was so much more we could have done. Even as I pack up my things and leave behind the ants on my bathroom walls, I know this won’t be the last time I see Jian-An Elementary or any of these kids.