American’s and Taiwan’s school life

                                                                                                                                           Winnie 

      Have you ever gone abroad to study? Do you know about another nation’s culture? Knowing another nation’s culture is very interesting and can abound your knowledge. When you go to another country to study, you will discover something is very different from your country and you need to get used to it. Between America and Taiwan, there are some similarities and difference. The different examples include: activities, class time and holidays.

     First, the activities in America and Taiwan vary. In America, schools hold a lot of activities for students, both outdoor and indoor activities. The activities include watching movies and art performances alfresco, playing games with the RA, going to pick fruit at the farm and having many kinds of parties in the residents’ hall. But in Taiwan we have to find activities by ourselves like going to KTV for all night, riding scooter to some famous place to eat and chat or drink some beer with friends.

       In addition to the activities, the class time is also different between these two countries. America, one class is seventy-five minutes and one subject only has one lesson in one day. This system’s advantage is one subject only a lesson in a day. Students won’t feel bored that have to take the class again and again. The disadvantage is one lesson continues for too long. In Taiwan one class is forty minutes and one subject has two or three lessons in one day. This system’s advantage is that students don’t need to sit in class for a long time. The disadvantage is students will think the class is tedious because we have the same object again and again. These two different systems both have their advantages and disadvantage. Opposite, America’s advantage is Taiwan’s disadvantage and America’s disadvantage is Taiwan’s advantage. So if you want to go abroad to study, you need to get used to the differences.

     Finally, for a student, one important event of school life is the holidays. It is very easy to get used to this difference if you are an international student in America. America has many national holidays in a semester. In the fall there are nine holidays that the students have no classes. In Taiwan, the students only have two days off from classes in the fall. If we can have a holiday on a week day, we will be very happy. It is rare for Taiwanese people to have a holiday so to study in America is very lucky.

     After the comparison, we can learn from both the education systems of America and Taiwan. More activities and holidays will make the school life more interesting because they can help students relax and increase their motivation to study. As students, we should have more activities and choices not just study. But we can’t only focus on what activities we like and forget to study. We need to find the balance between studying and relaxing in our school life.