Today is the second they we went to JianGuo High School. After breakfast, we headed there and gathered at the seminar room for a short briefing. We are introduced to the school's history through a short clip. We were then grouped into groups to go into different classes to attend the lessons in JianGuo high school. I was assigned to follow class 126, and my buddy was Kuo Kuang-Cheng. First, we introduced ourselves and they walked us to the Geography room for geography lesson. On the way, my buddy bought me 'chicken chop', it was awesome!
For our geography lesson, our teacher taught us astronomy: how to use a telescope. I realized that teachers in Taiwan use chinese as their basic language to teach, except for English. I was rather confused because I've never attend geography lessons taught in chinese before. The students there were rather rowdy and playful with the absence of the teacher as they ran about and even played 'scissors, paper, stone' Still, I got the gist of how to use a telescope.
Next, we headed back to classroom to have our lunch. Out lunch was a lunchbox, containing chicken and vegetables. It was awesome (especially the chicken). Our beverage was milk tea, a popular drink in Taiwan. It is during lunch break where FREEDOM was largely expressed. They were allowed to eat in class, and some of them (and us) played card games, which are against the rule. Students also played ball in classrooms (wow). It was a rather loud and messy sight. After all, it's a boy's school. The unfinished food are supposed to be discarded in a dirty pail, while the container is to be thrown away in a bin. So in total, there are two bins in the class. They are fully filled but nobody discarded the trash yet. The lockers are located at the back of the classroom. The top of the lockers were rather messy, as they were filled with junk papers, books, and even basketballs.
Next is the foreign language class. I followed my buddy who took german as this subject. I've been waiting for this since morning as I was excited to learn a new foreign language. When the teacher entered the classroom, I was expecting the class to greet the teacher but it is their school culture that greeting is not necessary. By right, the teacher wanted to teach advanced german, but when they knew that we are new to this language, she decided to teach the basics, just for our own learning needs (what a great teacher!). The lesson was very fun and interesting, The teacher thought us forms of greetings in german, like good morning in german is Guten Morgan. Good afternoon is Guten Tag. Goodbye is Ciao. The alphabets are pronounced differently in German. The students are talking among themselves, but they do also participate in the lesson. Some of them are sleeping and daydreaming. I was expecting the teacher to scold and punish the class, but to my surprise, she did not and continued to teach the class.
It was English lesson up next. The teaching style for English here are almost the same as in River Valley. They teach English Literature, where the story they study was Frankenstein. We are divided into five groups: Frankenstein, Lawyer for Frankenstein, Monster, Lawyer of Monster and the jury/judge. Frankenstein was a story of a scientist, who accidentally made a monster in a failed experiment. He was forced to promise the monster to make him a new wife, or else he will get killed. He promised, but later killed the monster's wife after the creation. Angered, the monster killed Frankenstein's brother for revenge. The class is supposed to debate who was guilty for murder, Frankenstein of the murder. My team took position as lawyer of Frankenstein, where we defended Frankenstein. After a long and funny debate, the jury and judge put the monster as guilty and Frankenstein as not guilty. Our group won!
During this English lesson, I realized that the class was very noisy and people will start to shout at the opposing teams. The teacher stood there and did nothing, not even bothering to quieten down the excited class. This was JianGuo's culture for freedom.
Spending half the day in JianGuo was tiring. I gave my gift to my buddy, and he gave me a small JianGuo High School bag in return. We bid our last farewell and left JianGuo...
Today's trip let me see deeper inside the learning culture in JianGuo. They were granted freedom in doing what they want, hence some of their actions may be ugly, but the teachers couldn't do much, because there is no rule implemented saying that no sleeping or eating or playing in class is not allowed. This freedom was a grant too big. If they were given too much freedom, they are free to do anything they want in class, and can choose not to pay attention in class. It is being very disrespectful and is neglecting the chinese culture, because the chinese see respect very seriously. Rules can at least be implemented in class to keep order.
I think that River Valley should have freedom, but not as much freedom as JianGuo, because I think that that will deteriorate one's attitude to learn. Learning shouldn't be too free and learning should be taken more seriously. Also, comparing the JianGuo students to RVians, I feel that RVians are more civilized,while the students on JianGuo are rather playful and rowdy. The 16 year olds in JianGuo seemed much more playful and overactive than the year 4s in River Valley. This is the result of receiving too much freedom.
Next stop is the Martyr's Shrine, where the chinese commemorate the dead soldiers that contribute a lot in wars. The scenery was cool, but there was nothing there we could do but watch the soldiers change shifts and take guard roles. This time, it was the navy that took guard (dark blue. Sky Blue is air force).
We left for dinner, where we ate usual chinese food. Yum...I love chinese food! :P
At night we indulged ourselves in books in Eslite Bookstore, a five-storey gigantic bookstore. Inside sells books from many different types of genres like mysteries, fantasies, fiction, non-fiction and etc.. The wide variety of books made me go WOW! We browsed through some books we never see before. Owen and I went to the forth floor to explore, and we came across a scientific shop that sells many different types of science toys and Taiwan souvenirs. We touched and played the science toys and we had lots of fun, especially with the very kind shopkeeper following us all along. Owen bought four items, and I bought one Taiwan lego-like model of The Grand Hotel plus a magnetic keychain for my brother (hope he loves it). After spending 1.5 hours in that bookstore, we headed back to the hotel...
Day 4 was the most fruitful day among the other days so far, because I really learnt a lot of the learning culture in Taiwan, and the contrast in education between Taiwan and Singapore.
Day 5, I await you! Wulai here I come!
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