Organization: FidoNet node 6:720/921 - World Data Exchange, Taipei Taiwan
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Hi Carol
I'm just learning how to do this new off line reader and I typed you a beautiful letter that took me 45 minutes and then lost it. Thanks for your letter. It was great to get such a nice lenghty reply. I agree that living in a culturally homogenious enviornment is not as exciting as Russia or a University setting. This summer our family was at a firewoks display on July 4. The PA system was playing "God Bless America" as the rockets made their red glare. My six year old son asked
"Dad why are they playing God bless American and not God Bless the world?"
It is that type of attitude that we would have trouble teaching in Des Moines. What is it like to be in Taiwan? On most days it's just like in the US. We get up, go to school, come home, eat, read and go to bed. The kids are a bit different and I said "Happy Chinese New Year" here quite a few times today, but on the whole daily living is pretty much the same. We found that to be the case when we spent 79-82 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia too. One parent said that "everytime I move the milk gets more expensi
ve". I would say that would be true here since a quart is US$ 2 and rent for our apartment is US$ 1,200. You could get quite a place in DesMOines for that much money, but we get paid more here too. I would say that some of the differences are the fact that over 90% of our students go to college, most parents are college educated, and we have 70% of our students with Chinese surnames and they believe in education, so it add up to a highly academic school. Most parents who get divorced leave, so we have
few single parent families. Since kindergarden cost about US$ 10,000., and other grades are more expensive, we don't have many poor families. Over 75% of the teachers have at least a Master's degree and the averege teacher has taught somewhere else overseas gives us an excellent staff. The facilities include 3 gyms, 2 theaters, an indoor pool, 40,000 books in an elementary library and a upper school library which has more books, a computer in every room and 2 elem. labs with 30 computers and some other
stuff make for a nice facility. The school is one of the best around.
Taipei is not a great city. It's crowded, polluted, traffic is terrible, it's rainy or too hot, things are expensive and it smells. But, we love the Chinese people. They are helpful, kind and appreciate the good education that their children are receiving. So there are trade offs. I am in my fourth year and just signed tonight for next year. We love it here, even though we do miss the Hawkeyes. I'll tell you about how we help new students next time. What do you do with entering kindergarden s
