Taiwanese Study Group

For the first week in Australia, it was filled with wonder and amazement. I found that the students at Marsden High School were so friendly and kind. They said hello to me whenever I met them, introducing the environment and facilities to me. Moreover, the teachers are passionate and patience. Even though my English is bad, they taught me with smile all the time. I love Marsden High School very much.

This week, we had lessons for Australia history and slang. The history lesson gave us a new way to embrace the past. Although we once did wrong before, we could still correct it with our effort and persistence as long as we are willing to face it. 

As for the slang, it was truly an interesting lifestyle to tell the difference between Australian and other English speaking country. Both of the courses are very meaningful and educative.

We had an art class this week, too. The art teacher was as beautiful as her heart. She helped me save my poor artwork two times!! Without her assistance, my clay emu egg would just be the worse failure in the world. I really appreciate her help! While we were making our own emu egg, we also learned about the astrology of the aboriginal and figures of their story telling. It was an interesting and informative lesson. We also had an intensive P.E. class. Our P.E. teacher was so humorous and outgoing. He taught us a special sport called Oz Tag. That was certainly a joyous activity and I scored one point during the game. I even got cramped after the game was over so you could know how intensive the game was.

Thanks to the great Miss Mo, our trip to Taonga zoo was wonderful and fantastic.  My favorite part was the seal show. Their moves were really grace and elegant; not to mention the tricks were so marvelous and outstanding that truly amazed me! The trick that seal lifted itself was the most surprising one. I really had a fun and joyful day right there.

This time in Sydney, we stay with a homestay family. My homestay family is lovely. They helped me a lot on the first two day; especially teaching me to know the bus route to school. Also, Amy, my homestay parent, cooked multitude of savory and delicious food. In addition to the tasty food, we also had a great time taking about our culture, religion and education. Interesting thing is that what we think are really different and I am looking forward to knowing more.

All in all, the first week here was great and far beyond my imagination. Therefore, I can’t wait to meet my school guide and classmates next week. We will definitely have a wonderful time together.  

                                                                                                                               From Cheng-Yuan (James) Ho

I was so excited when I arrived at the Sydney Airport last week. The first day I met my homestay family, I knew that I am going to enjoy my life here. The next day, my groupmate and I went to School by bus. This was really an interesting experiment, because our parents usually drive us to school in Taiwan. We met our beautiful English teacher, Ms. Jiang, at the flagpole in the morning and we joined the assembly. In the assembly, I can felt the energy of all the students in Marsden High School, so I couldn’t wait to learn with everyone in class next week. During the English lessons, I learned language techniques like personification, imagery, similes, alliterations, metaphors and short abrupt sentence among the others. I also recognized many different types of animals in Australia, such as monotremes including echidna and platypus and marsupials including kangaroos and koalas. I also learned that monotremes are important to Australia because they’re rare. And since many travelers come here for them, the government’s income may increase as well. I was looking forward to see all the animals species in Taronga Zoo then. Thanks to Miss Mo, my dreams finally came true. I saw the fantastic performances of the seals and the birds. We were also very fortunate to see the little tigers which just bore few months ago. On the weekends, I went shopping with my homestay sisters in the city. I really enjoyed the time with my homestay family, they’re all good cooks and nice to talk with. I was really impressed by the nice people here, like Miss Mo, the teachers and the students in Marsden high school. It seemed that I’m going to fall in love with Sydney. I’ll do my best to learn and enjoy the next few weeks here!

From Yun-An (Rita) Chen