What prospective students need to know about study in Taiwan

Happy to say, I’m undergrad. So I passed :smiley:

[quote=“Enigma”]
Chapter 1 Go to class more than occasionally
Chapter 2 Read the assigned materials BEFORE class
Chapter 3. Girls, keep his necktie out of your ear during class. Guys, this is not a physiology class.
Chapter 4. Read chapters 1,2 and 3.[/quote]

1 - Working on it.
2 - See 1.
3 - … That makes it so boring.

[quote=“Icon”]Let me rephrase and refocus: not about Chinese language programs, but rather college programs.

I want to entice them into getting BAs and MAs here.

[quote]

I’m doing a BA. Not sure how to entice people into doing one here though. If you have specific questions or ideas I can answer though.

I just need opinions on what you would have liked to know or was hard to find information on before coming.

I’m a bit rusty as I graduated here 4 years ago, and even though I keep in touch with the people at our school, and many things stay the same and most have improved a lot, I still find it challenging to bring to fruition this idea of writing an article that portraits education in the same positive light I had my experience here.

I’m the only westerner in my department so the department was fairly helpful, but I think mostly what I had trouble finding out was:

The amount of classes per week (hours etc.). I think this might vary from school to school, but it was really hard to find out at mine.

Living conditions (of myself, my classmates etc.). How dorm life here differs to places like the US or Australia.

Rather than the great things (the school has XX events, the area has XX to do etc.) it was the more daily-life things. How do I get about in school? How does grading work? (In some countries it’s 100% objective.) Do schools offer additional services - clubs, medical, counselling etc.? Are there any general conduct rules and how strict are they (or is it pretty much free range)? Is the material taught in class generally available online, or do I HAVE to attend every class? (e.g. in my course, we don’t even use the online learning platforms. If you don’t attend class, you better have a good friend. Other departments do use them though, and everything’s online.)

And things like the buddy programmes that they set up in the school for students (for example, my department sets everyone up with a 學長/學姐 but I didn’t know anything about that - my orientation was the one specifically for foreign students and since my department only had me, it wasn’t particularly relevant - but then my classmates/department didn’t realise that I didn’t know about those sorta things). My school also does a first-year camping weekend, which is fun (even if you don’t speak Chinese).

But then that might all be school-specific.

One of the things that attracted me to schooling here is that it’s very structured - the courses are still pretty innovative (though I think this differs from school to school and department to department) but it feels more like I’m in education. The teachers actually care if you turn up or not, and if you make yourself known to them they do care if you learn. In Aus I often found myself without any pressure to go to school, and classes were so few you kinda felt like you weren’t doing much. It’s all right if you live at home and do nothing or are a bit more mature and motivated to go, but when you’re 19 and out of home you tend to fill your time working or sleeping… and just check the course notes online and do the assignments (100% objective grading - you could be the snottiest toerag ever, but the teacher doesn’t know your name).

In Aus I felt like there was very little support available. I made appointments to see people (counsellors/teachers) and didn’t really end up feeling more motivated. The office staff you had to go through were right dragons, too (80% Aus admin staff are - wonder why?). Here there’s a lot of support, and you can see it everywhere you turn - the office staff are generally willing to help you, the teachers are willing to help you, then you have the foreign office & the counsellors etc. I suppose it’s because the school benefits if you pass and enjoy your time there, which is kinda sinister - reverse racism - when you think about it.

I’m studying something that I can’t really study overseas, though, so my ‘I-really-can’t-see-the-point’-ness o/s might’ve been to do with the subject I was taking.

:astonished:

Thank you very much for this valuable feedback. Actually, I dunno half the answers to your questions, so that will make up for some very interesting research. :smiley:

I must confess I was a really bad 學長, which ironically motivated me to help more with the alumni association. Our program’s foreigners mostly leave after graduation, few of us stay because we were already living here or they found jobs here, so experienced buddy help is hard to find available.

Icon, correspondence or minimal class attending programs. Hubby dear wanted to do an MA and did meet up with Univs but they all wanted a 70% attendance. Long distance programmes or the lack of it.

[quote=“Icon”]
Thank you very much for this valuable feedback. Actually, I dunno half the answers to your questions, so that will make up for some very interesting research. :smiley: [/quote]

Glad I could help :smiley:

[quote]
I must confess I was a really bad 學長, which ironically motivated me to help more with the alumni association.[/quote]

I didn’t get set up with a 學長 - my department didn’t have me on their list to set up, so I missed out. The foreign office set me up with a ‘buddy’ (buddies are all Taiwanese) from another department, but I never ended up meeting her and now just steal from her fishtank on facebook.

I did, however, get set up with a 學伴 (people in your year from another department - girls get set up with guys and vice-versa). I think I must be classed as ‘not a very good selection’, because the dude only added me to skype 3 or so months after term started and I’ve never actually spoken to him. Dunno who went about setting up the 學伴 system - the first-year office? I had no idea who or what a 學伴 was until my room-mates told me, tho.

They won’t set foreign students up with a Taiwanese one?

Mmm, I know the EMBA programs are not as strict about attendance, but yes, most schools do make a big fuzz about it.

[quote=“tsukinodeynatsu”][quote=“Icon”]

They won’t set foreign students up with a Taiwanese one?[/quote][/quote]

I had a taiwanese 學姊.
We still keep in touch.

Do you have every semester a form to fill asking you if you are a drug addict or suicidal ?

[quote=“hetbellz”]

Do you have every semester a form to fill asking you if you are a drug addict or suicidal ?[/quote]

Yes!!! It’s not a short form! They like to push their psychiatric counselling on everyone too… ‘We have counselling, so please, please, please don’t top yourself!!!’

It doesn’t do much good though, one of the kids who went to counselling jumped last month :frowning:

Which brings us to anotehr question, when you guys are in trouble, who do go to?

Good question!! Depends what the trouble is…

Academic Trouble:
1st Stop: Classmates/Seniors
2nd Stop: Teachers
3rd Stop: Departmental Office
4th Stop: Foreign Affairs Office (NCKU has a free tutoring programme for foreign students, they couldn’t find anyone for the classes I needed though @.@;; )
5th Stop: Bar.

Money Trouble:
Foreign Affairs Office
Departmental Office (usually will be able to assist you finding a small job)

Medical:
Most schools have a free on-campus doctor certain days of the week. You can find info on them from your Department Office or the Foreign Affairs Office. If you need help with insurance/seeing the doctor/finding a hospital/translating, go to the Foreign Affairs Office.

Housing:
Foreign Affairs Office (can point you where to go for off-campus housing, and help you out with some basic dorm issues)
Housing Affairs Division (on-campus housing)

I found the HAD @ my school to be draconian, sweet-talking foreign affairs into contacting them for me worked much better.

Psychological:
1st Stop: Classmates/Seniors
2nd Stop: School Psychologist/Counsellor (probably have to go via foreign affairs office if you’ve never been before)

Visas, Emergency Overseas Travel & related Admin:
Foreign Affairs Office

School also has an emergency hotline for you to call if you get into any bad trouble outside of school.

If you wind up in the ER for any reason they call the school, who calls your emergency contact and also sends someone down there to accompany and look after you, which is nice.

We’re generally pretty well taken care of, and the services are there for pretty much everything, it’s just a case of knowing how to access them. Making friends with the Foreign Affairs Office is pretty critical, they point you were to go when you’re not sure… Though they’re not always right.

Can you think of any other types of trouble?

Utterly impossible, pal, sorry! Tones are not optional, they are part of the meaning of words, so, unless you’re content to speak thoroughly rotten Chinese (well, not really Chinese at all, just what you think ought ot be understood as it), fail to be understood most of the time and equally fail to understand everyone else, you’re going to have to accept Chinese as it is and learn it properly - by the time tested and effective methods. :no-no:

No-one will want to do business with you if you consider a vital part of their language as excretia and can’t take stuff seriously. Prepare yourself for utter and complete failure on all sides! :loco:

(15 years of learning the language and 10 years of teaching it used as back up for this comment!)

Utterly impossible, pal, sorry! Tones are not optional, they are part of the meaning of words, so, unless you’re content to speak thoroughly rotten Chinese (well, not really Chinese at all, just what you think ought ot be understood as it), fail to be understood most of the time and equally fail to understand everyone else, you’re going to have to accept Chinese as it is and learn it properly - by the time tested and effective methods. :no-no:

No-one will want to do business with you if you consider a vital part of their language as excretia and can’t take stuff seriously. Prepare yourself for utter and complete failure on all sides! :loco:

(15 years of learning the language and 10 years of teaching it used as back up for this comment!)[/quote]

I believe that Almas was extracting the Michael.

Hello!
I have wasted quite a few precious hours reading through Forumosa these days, time that I’d rather spent on my Master thesis, which is overdue, but…
After a search for posts related to NCKU and Tainan, where I am coming soon, I have decided to resurrect this old one. Since the autumn semester is round the summer I thought it would be interesting if those who are coming to study in September use it and post our questions here. Also I am a bit shy to start new threads :blush: Also I can see this thread was visited by many of those , Forumosans in Uni or with great knowledge of it, so I guess it is a way to drink from their knowledge. BTW, tsukinodeynatsu, still there next October?
Well, I already told Bismarck in the post about “Life in Tainan”, but I’ll tell my case again: I am coming for a PhD (Political Economy) in NCKU. I have a small “assisstantship” from them, but I basically have to cover my own expenses. I have a study loan and I think I’ll be able to sustain myself for over a year with it.
Well, I already read the thread about “Foreign professor in poli sci in Taiwan?” http://www.forumosa.com/taiwan/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=82948&hilit=NCKU,
but I’d like to post the question anyway. My hope is that after the first year, when it is legal for me to work there I may get some grant or a “real” assisstantship which could actually fund me while I finish the 3-4 year program. So, do I have any chance? I must admit my chances are low since I have no Chinese (almost), but one of my objectives is to work hard on that from start (attending August summer season course is the first step).
I’ve been told that it is easy to find jobs, but to be true, I don’t want to cross half the globe to end up teaching languages and staying still away from my actual speciality. Not my thing (and thus I admire those who teach English or the like, don’t think I’m despising that job).
Well, the post is too long already. more questions next time…

I’m starting a Chinese-taught graduate program in September. Not much else for now…

[quote=“tsukinodeynatsu”]I’m the only westerner in my department so the department was fairly helpful, but I think mostly what I had trouble finding out was:

The amount of classes per week (hours etc.). I think this might vary from school to school, but it was really hard to find out at mine.

Living conditions (of myself, my classmates etc.). How dorm life here differs to places like the US or Australia.

Rather than the great things (the school has XX events, the area has XX to do etc.) it was the more daily-life things. How do I get about in school? How does grading work? (In some countries it’s 100% objective.) Do schools offer additional services - clubs, medical, counselling etc.? Are there any general conduct rules and how strict are they (or is it pretty much free range)? Is the material taught in class generally available online, or do I have to attend every class? (e.g. in my course, we don’t even use the online learning platforms. If you don’t attend class, you better have a good friend. Other departments do use them though, and everything’s online.)

And things like the buddy programmes that they set up in the school for students (for example, my department sets everyone up with a 學長/學姐 but I didn’t know anything about that - my orientation was the one specifically for foreign students and since my department only had me, it wasn’t particularly relevant - but then my classmates/department didn’t realise that I didn’t know about those sorta things). My school also does a first-year camping weekend, which is fun (even if you don’t speak Chinese).

But then that might all be school-specific.

One of the things that attracted me to schooling here is that it’s very structured - the courses are still pretty innovative (though I think this differs from school to school and department to department) but it feels more like I’m in education. The teachers actually care if you turn up or not, and if you make yourself known to them they do care if you learn. In Aus I often found myself without any pressure to go to school, and classes were so few you kinda felt like you weren’t doing much. It’s all right if you live at home and do nothing or are a bit more mature and motivated to go, but when you’re 19 and out of home you tend to fill your time working or sleeping… and just check the course notes online and do the assignments (100% objective grading - you could be the snottiest toerag ever, but the teacher doesn’t know your name).

In Aus I felt like there was very little support available. I made appointments to see people (counsellors/teachers) and didn’t really end up feeling more motivated. The office staff you had to go through were right dragons, too (80% Aus admin staff are - wonder why?). Here there’s a lot of support, and you can see it everywhere you turn - the office staff are generally willing to help you, the teachers are willing to help you, then you have the foreign office & the counsellors etc. I suppose it’s because the school benefits if you pass and enjoy your time there, which is kinda sinister - reverse racism - when you think about it.

I’m studying something that I can’t really study overseas, though, so my ‘I-really-can’t-see-the-point’-ness o/s might’ve been to do with the subject I was taking.[/quote]

I agree in Australia the onus of education is very much on the student, with not a whole lot of voluntary support. But it is there. At my uni they offered study technique classes, free counseling, housing assistance to name a few. I feel that all information was readily available via the intranet/internet and was all very clear. Plus learning material and techniques were relevant and applicable. Also It was my experience that if you took the time to see your course coordinator they were interested in helping you out and providing support, plus i got to know my tutors pretty well, and it certainly was not 100% objective marking in regards to tuts.

I know this is fairly trivial but i find the websites for uni’s in Taiwan egregiously bad! I am doing my BA at NTNU and find website navigation and content (and aesthetics) subpar. I also found it impossible to work out what uni in Taiwan was going to be like…would i be selecting my own units, the amount of credits for units, how many credits did i need to maintain to be considered fully enrolled, how many hours of attendance per week etc. So for me if they could have created a portal where all this course related info was easily accessible it would have made the process a lot easier.
:aiyo: :aiyo: :aiyo: