Thursday 11/14                  Trip to I-Lan Day 1

 

        The FSE Director also happens to be on the Board of Education for I-Lan County, so he’s arranged for the Fulbright scholars to be guest speakers at English teachers’ conferences in I-Lan, held on Thursdays and Fridays.  We were all told to choose a weekend, and though they’d begged me to volunteer for the first conference in October, I told them I wasn’t ready and wanted to give a good presentation for which I prepared well.

 

        Well, my date came up and by this week I hadn’t prepared a thing yet (of course).  Jonathan and I were both scheduled to go this week and didn’t know the details of what we were expected to present.  He was going to talk about American humor and irony, I was going to talk about my experience with prejudice and stereotypes here and in America as well as a little about public health.  A couple days ago we heard that Arlene had gone and had to present for a total of SIX hours—three on Thursday, three on Friday.  So we stressed a little and last night we both put in a lot of last minute work.

 

        In the morning we took a train from Taipei Main Station to I-Lan station (about 1 1/2 hours), where Vickie and Joanne, who were heading the conferences, met us and led us to the school where we’d present.  It was an elementary school so there were little kids running around in the playground playing games, all wearing their sweatsuit uniforms.  The weather was warmer and balmier than Taipei, but a nice breeze flowing through the school, which had balconies, screen doors opened from all the classrooms, and open walkways overlooking the playground. 

 

        We waited in the classroom connected to their office and looked through some I-Lan tourist material they gave us.  They photocopied our handouts and told us we’d just talk about the same thing both days, because Jonathan’s group today would listen to me tomorrow, and vice versa.  So that was a relief.  They brought in lunch for us and all the teachers, which is from the same cafeteria the kids get their lunch.  It was quite good—soup, meat, veggies, rice, spring rolls, and fresh pineapple.  Are all school lunches that good?  Then they told me Jonathan would stay in this room while I’d go to another upstairs.  I was led up to a rather large lecture hall in front of which was a podium, blackboard and whiteboard.  This was also being videotaped I guess for the funding body, so there was a big video camera on a tripod set up in back.  Gulp.  It felt rather formal and I wished I had Jonathan’s little classroom with everyone sitting ‘round the table, but oh well.

 

        Jonathan had 8 people, but even after waiting I only had 4.  Hm.  That was a little disappointing since I’d prepared a decent amount.  Our “students” were all elementary school teachers from I-Lan county who taught English; however they were all Taiwanese people, so their English wasn’t super, just good enough to teach little kids.  The point of our guest talks was just to get them listening and speaking in English and let them learn more about foreigners, since people in I-Lan don’t see foreigners much. 

 

        I started my “workshop” by having them define for me what they thought identity meant, and listing words they felt identified themselves.  Then I went into my own story, about my experience with racism in America and dealing with a culture gap with my parents.  Every few minutes Joanne would run back and fiddle with the video camera.  We then took a break, during which one of the women, Ellen came up and told me the story about my mom made her cry, and Joanne said she almost cried too.  Really?  I was amazed; I hadn’t intended the story to be that sad.  I told them another story about my dad that I’d wanted to include, and the woman starting tearing up again, blotting her eyes.  Joanne explained Ellen’s the type who’s easily moved to tears.

       

        I had them list stereotypes that they had about Americans and what stereotypes they thought others had about Taiwanese.  They said Americans were rich (because we all live in big houses), sexually loose (because of Sex and the City, which is a very popular show here), independent, and that “woman can do a man’s job.”  I tried to explain that a big house doesn’t mean wealth, because small apartments here can be more expensive in terms of real estate value, but I don’t think they understood.  They said Taiwanese are generous, hard-working, greedy, lazy (I asked, “How can they be all those things at the same time?), and go along with the crowd when something is popular.

 

        It was pretty interesting and it was amazing to be on the “other” side of the lecture hall; even though I only had four students.  Any time someone looked intently at me and nodded in agreement, I felt boosted; every time they actually wrote something down that I said, I was even more elated.  On the other hand, if someone kept their head down the whole time, or yawned, or when one person started nodding off (struggling mightily not to), I felt a little dejected.  Now I really know how my professors felt every time I fell asleep in class.

 

        After we finished, Joanne, Vickie and another male teacher Trace, the most feminine man in the world, took the two of us to a mountaintop restaurant for dinner.  They were known for a famous mainland dish called Ushi Pai Gu, pork ribs, but I didn’t think it was that amazing.  We then got an upstairs table for dessert.  Jon and I both tried a fruity frosty drink made of JingTsau juice, a sour citrusy fruit.  I wasn’t that crazy about it either.  We chatted a long while and they dropped me at my hotel.  Jon was staying at Trace’s place.  They said they’d wanted to find me a place to stay too, but no one had room, so I “had” to stay in the hotel.  It was gorgeous so I was glad; not knowing exactly why they thought I’d prefer to crash in someone’s place; this was all being reimbursed by their government funds after all.  The only annoying thing was that we had to buy everything ourselves first, the train tickets and charge the hotel room, then tomorrow they’d give us back cash for everything.  We weren’t sure how this was any different from them just paying for it directly in the first place.  The Taiwan logic never ends.

 

        I was exhausted even though it wasn’t that late.  Even though my hotel was on top of a mall, I didn’t bother looking at a thing and just slept.