Eight thousand twenty miles. A twenty-hour flight. Traveling across the ocean from Taiwan could not have been easy for these four Soochow students and their professor, but they did it to further their education.

Last month, Lu Ho Fang, Yu Yen Wang, Wu Hsiao Lien, and Jr-Rong Huang, or Grace Lu, Sabrina Wang, Agnes Wu, and Melody Huang, respectively, as well as their professor, Dr. James Feng-chien Lee visited Clements. These young women were in many of the social studies classrooms, where they displayed a presentation on Chinese Zodiac Signs. Their professor also received a learning experience of his own by sitting in on some other classes around the school.

They were excited to visit Clements and declared just how they managed to get here.

Sabrina said that the program that had been running for a while decided for them, but they were glad that they came. They said the performance of the Clements, as well as the diverse courses that are offered at the school that they “do not have access to in Taiwan,” were the reasons they chose Clements in particular.

“Actually there are many different classes in your school we do not have in Taiwan. Like fine arts class; theatre, orchestra, engineering science; we don’t really have those classes,” said Sabrina.

“So I think that is the biggest reason why we have this honour to come to your school: to learn from you,” said Anges.

Many of them majored in multiple areas, many of which were in English.

“My major is English and Japanese; I got [a] double major.” Sabrina said.

“I also got [a] double major; one is Chinese and the other one is History.” Grace said.

“And I majored in German and English.” Agnes said.

“I majored in English only. That’s the only thing I got.” Melody said.

They all had very thorough and extensive reasons for why they chose their major, including that they were “interested in [Japanese] culture.”

“I first majored in Japanese and later I got a major in English…Japanese is kind of because I’m interested in their culture; and English more likely because I would like to become an English teacher, so I have to have a major in English.” Sabrina said.

“My first major is Chinese because I’m very fascinated about the language we use and the beautiful Chinese. And then I recognized I am fascinated in human beings so I [choose] history because I want to find something beautiful.” Grace said.

“I’m really interested in foreign cultures and I think that the point is to learn their languages; then you can get into their culture more easily.” Agnes said.

“I majored in English…I was interested in English since I was in kindergarten, so I went to, like, bilingual classes when I was in elementary school. So I [chose] english as my major because I was interested in the culture, and how the language is so powerful that everyone wants to learn it, and I want to share the language with other people.” Melody said.

They were quite amazed at many of the cultural differences between the U.S. and Taiwan, especially the food they had eaten, saying it was “a lot different.”

“I think here is much bigger…like twice [as big] than things in Taiwan, especially in Texas. The size of the food is so big.” Sabrina said.

It turns out, they were also fans of the iconic Texan food, especially that they could “all share it together.”

“The beef here is really delicious. The flavour is sometimes too sweet for us, or too salty.” Agnes said.

They also described what a typical September 13 for them is like in Taiwan. 

“Today is the Moon Festival and we just have holidays on it.” Sabrina said.

“We got a day off.” Melody said.

“And we barbecue on this day.” Grace said.

“And fireworks!” Agnes said.

“As we watch the moon-as we do every day.” Sabrina said.

Clements was incredibly grateful to host and be able to inquire these student-teachers about their studies, their lives, and their experiences, and the student body wishes them good luck in all future adventures they may embark on. 

謝謝，再見！ 祝您未來所有冒險！