A Young Exchange Student to Germany

Because the education methods in Taiwan couldn’t quite fit with this young man’s learning styles, and he’s slowly, suffocating here, and so, his parents sent him abroad, to help him find a new path, which worked really well, because in Germany, this young man is finally able to excel, outside of the focuses of the academia, translated…

There’s a Young Guest in My House, with a Circular Face, Circular Glasses, Circular Belly Too, the Moment He’d Waltzed in, He’d Swept Away the Scent of Autumn with His Smiles………

As the cherry tree out back turned bald again, there came a young guest in my house, with a circular face, circular glasses, circular belly too, and the moment he’d waltzed in, he’d swept away the scent of autumn with his smiles. He’d introduced himself as Der, thirteen-years-old, loved robots, riding bicycles, and sleeping; later on, I’d also discovered he enjoyed my cooking too. Compared tom my young son who’d played with his food, instead of eating it, and my husband who can’t even cook, but picked at everything I’d made, the very first time I’d met such a temporary member of the family with such an appetite, naturally, I’d taken out all the tools, and, used every single skill I’d picked up from learning to cook way back when, to feed this young guest of ours.

Things Took a Sharp Turn After He Entered into Middle School

The winters in Germany, with the shortened days, cold weather, was gloomy, to the point we’d needed to use Halloween, St. Martin’s Day, and Christmas countdowns, as well as that warm fire burning in the fireplace, to lift our spirits. But why had Der entered into mid-Europe, at this season head first? Because the Taiwanese education methods had made him unhappy.

Der had a very happy childhood, gone hiking up the top hundred peaks in Taiwan with his class, traveled around the world with his parents, and built the toy robots with his geeky instructor. But as he started middle school, things took a turn, there’s no way that Der could shine, with the methods of education available in Taiwan, and, he’d copied the texts he’d needed to commit to his memories to the very late hours of the nights, and, the subjects he wasn’t good in took up majority of his study time, and, the subjects he was originally excellent in, became too boring too; every classmate had headed to the cram schools after school, the cost was very high, and, it takes a lot of time, energy, for the parents to drive to and fro too. All the hobbies he’d acquired, chess, piano, art, all stood halted; the time for physical education lessened, the unicycle that he’d enjoyed riding on, stored into the warehouses, gathering dusts.

photo from online…

This story reminded me of Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall”, Der’s childhood ended, and he’d become, another brick in the wall.

The andante and fearful tempo of life made Der depressed and unhappy, and his parents were affected by his depression too. The nerdy teacher’s mechanical tools were mostly made in Germany, and so, Der came to stay with me, in the daytime, he’d gone to language school, at night, he’d come back for three full bowls of meal, and as the weather was nice, he’d gone out to ride. There were the convenient bicycle passes in Germany, the bikes can get all the way past the natural reserves, passing through that passage in the woods, all the way to the embankment of the Rhine, and from time to time, you would catch the deer grazing. Der was regrettable, that he’d not brought his unicycle along.

Helping My Children Get Ready for Goodbye

Der stayed with a for a month, as he was about to be off to boarding school in Germany, it was toward the end of autumn, when the trees out back became bald. And because the two-year-old Baldy was very close to this young older brother, he’d often hopped onto Der’s circular stomach to play, in order to stay at home and play, this young migratory student would often throw temper tantrums before kindergarten in the morn. And now, Der was living, we must, prepare Baldy for it well. I’d told Baldy, older brother Der is going far, far, far away to “work as a soldier”, after he’s making the popsicles, he’ll be back, at the very moment, Baldy salivated, and told Der he’d wanted the chocolate flavored ice creams, but told him, in angst, that babies can’t have chocolate. This was the way, a very young child says goodbye.

The education in Germany was multivariate, in the middle schools, they’d split up as engineering focused, regular, science-focused, and combined middle schools, the goal was to help the children find where their interests lie at the very beginning, to do what they want to do, and what they’re fitted to do. Der will first stay in a boarding school like Hogwarts first, although there’s not the magical sorting hats, but so long as he mastered the language well enough, he will be able to select the school he wanted to go to based off of his interests and his grade performances.

No matter what his choice is for the future, now, Der is very happy, no longer was he cramming, and on the free times away from the classrooms, the school would lead the students to play sports, once I’d called him, he was playing dodge ball; and on the weekends, he could take the small train, for a mini-vacation too, once he was at the Marianne Square in Munich having sushi. At this young an age, his schedules are, jam-packed, working happily, as a “soldier abroad”.

staying with the host families…photo from online…

For Der, heading out to study in a foreign nation wasn’t just for the sake of winning at the starting lines, but for the sake of finding back that happiness he once had felt as a child.

So, you can see, how SUFFOCATING the curricula is over here, that this kid needed to get “shipped out” to have a bigger sky where he can fully, exercise his own free will to learn the subjects he was interested in, instead of getting grilled by all the academics, as that, is the focus of education here in Taiwan.