by Grace Hsu The crowd’s cheers and applause fill your ears as you and other swimmers walk into the stadium. Contrary to the thundering audience, the pool lies quietly by your feet. The clear, blue and immobile surface gives off a façade of serenity as it silently awaits your arrival. But you know better, it will soon be a battlefield overflowing with splashes and sweat that signifies months and years of exertion. Among the raucous crowds, you hear names announced through the speaker as each of you are introduced to the audience. While you could hardly decipher the others’ names from the noise, your own name comes clearly into your ears and you instinctively raise your hand and wave to the crowds. Almost simultaneously, a deafening cheer erupts from your team. Their faces are blurred due to your non-prescription goggles but you can feel their excitement just as vividly. Three short and one long whistles signal you to step onto the diving platform. You bend over to position, waiting for the call… “Take your mark—BEEP!” The final whistle sends you to leap forward. It seems that the audience had gone wild but before you can make out what’s happening around you, your fingertips touch the cool surface of the pool and rip apart the formerly calm water. The next thing you know, you are engulfed by a sense of cold but you pay no more attention to what or how you are feeling. There is only one thing left in your mind: swim as fast as you can. Nowadays, swimming is a widely known sport carried out for leisure or competition all over the world. In fact, recreational swimming could date back to prehistoric time and is found on some Stone Age paintings around 10,000 years ago. Written references can be found in the Bible, the Iliad, the Odyssey, and other books dating back to 2,000 B.C. During the following centuries, swimming was mostly performed for relaxation or as a skill to prevent people from drowning. It was not until the 1830s that swimming became a competitive recreational activity in England. Its popularity grew greater as more swimming competitions were held regularly. In 1896, the Athens Olympics included the swimming competition and the women’s division was included sixteen years later. As an amateur swimmer who participates on the department team, I understand what it is like to compete in swimming. For one thing, unlike other sports competitions where you can see your teammates or your opponent, it’s hard to tell how the others are doing when you are in the pool. More often than not you feel like you are competing with yourself instead, maxing out every ounce of strength in you just to see improvement of a fraction of a second. Although it does sound like a rather individual sport, teammates play a role no less significant than in other sports. To begin with, when the contestants are being introduced, the applause and cheers from your team greatly boosts your morale. While competing in styles such as breaststroke or butterfly, your team would cheer for you in accordance with the time your head rises above the water. They can even tip you off by a different shout that an opponent is closing in on you. Most of all, your team is often one of the most crucial factors that keeps you practicing. During times when you face the bottleneck of training, it is their encouragement that urges you to keep going. But it is true that there are things you have to overcome yourself. For example, if many fixtures are crammed in one day, a swimmer needs to compete in up to ten races without much rest in between. By the end of the day, it requires great perseverance and determination to perform just as well despite the exhaustion of your muscles. Once in the pool, only your willpower can help you accomplish the task by diminishing the feeling of weariness and spurring you to exert all your strength. Contestants usually end up totally worn out after a day’s competition. But what is it in swimming that makes so many people love it? Some say it’s the speed or the feeling of pushing yourself to the limit. Some swim for the health benefits. As for me, I would say it is the sense of freedom and relaxation when you are in the pool. The buoyancy allows you to literally move in any direction according to your will. Also reports indicate that the rhythm of the stroke, the single-mindedness of swimming plus immersion in the water all combine into a sensation similar to meditation. Water rushes past you as your body bullets forward. You turn your head just enough to gulp in a mouthful of air and your face is instantly back in the water. Your legs kick like a steady motor urging you to move forward while your arms carry out the periodical strokes so familiar to you that you don’t even need to mentally focus on it. Once in a while, as your head turns for the next breath, you will catch a glimpse of the swimmer in the neighboring lane. If he or she is still some distance away then you will maintain your own pace. However, if you realize that your competitor is so close that you can see him or her clearly that’s when you feel a surge of adrenaline pump into your blood vessels. Each stroke pushes you further than before and you kick your legs faster than ever, making great splashes like a boat leaving its white trails on the surface. As seconds pass, you can feel the strength in your muscles draining, your subconscious wails for rest, and your lungs gasp for oxygen to maintain such a high rate of energy exhaustion. Another glimpse of your competitor and you realize you still haven’t pulled away. A voice emerges in your mind, “I will not lose this race,” and with that, all of your attention is drawn to strengthening every move. There is no time to think of the fatigue your body suffers, no energy to reply to the protest in your muscles. The only way to get some rest sooner is to swim faster and be the first to finish.
Before long, the finish line comes into view. Like a foreign student who finally returns home and sees his or her family, or like a pair of lovers separated for years who are finally reunited, the swimmer dashes forward towards the end. The instant the fingers touch the wall, each drop of energy evaporates into thin air, leaving you powerless, hanging on the edge of the pool. Standing up would be impossible if it weren’t for the buoyancy, and you didn’t realize you were panting so hard. Your teammates are already there waiting for you, and judging by their exhilarated expressions you realize you must have won. Exhausted as you are, a smile lights up your face.
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by Ingrid Chu Nowadays some people work just for the sake of earning money. Before long, they start to lose the passion and creativity they once possessed. Yet as Steve Jobs has said: “Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work.” To me, great work is what allows you to “earn while you learn.” Of all the jobs I have done before, being an international news writer is a position that allows me to significantly improve myself while being paid.
So who is an international news writer? International news writers, literally, are people who are responsible for composing international news articles in media companies. These writers are often advanced in at least two languages, have a flair for translating, and are required to have high concentration. On every shift, writers will be assigned around two news topics, often the headlines chosen by their manager from foreign news websites. Afterwards, they need to try figuring out how the incident has occurred and its importance, then search for other supplementary information so that the target audience can comprehend. For a 1000-word article, they are required to read at least three news reports in order to get the whole picture of the event. Later on they will start reorganizing and translating. And all of this has to be accomplished in three hours. Usually, the writers are also demanded to find pictures, videos, or tweets to support their stories. That is to say, being an international news writer allows you to read through a wide range of news from all over the world, with topics from health, politics, economy, culture, and so on. Meanwhile, when searching for supplementary data, you will also read through many types of material. The Learning Journey Never Ends As international news writers should encounter and translate new topics every day, there are few chances to become dispirited. But there are also many benefits. Firstly, they can enhance their language skills. From each article they may be faced with new phrases and have to learn to write persuasive content. Eventually, an international news writer should possess excellent reading skills in the source languages and great writing skills in the target languages. This also permits the writer to receive other opportunities. For instance, I once met an international news writer who garnered many translating jobs just because a translating agency saw her articles online. Secondly, international news writers become more knowledgeable since they must read a lot. I once received an article about the Pap smear test, which taught me the seriousness of cervical cancer. I’ve also written an article about a 90-year-old Jewish couple who escaped Nazi persecution, which reminded me of the cruelty of war. Overall, as an international news writer you will know more about everything, allowing you to become someone who has empathy for different cultures. Want to become an international news writer? Get prepared! Despite the fact that many news media companies have openings for international news writers, to become a news translator you still need to be prepared. First you need to be equipped with advanced language skills. But you also have to be careful. Once your article is published, it can be viewed by thousands of people. Thus, if any mistakes are made you will mislead readers and ruin the reputation of your company. Yet most important of all, you have to be a culture lover who is interested in international affairs. A job with a flexible schedule Regular news writers have to be on standby 24 hours a day and take shifts during the nighttime and on weekends. With online news, however, there are two shifts: from 10:00 am to 18:00 and from 14:00 to 22:00. Sometimes we are also permitted to work from home so we can still spend time with our families, or get up late if we have the evening shift. Becoming an international news writer allows you to learn while you earn. If you are tired of your current job, why not try to become an international news writer instead? By Catherine Li-Lin I’ll never forget my first university experience. All the new arrivals in the department were asked to attend a barbecue wearing their high school uniforms. So there I was in a sea of green and blue and white and yellow, and I was the only one wearing black. “Where are you from?” everyone kept asking me. Since they went to the same schools they all seemed to know each other already. But I, even though I am Taiwanese too, just felt like I didn’t belong.
My dad is a diplomat so I had the privilege of growing up in another country and going to an international school. My mother-tongue is Chinese, but it is the least efficient language I speak. So what is my identity? Sure, I can always say: “I’m Taiwanese, but I grew up in Japan,” but there is something more, too. I could always provide details about how long I lived somewhere else. Other people’s curiosity didn’t bother me either. It’s just that I began to wonder where I really belonged. Most people are rooted by place, but in my case the place where I grew up doesn’t really represent “me.” I am a Third Culture Kid, someone who is not brought up in his or her parent’s culture. Like me, many Third Culture Kids struggle to give themselves an identity, not because others see Third Culture Kids as lost citizens of the world, but more because of an inner struggle to find an identity defined by place. Yet while I was in search for my identity, I started to see the positive aspects of being a Third Culture Kid. As a child, I was introduced to multiple cultures in one environment. In international schools, I met people from all over the world, but at a small age I saw little difference between me and say a kid who was half Indian and half Japanese. To me we were all kids going to school, we were friends, and that was it. Having people of different colors and different languages around me was normal, in other words, so I didn’t even realize that difference existed. Now that I am older, my multicultural environment has offered me a broader world view. I seldom find perspectives hard to grasp when they are different from mine. The experience I had made me a more accepting person of pretty much anything in any realm. Some say it has to do with my nature of being a generally open-minded person, but I credit this advantage to the fact that I was a Third Culture Kid. Being a Third Culture Kid also meant I moved a lot, and by that I don’t mean just moving from different places, but transferring school multiple times. Sure it was hard at first, but after a little practice I got used to it and became a pro at coping with change. Meeting new people, making new friends, and being the first one to make a gesture in a new relationship is not easy for me. On the other hand, I am also good with goodbyes. Perhaps one might view this as being cold, but I really do not put too much emotion in moving on and transitioning to unknown places. Thus even with the little things in life, I move on easily. It is because of these constant transitions that enabled me to appreciate one of the most important things about being a Third Culture Kid, which is to understand connections. Yes, I said goodbye to a lot of friends, but these connections were not cut off when I made new friends and new connections. It’s like a growing spider web, where sometimes different webs interact. For instance, my friend from elementary school in Taiwan might coincidentally know my friend from high school in Japan. I have friends in different continents and I can proudly say that they are all close to me. No matter how big the world is, my connections are also constantly expanding. After acknowledging the benefits of being a Third Culture Kid, I came to realize that I was completely wrong. Wrong in the sense that I should not even have had the need to search for an identity in the first place. I am not defined by where I grew up. I may have stories to share that not many people around me have, but they also form the person I am now. My identity was there all along, I just needed to change my mentality to see it. What I am trying to say is that even if you are not a Third Culture Kid, the sense of not belonging and not knowing your identity is universal. The source of the struggle may be different but it is not a feeling only Third Culture Kids experience. But just as I was able to escape my misconceptions, you might be able to think of your own advantages and this would be a better way to find out your identity. ”Place” surely shapes people to a certain extent, but it should not really dictate who they are. By Jed PierreNothing could have possibly prepared me to travel 10,000 miles over two completely different cultural spectrums, but little did I know, I was already fully equipped to survive in the foreign land of Taiwan. I was equipped with a language that would help me learn about Taiwan, understand the Taiwanese culture and most importantly understand Taiwanese people. That language was not Mandarin, rather it was the language of sport and in my case table tennis. However, as the saying goes, all coins have two sides and the teams were no different. Playing for the team required at least 8 hours per week for training and weekends whenever we went to play a tournament. But last semester I decided to take a break from the school team and focus more on academics. Entering my final year, I felt that successfully completing my degree was most important and I could always play table tennis after. At first it felt weird to have so much free time that I completed assignments days in advance and had more than sufficient time to study for exams. Eventually I got accustomed to this and slowly began to be less and less productive. In no time it felt like once again the semester’s workload had me cornered with nowhere to run. My old habits of sleeping late, eating irregularly and feeling exhausted all day had all resurfaced, this time without table tennis to be blamed. My life became a lot less structured without having a need to consciously schedule my days to make time for training. Consequently, not only did my grades suffer tremendously, I also gained weight to a point where I couldn’t recognise myself.
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Authors
The Taida Student Journal has been active since 1995 with an ever-changing roster of student journalists at NTU. Click the above link to read about the authors Archives
May 2024
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