by Susan Hsu 徐逸珊While I was deciding which name I should use while opening a new account on a service whose interface was in English a few weeks back, I initially attempted to type “Susan Hsu.” Then I faltered.
I realized that I am unsure of who I am and what my identity is with all the fusion between cultures. Am I proud of being a Taiwanese? If so, why do my instincts scream at me to give my English name in a Western context? I am no longer certain of where I stand. Should I worry or care about the importance of being an Asian in Western countries? Does cultural identification / dignity matter to Taiwanese youngsters nowadays? I have friends who are Taiwanese and have little experience in interacting long-term with different cultures, and I also have friends who do. I reckoned that I should ask around to glean some insight on this matter. J was working on convincing my computer to run Python codes for him when I caught him off guard with my inquiries. I have known J for my entire life and could say that we grow up in identical environments. “What kind of question is that? Of course I would tell people my name was Jason if I were to study or work in San Francisco. I wouldn’t want to be discriminated against or be treated in an inferior way, would I? Best to stick with a name that would not draw too much attention.” J answered with such conviction that it shook me. “Would you not want to keep at least a fraction of who you are and where you are from?” I asked tentatively. “Ok, first of all, if I were already in America or another foreign country, why would I care? I would want to blend in and make sure that people don’t remember me just because I am a minority. I want to prove myself as a strong techie as soon as possible. Also, I think the name Jason sounds much cooler than my Chinese one.” “So using your original Chinese name is out of the picture?” “Definitely.” He raised his eyebrows challengingly and went back to my computer. I asked A to help me purchase some things since she’s studying in Boston. After checking the exchange rate and making sure how much I owe her, I distracted her from her lab duties with questions that had been swarming in my head. A was born and raised in Taiwan, only starting her life in the US since being admitted into her current university, so I figured she might have found a way to strike a balance. “When I first came here, I asked people to call me by my English name.” She sent me long voice messages in lieu of text, sounding like she was trying to organize her thoughts as she spoke. “I didn’t mention my Chinese name because people wouldn’t know how to pronounce it anyway.” “No one here calls me by my Chinese name - not even my Chinese friends - we all call each other by our English names, and even though my Western friends would ask for my Chinese name or even attempt to pronounce it out of curiosity, they would eventually revert to my English one; my nicknames are also all derived from it.” She already sounded fatigued from all her research in the lab, but she pressed on stubbornly. “I guess I want to feel like I belong here, so I wouldn’t mind sticking with my English name. But it is required here that the name on any credential should be the same as my passport, thus I always feel unbalanced when they call out your name on the ID card at the health service. I mean, it’s a bit awkward and embarrassing since you are the only one with an obviously Chinese name.” She sounded uncharacteristically unsure of herself. “Therefore, I reserve respect for those who are willing to understand both of my names or would at least try to pronounce it. I am always pleasantly surprised if people are willing to get to know both of my worlds in a formal setting.” Y attends university in D.C. Like A, she had never been abroad long-term until she was eighteen. She is wonderfully barmy and dorky and would willingly abandon her studies immediately to reply to my serious identification-crisis messages properly. It is obvious that she has faced struggles similar to A’s, however, the difference between those two strong-willed girls is that Y has really intense feelings towards her Chinese name. “Although I go around by my English name, I still put my full Chinese name on my examination papers and school credentials - my school allows us to change our names on those things to our preferred name, and my Chinese name is what I prefer.” “I feel like the name represents my background, where I came from, therefore I am proud to use my original name on official documents,” she stated fiercely. “There is nothing wrong with ‘when in Rome, do as the Romans do,’ but keeping Chinese names here means something to me. Our Chinese names carry some sort of blessings from our family, whereas English names are mostly chosen because they sound good to the ear, and that’s why I think English names are more like a convenient substitute, not capable of representing our full selves.” Z was my roommate for the first half of this school year, right after she came back from strengthening her language skills for half a year in Canada. She has always known where she stands when it comes to identity issues and political grounds, so this issue had naturally became a topic of our first late night talk a few months ago. “You know I have changed my Instagram profile name from Chinese to my English one a few weeks before I took off to Canada, but changed it to my Pinyin name after staying there for a while,” she stated. “Yeah, I always wondered about that,” I replied, genuinely curious. “I chose my English name because it sounds a lot like my Chinese one so I could reply more naturally to it, and I thought that it would be more convenient for my foreign classmates to remember,” she recounted with a distant air, “but I have always felt that I don’t recognize myself when being called by my English name, and after the second month, I taught my classmates the pronunciation of my Chinese name and asked them to call me by that.” “Surprisingly, I met almost zero resistance. I finally felt my soul could settle in my body.” “Do your foreign classmates use their names in their mother tongue though?” I enquired. “Half and half. But our good Korean neighbors do, so I think I am entitled to use any name that makes me feel the most comfortable, feel the most like myself.” She even turned her nose up into the air just to make her point. “My Chinese name is what I identify myself with, it is the embodiment of my roots, my culture, and is the conduit that connects every fiber of my self-identification. People should respect my choice.” When I called Xi, we were both eating breakfast and chilling in our respective dormitories, a picture of two lazy people living near each other but not bothering to meet. I crossed my feet onto the table and let her raspy voice wash over me. “Though you have probably never heard it, I actually have an English name, you know. Wanna hear it?” She teased, “nah I’m not gonna tell you. I hate it. I hate not being able to go by my actual name, Xi.” “I was born before dawn, that’s why my parents called me Xi. It actually means something to me, and I would prefer to be called so, and am more than happy to identify and introduce myself as such.” Xi has had her fair share in participating in student politics, being the chair person of our student association a year before me in high school. She had been criticized, doubted, and loved, all of which made her an independent person who does her own critical thinking over every issue. “The weird thing is - you know I had been in Spain for a while, but I had never been given a hard time because I chose to use my Chinese name there, or with any foreigners actually, instead it has always been the Taiwanese that question my name choice, whether in social gatherings or when I fill out forms for internships.” “People would say: why don’t you have a proper English name, do you have to use your Pinyin name…” She sounded frustrated. At this, she hung up on me abruptly as usual. “I’m just so bloody tired of the hypocrisy from most Taiwanese,” Xi called me back just as abruptly while I was almost falling asleep again. “I am not averse to people holding different opinions - think what you want, and whether you take into account other people is your own choice - but I do have a problem with people forcing their views on others.” “I would love to know what Taiwan would be like when people could think for themselves, and thus are actually entitled to their opinions.” E and W are two of my best mates in the department. They are like me, Taiwanese through and through, have never ventured out of Taiwan for more than a month and certainly don’t have any experiences staying in a foreign country and being obligated to interact with a completely different culture. All we have are a decent command of English and a motive to explore the world by the aid of the internet. “Why are you called Dan, mate?” I asked W lazily one afternoon when the three of us were folding up the posters that were ready to be distributed around campus. “It’s just a random name given by my English teacher when I was young and it has stuck until today.” “Do you like it? Do you relate to it?” “I hold no negative feelings towards it, but honestly if I could use my Chinese name if the situation permits, I would. So for example if I just meet a foreign person and it seems that it would stay that way, then I’d simply introduce myself as Dan, since it’d probably be easier for the both of us. Still, educating people on the origin of my Chinese name is quite a good conversation opener.” E chimed in, “I have always been trying to change my current English name into something that sounds at least like my Chinese one.” “I don’t suppose you would succeed in that field,” I summarized, after all of us gave the thought several ridiculous tries. “No.” E sighed, “I like my actual name well enough, and I have always attempted to give my Chinese name to foreigners on the first try.” Both of them agreed that Chinese names reflect more of our actual self and give us a better sense of well-being. “It doesn’t seem right to favor my English name over my Chinese one,” W shrugged, “it feels like turning my back on what has raised me, and I refuse to feel like I should be ashamed of or even conceal my roots. Taiwanese have always had some kind of identity crisis for obvious historical and political reasons, and we tend to overlook our own rich and layered culture in favor of imitating (somewhat poorly) foreign mainstream cultures. The name choice issue presented here reflects some of this paradox. After combing through all the various arguments being presented to me, I have come to a conclusion - I could respect and understand the reasons different people have chosen and adopted, since different situations call for different adapting measures. Nonetheless, I think the most important thing for our generation is that we should not allow ourselves to go slack and let others do the thinking for us. Instead, we should try our best to collect our own information, try to stay impartial, conduct critical thinking, and reach our own conclusion and stand by it. To me, I am glad to see that while there are still some Taiwanese who wouldn’t prefer to use their Chinese name in Western regions for fear of being treated differently, more and more of our generation are trying to embrace their identity and face any impending mistreatment or slip of the tongue head-on. With this affirmation in mind, I switched back to the registration page and put down “Yishan Hsu” in the name column contentedly.
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by Angel Chen 陳恩潔How often do you quarrel with your family? How do you interact with them? Even though it is the basic unit of society, it turns out that we seldom think seriously about the idea of “family” itself. Many sci-fi stories picture a world without families, with well-structured, systematic societies where no one even knows his or her parents. However, this has apparently never been the case in the human history. The family has never failed to be important in the development of human society. Though having evolved and transformed, the core values of the family, including physical and psychological aspects, still hold firm. But why is family so important for human beings? What is a family really like in our society?
According to the Longman Dictionary, “family” is defined as a group of people who are related to each other, especially a mother, a father, and their children. Yet this statement is quite disputable since families vary with time and culture. Can a single sentence really define what a family is? In English, “family” originated from the Latin word famulus, meaning “servant.” It referred to an extended family, including servants, when the word was first brought into English. Servants were considered part of a family then. As society developed, the scale of the household shrank in England, and in the early 19th century the word began to have its modern meaning as a blood-related household. In other cultures “family” concerns creation myths. The Greek legend of the destruction of the four Ages of Man and the Biblical story of Adam and Eve are two examples. In ancient Greece, men married in their early twenties and women in their teens, and they usually lived with the husband’s parents. Women had little freedom and stayed at home most of the time. From early records in the Bible, we can see that a patriarchal world view was established in the Middle East well before Greek civilization, and that the practice of polygamy was common. However, to our surprise, nuclear families existed too. It was typical for ancient Romans to live in small families, along with their slaves. Nuclear families existed in the European Middle Ages as well, when men and women tended to marry in their early twenties and set up separate households of their own. Because nuclear families clearly pre-existed modernization, many sociologists have now come to believe that they were the cause, not the product, of industrialization. But what about non-Western societies? In traditional Indian culture, loyalty and interdependence is greatly emphasized for families. Being a collectivist culture, family interest is generally considered greater than individual interest. Since each family is considered a single entity, personal performance is strongly related to people’s impression on the family as a whole. This not only intertwines personal issues and family issues together, but also explains the reason why the family has such great influence on important personal decisions such as marriage and career path. Unlike nuclear families in Western societies, the Indian family encompasses a broader view. All related figures can be considered as family members, leading to huge households and complicated family structures. These ideas resemble Chinese families, too, which also value groups over individuals. However, Chinese families have a special core value known as filial piety. The Chinese family has an even stricter structure and a more explicit hierarchy. Respect for one’s parents, elders, and ancestors bestows the elderly with great power over the whole family, and obedience is often perceived as an obligation for the younger generations. Stemming from Confucianism, the concept of filial piety also gave Chinese people a heavier responsibility with respect to family. Grown children are expected to stay at home and take care of the family instead of separately building their own. Independence is valued less. While Indians and Chinese tend to form huge families, there are in fact even larger ones: indigenous families. For most aboriginal people, close relationships are developed within the whole tribe and property is usually shared among households. A Sediq boy once said: “In our village, all adults are my parents. They have the same right as my parents to watch over me, to tell me what to do, and to teach me what is right.” Strict structures do not work in this group. All cousins are considered brothers and sisters and no identification are needed. Since family units are usually large and extended in aboriginal society, often even to the scale of a whole community, a stronger sense of belonging and emotional support can be provided. For many aboriginals who leave home to work or study in the city, the close relationship they have to their tribe tops the list of what they miss most. Recent developments in modern society, however, have greatly impacted traditional families worldwide. As traditional thoughts are being challenged and generation gaps are broadened, people fight over what a family should be like and divergence in values only deepens the disagreement. Yet with all these conflicts and disparity, all families share a common function—love and support, something no one can live without. Upon realizing this, we realize the importance of family and its role in each person’s life. No matter what form it takes, we are all certain that families remain cornerstones of our lives. by Joanne PoonNo doubt our society has become much better than in the past, and people make better use of resources, especially human ones. It is believed that in the future, many jobs can be done by machines and robots. Human effort will be absent in many jobs. Although it may not be accomplished soon, some jobs are very easy to replace or have already been. Here are some examples:
Jobs That Can Be Replaced Easily 1. Manufacturing Jobs With the increasing cost of labor and the improvement of technology, much of the human workforce is being replaced by robots, especially in the clothing industry, as it requires a huge number of workers. Softwear Automation, an American high-tech company, has developed an automatic sewing machine production line called Sewbot, which can automatically complete the entire process of making clothes, from selecting fabrics to finishing the entire product without manual intervention. Adidas’s supplier in China is going to put Sewbot into its manufacturing chain. When Sewbot is running at full speed, a t-shirt can be made in 22 seconds, and eight hundred thousand t-shirts can be manufactured every day. Each production line only requires one worker to control the machine. The production cost of each t-shirt can thus be reduced to 0.33 USD. This may usher in big growth in the clothing industry because cheaper clothes with higher quality can come to the market. But on the other hand, many laborers will become unemployed. 2. Risky Jobs In order to protect humans, robots are being designed to replace risky jobs. For example, Japan’s construction sector is booming but contractors are struggling to fill labor shortages — a problem playing out in other parts of the world, including the U.S. There were about 3.4 million construction workers in Japan in 2014. That’s expected to shrink to 2.2 million by 2025. Robots are entering the workforce to help bridge this labor shortage. On construction sites, robots are often used for night shifts when no human workers are available due to safety and regulatory concerns. A major Japanese construction company, Shimizu Corporation, recently showed several robots, including one that picked up a big pile of boards and took them into an elevator. Robots can also take over some of the welding, shipping, and basic tasks involved in constructing a new high rise. But even so, robot labor only makes up about 1 percent of each project, based on current technology. 3. Service Industries Service jobs such as cashiers do not require many skills, therefore it is also one of the jobs that can be replaced easily. Internet retail giant Amazon released an advertising video in December 2016 to promote its “Amazon Go” smart physical store. There is no cashier and no need to wait in line. Customers can download Amazon Go’s smartphone APP and then access the store by scanning the APP’s QR code. When shopping, goods will be placed in the APP’s virtual shopping cart. If you change your mind, just put it back, the goods will be removed. After the shopping is completed, the system will automatically debit the consumer’s Amazon account as soon as they leave the store. 4. Data Analysis The examples given above are labor-intensive and can easily be imitated by robots. But in the future, skilled workers can be replaced too. Recently, Google announced that it would spend 622,000 GBP to invest in a “news robot.” It plans to create a news site that will work together with humans. When used, news robots use open source data on the internet to “edit” news. With artificial intelligence technology, they can “impersonate” reports by professional journalists based on specific writing styles and words to make the articles more personal. In addition, through machine learning and big data analysis, news robots can not only greatly improve the efficiency of writing, but also effectively filter out the potential false news. Moreover, it can “write” out 30,000 manuscripts each month. Perhaps one day robots will replace real reporters. Problems caused As far as factory work is concerned, for some tasks, the performance of human employees is far better than that of robots. However, many start-ups and research teams are working hard to overcome these technical hurdles. Martin Ford, author of Rise of the Robots, however, believes that reducing recruitment is only a matter of time. He believes the pace of job creation will gradually slow down. The McKinsey Global Institute report estimates that about 15 to 30 percent of job opportunities worldwide will be replaced by automation by 2030, and about 3 to 14 percent of the global workforce will be forced to face job conversions. The Problem is not a Problem However, Dave Clark, CEO of Amazon, believes that the increase in manpower demand for warehouses will continue. Historically, automation has increased productivity, which has also increased consumer demand to some extent, and has created more job opportunities. Even if Amazon’s warehouses become more technological, workers will continue to work in them. Actually, the MGI report shows that 56% of respondents believe that, with the help of automation, companies will create new jobs and new skills. Companies will see changes to the skills required for their jobs, and this will affect the future training and recruitment processes. In conclusion, much of the labor force will be replaced by robots in the future, but it will not increase the unemployment rate as people will keep learning and finding ways to adapt to a robot-led world. by Aria HsiaWith high school and college entrance exams just around the corner, Taiwanese students are clamoring to get their last bit of studying before the big day. Since their entry into elementary school, all those long hours of studying have been leading up to this climactic moment. For many, this exam could be the determining factor of their future — while some may view college as a mere stepping stone to success, for many Taiwanese, it is a label that will follow them for the rest of their lives. As Taiwanese students have a reputation for being extremely competitive, they rely on their secret weapon — buxiban — to make sure they remain the top of their class.
(Image Courtesy: 都市酵母) Buxibans (補習班), also known as cram schools, are after-school programs whose purposes range from exam preparation and extracurricular arts courses, to providing day-care services after school while parents are still at work. Two possible explanations for the name “cram school” could be that these schools try to cram as many students as possible into them, and second being that these schools try to cram as much information as possible into their students’ brains. It is important to note that first and foremost, buxibans are private institutions designed to maximize profit. Individual motivations aside, these institutions generally teach not for the sake of education, but for the sake of money. They offer supplementary education to help their students get a head start on the material taught at school, and also reinforce a rigorous testing regimen designed to drill facts and test taking skills into students, so the students are practically test-taking machines. Here is a major difference between a regular classroom and buxiban — instead of encouraging students to explore and practice their individual thoughts, buxibans rely on memorization and drilling hard facts into their students. (Image Courtesy: TVBS News) In an attempt to understand what teaching at a buxiban is like, I sat down with a friend of mine, Jacky Wu, who is currently a part-time buxiban teacher, while simultaneously balancing his studies as a college freshman. I was fascinated to discover the system and working relationship between individual buxiban companies, and the “teams” that manage individual teachers. Contrary to a regular company which hires workers and exercises full control over them, buxiban teachers are managed individually by their own “teams”. These teams are comprised of buxiban teachers and a team leader who owns the team and manages their class schedules. Often times, the team leaders are buxiban teachers themselves, yet is it not unusual for them to manage another job on the side, as in the case with Jacky’s team leader. Buxiban companies and teams are on equal standing — team leaders and buxiban company owners are essentially business partners, instead of working for one another. The profit is then divided from the students’ tuition — in Jacky’s case, teachers on his team are paid around 1500 New Taiwanese dollars per hour, from which the team leader takes 30%. In addition to pressures of competing buxiban companies, teachers must also deal with the stress and expectations from Taiwanese parents. What has happened is that buxibans often find themselves to blame when parents do not see immediate improvement. In order for buxibans to survive in the booming field, teachers often find themselves resorting to short term solutions of memorization and drilling, when learning should in fact be personal and based on practice. As I have never experienced buxibans firsthand, I decided to interview another friend of mine, Chantal Peng, who has attended buxibans since elementary school, and currently works part-time at the front desk of her old buxiban. Her experience with buxibans is rather tumultuous; while she can credit them for her successful entry into college, it is also a traumatic reminder of her teenage years that were spent cooped up in a tiny classroom. While preparing for her high school entrance exams, Chantal recalls spending up to 30 hours at her buxiban per week, from attending supplementary class after school to nine hour cram and review sessions on weekends. This is just an average case. From what she told me, some of her classmates practically live in buxibans. Here is what strikes me as ironic — Taiwanese parents wish the best of their kids by sending them off to buxibans, yet jeopardize their mental and physical health under these brutal and potentially traumatizing studying conditions. In addition to a student interview, I also had the privilege of consulting Chantal’s mother, Vicki, who offered her insight on the current buxiban scene in Taiwan. Just like her daughter, Vicki has a love-hate relationship with buxibans. On the one hand, Vicki admits that many buxiban teachers have a charisma and style of teaching that captures students’ attention and makes otherwise boring lectures interesting and refreshing. However, her praise of buxibans pretty much ends there, as she soon carried on to voice her criticism of buxibans with their endless advertising and business strategies. It appears that parents feel pressured to rely on buxibans as a last resort, in order to ensure the best for their children, albeit at the cost of their freedom. Taiwan is not the only country highly obsessed with buxibans — other Asian countries like Japan and South Korea also rely heavily on cram schools, thus it is not hard to guess why these countries have such a high suicide rate among students. I am in no way condemning buxibans, as I recognize the effort of buxiban teachers and their contribution to students — I merely disagree with the direction of which education seems to have taken in Taiwan. In Jacky’s instance, the reason why he decided to take on the job was largely due to the influence of his own buxiban teacher (now his team leader), who inspired him to use his knowledge and skills in helping other students. As long as teachers themselves are not driven by monetary temptations, I believe that buxibans are a necessary evil in Taiwan. by Nathalie Jennifer RepenningSelling a mug – or not
“You are not in full control of your decisions. How you behave is not up to you but influenced by a lot of details. If one of them is changed you will change your behavior, too.” This provocative statement can be seen as the basis for a new branch of economic thinking: behavioral economics. Imagine you can sell a mug for 50 NT and think it’s a good price. But now imagine that you have owned it for five years and really love it. Would you sell it now for the same price? Probably not. You would probably want to be paid 70, 100, or even more. Or maybe you would not give it away at all? The problem you just encountered was introduced to the field of behavioral economics by Daniel Kahnemann, one of its pioneers. He and his colleagues found that the amount participants required as compensation once their ownership of something had been established (“willingness to accept”) was approximately twice as high as the amount they were willing to pay to acquire the same thing (“willingness to pay”). Behavioral economics aims to answer why people act as they do. What drives human behavior? How do humans make decisions and how can they be influenced? These are questions not only for academics but also for people in their daily lives. How can we best save money? Why do we always seem to fall in love with the wrong person? Traditional economic view – the origin of behavioral economics Common knowledge assumes that our behavior is driven either by the mind or the heart. Traditional economic theory has always tried to differentiate between the two. These models rely on the idea that humans are fully rational, consciously weighing their options and aiming for the best possible outcome. However, even when these assumptions were proven wrong, most economists dismissed them as anomalies. Behavioral economics – explaining human behavior further Kahnemann and his colleagues, however, began their careers as psychologists, and they used this training to reexamine apparent anomalies in economic behavior. In their findings, humans were no longer viewed as fully rational but highly influenced by social details such as how information was presented to them, the order in which they received the news, their past experiences, and a high loss aversion. The researchers found that phenomena such as mispricing and non-rational decision making could explain the occurrence of so-called financial bubbles and over/underreactions in the stock market. They also discovered that anecdotes and stereotypes, referring to past experiences and general cultural education and values, make up most people’s emotional filters. This is how individuals understand and respond to events in the world. Finally, they concluded that humans have never been overly thoughtful and analyzing. Rather, up to 95% of their decisions are based on mental shortcuts and rules of thumb, and they are profoundly influenced by how the information is presented. Anchoring effect as one famous root of irrationality In one well-known experiment, participants were asked to choose between two treatments for 600 people affected by a deadly disease. Treatment A was predicted to result in 400 deaths, whereas treatment B had a 33% chance that no one would die but a 66% chance that everyone would die. Because you don’t want 400 people to die you would choose B, right? Most participants in the experiment did the same. This same choice was then presented to them either with a positive framing, i.e. how many people would live, or with negative framing, i.e. how many people would die. Treatment A was chosen by 72% of the participants when it was presented with positive framing (“saves 200 lives”), dropping to only 22% when the same choice was presented with negative framing (“400 people will die”). So whereas treatment A contains exactly the same situation as treatment B, simply rearranging the words led people to alter their decisions. Neurofinance – searching for the origins of human behavior Along with behavioral economics is another new field: neurofinance. Here, scientists use common neurological techniques such as brain scans in order to understand humans’ seemingly irrational behavior. One major finding has been the deep entanglement of mind and emotions. When processing information, your brain will automatically include emotions in order to be able to assess the information’s value. This process is mostly unconscious, yet it is always there. Exposing the illusion The truth is that we never do anything without emotions. We are our emotions. They define how we perceive our surroundings, how we act and choose opportunities. They define the chances we take and the ones we do not, the people we interact with and the ones we don’t like. Indeed, the age-old distinctions between mind and heart, rationality and emotion have proven to be misconceptions. Rationality as well as irrationality is emotional. It has always been and will always be since the human brain works only with emotions. So what can we do? Can we even make proper decisions? Can we be rational at all? And if so, how? Emotions Vs. brain – brain and emotions In my view, we still can. Yet first we need to be aware that all our decisions will be influenced and conducted by our emotions. We need to accept and embrace this fact. There is nothing bad about emotions themselves. They can be good guidance, too. There is no point in acting highly rational if this makes you sad or angry all the time. Problems only arise when you forget your mind over your heart. But now, by knowing about common mistakes of human behavior and by being aware of the flaws of human decision making, when facing a difficult situation we may pause a bit and try to acquire a higher level of rationality: thinking twice and gathering more information before we make a final decision. By Kevin HuangA gifted past
Gifted education is something associated with the education of those who are considered “gifted” in different areas of expertise. Gifted education in Taiwan has been around for many decades, but how it is carried out has changed drastically. Back in the 70s and 80s, gifted education revolved around enrolling elite students within special classes that were academically better than other classes in almost every subject. These classes were home to the elites who were at the top of the school in terms of grades. It was expected of these students to excel academically and to get into all the best high schools and universities. What made them gifted was their ability to study better than everyone else in everything they came across. While that was the trend of gifted education back then, it has since strayed from the path of simply struggling for perfect grades. While challenging students academically at the same time, these classes also offer an opportunity for students to pit their minds against one and other and to discover different areas of expertise. Gifted classes are becoming more common among schools everywhere and they are a phenomenon pushing the minds of students everywhere. What is gifted education now? Gifted education nowadays is much more complex than simply nurturing students who are academically advanced. While academics is certainly still a big part of gifted classes, classes today offer extra-curricular activities as well as courses. I interviewed a teacher currently teaching in their language gifted program at HSNU (the Affiliated Senior High School of National Taiwan Normal University), one of the most prestigious high schools in the nation. Mrs. Lin, who has taught these classes for eight years, stated that “ the purpose of establishing the programs is to help students explore their academic potential” through “more in-depth materials and interactive activities.” By going beyond regular courses set up by the school, students are put under more rigorous programs that push their minds to new limits. Having enrolled in one of these classes myself, I was met with experiences that strongly differed from normal classes. We breezed through standard material quickly and left time for exploration in other areas. This strategy gave students the chance to tackle projects, stage performances, as well as research papers revolving around topics of their own choosing. Extra classes are also set up in order to broaden students’ vision. An example would be for language classes to tackle extra courses on literature and other foreign languages. While gifted programs used to focus on excelling in all subjects, today they are narrowed down to certain subjects. Throughout the nation we can see language gifted classes, mathematics gifted classes, and science gifted classes. This allows for students to pinpoint their interest on certain subjects and allows for deeper understanding and development. From nurturing jacks of all trade, these classes now develop masters within their chosen area of expertise. How has gifted education affected students? Just as important as the programs themselves are the students who are enrolled in them. But what makes these students different? How does gifted education affect their decisions as well as their pursuits? After talking with many students who have taken part in these classes, I heard both positive and negative opinions. The majority took part in these classes because of the potential to receive more resources from the school, meet brilliant minds of the same age, as well as experience interesting takes on the subjects they love. The effects of these classes were mostly positive. One student, Kelsey Chuang, currently a university student studying abroad, stated that gifted education introduced her to “seminars, workshops, and events that definitely opened up different options for the future.” Another student, Alex Hu, a student at NTU, said that his way of thinking was “reconstructed” and his knowledge “widened,” both of which he sees as beneficial to making decisions in the future. While all these opinions seem like sunshine and rainbows, there were also a few negative takes on the program. Paul Chuang as well as Kelsey Chuang addressed their concern that others in their age group might look at them differently. They believe that by enrolling in these classes a target is being nailed on their backs for stereotypical beliefs and higher expectations. David Chen, Alex Hu, and Rosemary Wang all stated that a potential downside to gifted classes could be that they are more focused on certain subjects. The change from the older system might limit their ability to learn in all areas. Perhaps we should think about developing gifted education further in the future. My experience with gifted education I personally believe that gifted education has more positives than negatives. My own experience has changed my choices ever since. I was able to take part in projects and courses that I would not otherwise have had the chance to experience. Workshops with artists, theater performers, as well as poets helped me find my love for literature as well as a passion for writing. Gifted education helped me find my interests and it also let me meet amazing people from the same age-group. With the meeting of minds and new experiences, gifted education was one incredible ride. It surely will continue to develop in the future and it will be interesting to see where it will take students next. By Arielle EstebanWhen it comes to spending the summer in Taiwan, from personal experience, it is definitely not for the faint-hearted. Temperatures during the summer months of late April to early September have been known to reach record-high temperatures ranging from 30 to 40°C. Fortunately, Taiwan is also home to many sweets and savory dishes and in the summer, the icy treat known as shaved ice, hits the streets. For students studying at the National Taiwan University, fortunately enough, there are a number of shops that serve delicious shaved ice around the university that are of walking distance, where you and your friends can cool off and chill.
Here are the top five places to beat the heat near NTU:
The shop is roomy and separated in sections based on the type of seating. Right next to the windows are seating areas on elevated platforms, made to look like a typical Japanese tatami room, along with tatami mats and house slippers for your feet. On the other side of the dessert shop is your ordinary seating area, with wooden tables and chairs that can seat a range from two people to six people. Part of why it’s a popular place for Taida students to hang out is because of the Instagram-friendly decor around the shop. The shop is also a self-service restaurant, where you pick up your own utensils, tissues, and dessert. It is also the more pricier shop to eat shaved ice, with their icy desserts ranging from NT130 to NT220. The recommended desserts, based on popularity, are their matcha shaved ice and rainbow shaved ice—named for its appearance after being sprinkled with different flavored syrup. The shop also offers other sweet options for those not looking for an icy treat, such as cakes, homemade ice cream and even Japanese style grilled rice balls (onigiri). If looking for a spot to have some shaved ice with friends (or by yourself) seated comfortably on cushions while overlooking the quiet streets staying cool as you treat yourself to some desserts and away from the heat, then 好想吃冰台大公館店 is a good place to drop by.
This two-story shop is located right next to the looming yellow building that is the Taipower Building, and it is hard to miss with its Instagram-friendly exterior and a hip ambience, with its speakers blaring out the current Billboard Top 40 Hits. Its most popular dishes are the mango shaved ice (pictured above), matcha and red bean shaved ice, and their specialty, is the bubble milk tea shaved ice—which is literally bubble milk tea in the form of shaved ice, topped with boba and condensed milk。 Their prices are much more student-friendly, prices ranging from NT80 to NT120 for their most popular dishes, and packed with filling portions, that if you do get caught having to wait in line, rest assured that it’s worth it. Fun fact: You can get a free refill of their condensed milk!
It’s located on Xinsheng S. Road nestled between a street corner and McDonalds, and is hard to miss with its big, yellow signboard. Taiyi Milk King is famous for its glutinous sticky rice ball desserts that are generously packed with all sorts of fillings, from sesame to peanut butter. But it also serves cold desserts like mango and strawberry shaved ice topped with glutinous rice balls and condensed milk. (Photo courtesy from VicariousGear.com) The place is self-service and there’s an option for you to take food to go, which is great if you want to keep the savory glutinous rice balls for later. Taiyi is also student budget-friendly, most of the dishes being under NT100, and it serves large portions, which is perfect for hungry students looking for something sweet and cool to eat. Do keep in mind that it’s a popular spot not just for students, but tourists and local Taiwanese, so it’s important to get there before the evening as that’s usually when the throngs of people come to try the desserts. And there you have it, the three best places to have shaved ice near the National Taiwan University. Do you have a favorite place to eat shaved ice? Let me know in the comments below. by Belinda ChenWould you be willing to work long hours doing tedious work not only without a salary, but having to pay for it yourself? Usually, most people would refuse such an offer without hesitation. However, did you know that countless students from around the world are not given a choice: they must complete unpaid curricular internships while having to pay their tuition in order to receive their college diplomas. A curricular internship is part of a student’s university degree program and these internships aim to help students complement their classroom education with practical experience in their field of interest. Usually, curricular internships are rather lengthy, ranging from 6 months to 1 year or longer, and the working hours per day range from 6 hours to 12 hours or more, depending on the student’s major. Like all internships, employers are not required by law to pay their interns.
Generally, most students expect to receive pay to compensate for their contribution to the workplace, whereas employers feel it’s not necessary to pay their interns. For a more comprehensive discussion, this article will discuss the issue from students’ and employers’ perspectives, as well as offer possible suggestions for curricular internship programs which can benefit both sides. Examples of majors at NTU that have curricular internships and how they work Like most universities around the world, all medicine related majors at NTU expect students to complete curricular internships prior to receiving their diplomas. This includes dentistry, veterinary medicine, human medicine, nursing, and physiotherapy. For all of these majors, students are expected to complete their internship at the NTU Hospital (or in my case, at the NTU Animal Hospital). Students do not choose the location of their internship. Minimum wage is not provided even though college tuition is still required. Why students think minimum wage should be provided - To compensate for lost opportunities: time for studying, working, resting, time with family and friends. - To compensate for time, health (physical and mental), and labor. - Long working hours which involve tedious tasks that are often unrelated to the curriculum. - To defray the cost of tuition, which still needs to be paid. - Greater motivation: if interns were paid they would be motivated to achieve a higher level of work quality, especially for interns who are financially challenged. Why employers would think minimum wage does not need to be provided - Interns are inexperienced, unskilled, and do not possess sufficient knowledge of their study field. - Internship is a learning experience; interns should not be paid for learning skills and knowledge. - College credit is given and the internship is mandatory. - Giving wages would classify interns as laborers, hence they would be protected by the Labor Act, which states that work cannot exceed 8 hours per day. - Employers were once unpaid as interns as well, therefore it’s only fair to continue the practice. In addition to no salary, students don’t get to choose their internship location There is one major flaw in the system of the curricular internship: students are not given any options about their internship location. What if the NTU Animal Hospital is nowhere near a student’s ideal workplace environment? What if the student is certain that he/she will not be working in the field of small animal medicine, but rather in the field of aquatic animals or as a government employee? And if the student is still obliged to intern at the NTU Animal Hospital shouldn’t he/she at least be paid? How do other universities handle their internship programs? Have you heard of cooperative education programs or co-ops? Numerous universities throughout the world provide their students with the opportunity to participate in co-ops, which is an optional internship at companies that collaborate with the universities. These co-ops develop talent and enrich students, who can experience their chosen professional field at a company of their choice and receive a very satisfying salary as well. Students are treated as equal individuals; their thoughts and contributions are valued, they are allowed to engage in teamwork with other professionals and not be exploited. Furthermore, students that perform well during their internships generally find good jobs after graduating. How NTU can incorporate a similar co-op program for their curricular internships NTU can adopt a similar co-op program by providing students with the option to choose their internship location and provide students with salaries. As the most prestigious research university in Taiwan, NTU can easily cooperate with companies and government institutions for students to intern at. Taking veterinary students as an example, the school can provide options that better suit career plans by collaborating with hospitals, government institutes, zoos, etc. Last words Students don’t want to waste their time whereas employers don’t want to waste their money. But clearly, if students are given the option to choose their own internships, they will perform better and become assets for their employers. There is no question that interns should be paid, and employers would agree too when they see how their interns are eager to learn and how they strive for maximum performance. by Chris Lynd 林持一Yes, this is another article about influencer culture, yet please bear with me. There are a billion influencers on the Internet making a living by posting pictures of their #OOTD and cars they borrowed from rich Arabs. Many of them started as bloggers but have somehow become influencers with “paid-for-partnership” tags on their posts. But how does it really work?
The concept Influencer marketing focuses on influential individuals rather than the target markets themselves. Brands partner with bloggers having influence over potential customers so companies may promote their products or services without direct advertisements. What influencers do is be the centre of a topic, but they should never be overshadowed by the product. Instead, with the help of personal charisma, influencers may seem to be the ones in control of what they promote, therefore gaining attention from their followers. To be an influencer Being an influencer is pretty cool like wearing some skinny jeans with a short leather jacket. With some effort it can be done by anyone. And if you want to become one, there are a variety of influencer types to choose from: fashionista, auto blogger, wine connoisseur, food conquistador, etc. For example, if you want to be the wine connoisseur type, all you need to do is review enough wines (paid by yourself) on social media until you acquire a huge follower base. Then perhaps a small, independent wine maker will send you a proposal for partnership. Once you accept it, you become the official ambassador of the brand. However, unlike a regular business endorsement, you may be able to promote more than one wine brand at the same time. Since what potential customers focus on is you, not the brands, this also creates an illusion that you are a “professional buyer” — someone who only promotes good things. In fact, you do not choose the companies, the companies choose you, which will be discussed later on. Anyway, you will earn money from these endorsements. Once you have acquired partnerships and acquired an enormous fanbase, the big names will probably come to you. That’s the pinnacle of an influencer’s career. However, while it is true that everyone can be an influencer, not everyone will succeed. Wearing jeans and a leather jacket, for example, you can dress like that and everyone may look at you, yet it is not necessarily because you look good. Only those who like you enough will like you online and follow your profile. Conspiracies Ironically, sometimes chance chooses you rather than the other way around. A friend of mine who works in the digital analytics team of a famous cosmetics company once told me that some brands may take advantage of analysis provided by consulting companies (like the notorious Cambridge Analytica) to find out who are the most “investment-worthy” influencers. This sounds good to influencers, or does it? Consulting companies receive data from social media companies, mostly legally, and then they offer data analysis services to brands seeking budding influencers. The illegally accessed data include some very sensitive information like your sex-orientation, religious belief, political views, frequented social media pages, follower lists, blocked lists, and even payment details. The more demands there are, the more supplies there will be. In a world linked by the World Wide Web, everyone can be the victim of information theft, including the influencers themselves. So who is the winner? Problems I once read an article about a British influencer who asked hotels to provide free rooms for her; in exchange, she would write something good about the hotels on her social media page where she had tens of thousands of followers. Unsurprisingly, the hotels could not be bothered, and one hotel even published a notice on their website claiming that they “extremely disapprove of such behaviour” and that she was “a shame to her country”. Some influencers are so proud that they don’t really know what is the right thing to do. What’s more, influencer culture also generates an ethos of the pursuit of material life. This shallow concept may lead to problems, like people who go into great debt trying to live like influencers do. They want to live better lives, and they choose influencers as role models. However, in this case the pursuit of vanity is the worst influence influencers can create. People should try to strive for goals, not just mimic a bunch of commercial puppets. The future Apparently, influencer marketing increases with advances in technology. In essence, it is just like normal business endorsement but with a different name. However, this is what the world wants now. People like things that are new, but not totally different. Endorsements have been with us for a long time. With the flourishing of influencer culture, global business seems to be refreshed. But one day this technique will become outdated and will no longer work. Influencers will not be as influential anymore, and something new must be invented. |
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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