My Yu Jen Experience

I have taught and worked in Taiwan for over 15 years now, from kindergarten to university, from English for business purposes, right through to English for Academic purposes. Through all these teaching experiences, I have seen the difficulty people have had in learning the English language in more traditional systems and environments, and how some have done very well when given a better environment and learning system.

I started to do a lot of research into the dynamic of non-mother tongue language acquisition, and kept trying to apply these things in various environments, with mixed results.

During this process, about 10 years ago, I can remember teaching a grammar class to adults in a university night school, and as part of the lesson one lady mentioned her child’s wonderful school. I asked her why she said her daughter’s elementary school was so unique, and she said, “The children are respected there.” Her daughter was studying at a private school called Yu-Jen Catholic Elementary School.

Years later, I got the opportunity to come and work at Yu-Jen and observe this first-hand. This opportunity metamorphosed into one of being asked to apply some of the theory and experience of English language teaching that I had gained over the years by supervising the ESL department. It has had moments of frustration, because as with any large and successful educational institution, change is approached cautiously, but teaching here has also had moments of great reward.

Seeing children grow and develop is so fulfilling. I see children in the ESL department 1st to 5th grades that were tiny babies in kindergarten when I first arrived, now young English speakers looking ahead to their middle school experience.

I hope that the words spoken to me so many years ago by that mother stand true for all the years that this school impacts children’s lives, “Children are respected here.”