Written by Lam Kai
University of Cologne to Department of Geography of NTU

From February 23rd to June 30th I have spent the summer semester 2018 in Taipei at the National Taiwan University. In the following I will give a brief overview on my experience.

I will start this report by emphasizing on how well organized the exchange program of the NTU happened to be. I got a lot of very helpful information before the start of the semester via email, and also got immediate responses to my questions. The beginning of a new semester at a new university is usually accompanied with a little confusion and disorder. The university however guided us through the arrival by making processes very transparent. In general most people had been extremely helpful and really nice.

Thus said, I acknowledge this semester as an astonishing experience on various levels. I want to focus on the academics and student life at NTU itself, but also on the country of Taiwan with its breathtaking landscape and friendly people.

My exchange was through the department of Science and as a geography student I wanted to participate at the faculty of geography. Unfortunately however the the faculty of geography did not offer any advanced classes in English, and my Chinese level did not suffice for serious participation on the classes, so in the end I was not able to take any classes from my actual faculty. However it must be noticed, that the NTU offers a very very wide range of interesting courses and subjects taught in English.

The classes I would recommend most are the field trip to Kenting (called “Introduction to Field Geology) as well as the Introduction to Taiwan class, as one learns a lot about the countries culture and natural aspects.

Furthermore I also want to recommend participating in the ICL-Program and especially the ICL-trips, which is another opportunity to truly witness the Taiwanese mentality through a weekly skype session with midschool students.

The university offers even more very special classes. Some classes did even make a book out of the student’s reports with every participating student on its cover.  I also want to mention that most teachers try to create an interactive class environment which can be considered very positive.

In hindsight I actually would have loved to try out even more classes. It was however only possible for one week  to choose the classes on the final class list, which is a little pity since one week is way too short for such an astonishing number of class options.

Some classes like the sports classes can however also be participated without inscription.

At the beginning of the semester, many full year exchange students actually did advise us to take as few classes as possible and to use our spare time to travel around the country. I can agree to that, since it really takes time to get to know the country. Also Taiwan is surprisingly diverse for a rather small island.  Although Taiwan has roughly the size of a country like Belgium, I did not manage to see all the sights I wanted to see in the end. The Capital Taipei alone is already very big and astonishing, as it offers a lot of different scenic areas (mountains in each direction, many museums and lively quarters and night markets). Taiwan offers uncountable natural sights and numerous cultural sights. It should be also noted that the infrastructure of many potential natural sights is still not developed.

Most of the island is basically a very very young mountain range, with its peak Yu Shan reaching nearly 4000meters of elevation above sea-level. Furthermore more than 100 summits exceed 3000 Meters. Most of the landscape is therefore extremely rugged with numerous waterfalls and river gorges.

It’s just beautiful beyond imagination. The south offers some of the best beaches in the world, while the eastern pacific coast is well fitted for surfing. I could continue endlessly about different activities and destinations, but the fact that a semester was not enough to reach all the spots I wanted to reach should underline my point.

I also want to put remarks on the people of Taiwan. They are known for their friendliness towards strangers and I can only agree to that. Whatever the situation, one could always find a local person for help, often beyond of what is expected.

To sum it up, I am very happy having had the chance to come to Taiwan, and I cannot recommend enough to anyone to do the same.

My exchange program at National Taiwan University was a refreshing and formative one. NTU offers exchange students a good variety of courses and extra-curricular activities. Apart from classes in my original major - statistics, I also took classes under other departments, worked as volunteer for animal welfare NGOs, participated in hostel activities and other ad hoc school events. School life was vibrant in NTU and the beautiful campus was also a bonus.

I have taken 7 courses in this semester, including 2 statistics courses, 2 computer science courses, 2 general education courses and 1 field practice course for animal caring. In the beginning of the semester, I found a bit difficult in understanding all the meanings of what the professors were teaching in statistic and computer science lectures because of not understanding the terminology in Chinese. However, besides this problem in the first few weeks, I found great in the lectures. There were lots of different projects and assignments that allow me to have hand-on experience and better understanding on the knowledge of what I have learned from the lectures. For the general education courses, one of them was about the culture and history of Taiwan, which enabled me to understand more about Taiwan’s historical, social and cultural background. During the field course for animal caring, I worked as volunteer in animal shelters in weekends, and my duties included cleaning shelters, feeding animals, dog walking and assisting in the rehabilitation of traumatized animals. I also engaged in efforts to control the overpopulation of stray animals by supporting local TVNR campaigns run by animal welfare NGOs.

Taiwan will always have a special place in my heart and studying abroad will always be one the most valuable, memorable, and life changing experiences I will ever have. Living and learning in a foreign environment, I am forced to be independent, resourceful, adventurous and adaptive. Most importantly, one should take ownership over his/her decisions and actions over the course of exchange, which in turn define the individual experience.

In sum, this student exchange program not only offered me a chance to study aboard but also the other way of living, and I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the Chinese University of Hong Kong and National Taiwan University for giving me such a great chance to join this program.

我是來自香港中文大學風險管理學系的交換生譚文諾，很榮幸有機會於106年度第二學期來到國立台灣大學交流。雖然我是數學系的交換生，但由於交流計劃允許我們修讀其他學系科目，加上沒有學分及成績壓力，我最終修讀的科目都與我的專長(數學)沒有太大關聯，令我有機會接觸更多不同領域的知識。此外，我也聽聞台大的社團文化十分多元，因我也參加了調酒社和氣球社。社團的活動很豐富，除了有講座形式的社課外，還有實習課給我機會親手試試調酒和弄氣球裝飾的滋味，更令我認識了不少台灣人。最後，也是最意想不到的收穫是我有認識了一班來自港澳地區的留學生，更有幸可與他們的足球隊一同出戰台大盃並獲得了亞軍。

除了校園生活多姿多彩外，我也跟其他來自香港的交流生一同環遊台灣。我們基本上把台灣各地的景點都遊覽了一遍。我們到過苗栗露營，到過阿里山看日出，到過陽明山看櫻花，甚至連蘭嶼和澎湖等外島也遊覽。台灣風景優美是人所共知的，親身遊覽過後，更加覺得名不虛傳，風景美得隨手一拍也能拍到明信片般的風景照。

這次當交換生的經歷令我獲益良多，當中體會未能一一盡錄，只能把最深刻的部份寫下分享。再次感激台大給予的交流機會，令我渡過了四個多月難能可貴的時光。