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 (continued)
Following this lead-in, ICLP students took
turns introducing themselves on stage. They touched upon hometowns, alma maters,
hobbies, interests, and most importantly, what they would like out of the
language exchange. This portion of the session provided much comic relief
as classmates watched each other advertise themselves as if on an auction
block. One student highlighted her love of food and invited
anyone else “who loves to eat” to find her after the session, garnering a lot of laughs from
the crowd.
After the self-introductions finished, ICLP
student program coordinator, Richard Chang, took the microphone to describe
the program's ideal format. Starting
in the spring term, there will be weekly group meetings in which
participants will break off into smaller groups and discuss bilingual articles
sent ahead of time for them to preview.
Discussion of the articles would also be bilingual in which
Taiwanese students would take the chance to use their English, and ICLP
students, their Chinese.
In the end, the well thought out briefing
session appeared to be a complete success.
The ICLP student program coordinator completed the tasks of getting
a list of available Taiwanese students, potential scheduling conflicts, and
a volunteer to represent the Taiwanese classmates, an enthusiastic student
from the Department of Foreign Language and Literatures. The session ended with excited leisurely chat among the students
as people brought up hobbies and interests touched upon earlier. Students quickly
began to exchange
contact information. Even
better, some already started to follow the bilingual format in which a Taiwanese student
would speak in English and an ICLP student respond in Chinese while comparing similar fields of
study, travel experiences, and favorite night market foods, a sign that
next semester's language exchange program is already off to a
great start.
ICLP student Ulick Burke/宇力
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