face STORIES Experience sharing from National Pingtung Senior High School

In Taiwan, educational travel is a government promoted project. Around 300 high schools participate, of which 90% choose Japan as their destination. Japan is chosen for reasons such as its good transportation services, and the thriving exchange between Taiwan and Japan. However, the primary reason in fact lies in that schools want their students to feel the atmosphere, the environment, and other aspects of Japan as one of the leading developed countries in Asia.

Through the educational travel in Japan, I want the students to directly experience and feel the differences between themselves and Japanese students of their age, and thereby have a chance to reexamine and reflect on themselves. For instance, students of Takada Senior High School were able to sing their school anthem at the welcoming ceremony because they feel pride in their school. I think their confidence comes from their love for their school. Also, school buildings are beautiful in any Japanese school. I believe that the environment is clean and organized because students themselves are highly conscious of the necessity of maintaining a clean learning environment. This is why we always ask Japanese staff in charge to greet us with nothing special or arranged, but instead to show us the everyday scenes of the school. We hope that students will be able to reflect on themselves after seeing a regular school day at Japanese high schools.

Many students have developed an interest in Japan after educational travels in the past; some even decided to major in Japanese in university. In this way, I would be very happy if the program could be a starting point for students to find their goals in life, which they would not be able to discover if they never step outside of Taiwan.

We the faculty would also like to learn how Japanese education succeeds in passing on Japanese culture from one generation to the next.