The pupils, with their teachers, Ms Lin and Ms Chen, were welcomed by Scottish bagpipes and drums at Edinburgh airport on 11th June before meeting their host families from Dollar. They very much enjoyed attending classes and the opportunity to participate in Biology dissections, Chemistry experiments and first aid training. They even tried some Ceilidh and Highland dancing as well as Haggis tasting, which they found amusing! They shadowed their buddies, took part in sport and pottery lessons and travelled to the two rival cities, Edinburgh and Glasgow.
The first leg of this year’s Taiwan exchange
All in all, it was a wildly busy and hugely enjoyable visit. Dollar’s host families took great time and effort to organise lovely things for their visitors to do and this was much appreciated. Activities included cruises on Lochs Lomond and Katrine, trips to castles, sailing, watching cricket and pipe band competitions, going on hill walks and enjoying barbecues in the sunshine with host families. Above all, said Ms Lin (organiser of the exchange at Zhongping Junior High), ‘the Taiwanese pupils were delighted by the warm welcome and thoroughly enjoyed the natural environment in Scotland.’
The reciprocal leg of the exchange will begin on 17th June. Ten Dollar pupils will travel to New Taipei City for 12 days where they will stay with host families in ones or twos to find out about Taiwanese culture and practise their Mandarin. Four FV pupils will work as teaching assistants in two local primary schools to help enrich their lessons. Ms Lin commented that ‘Zhongping is excited about Dollar Academy pupils travelling to Taiwan to experience different activities – brush pen making, drumming, traditional music, escape room etc. There will also be trips around Taipei such as tours to the night market and the Lin Family Mansion and Garden’.
We believe this visit to an Asian megacity so far from Dollar in every way will be of real value to the pupils of both nations and are very much looking forward to it.
