Jhuolan H.S. Recruitment With Powerful Points

      I was asked to give an English presentation on Wednesday November 23rd to Taiwan EFL students. I would drive with Leona to Jhuolan Senior High School in Jhuolan, Miaoli to present "Read the World and the World Reads You" but it was more than that.

     The organizer, who learned of me through Kang Hsuan publisher, flippantly said I should talk with the students about the multiculturalism in New York City, but I thought it was far-fetched and incendiary with what I know from being a teacher there for twenty-five years unless I was to give some lame propaganda tourism. For a Taiwanese child, multiculturalism in NYC wouldn't work.

      It would be an effort for an immigrant child to find a way through New York City without injury. I had in mind a scenario of a child in Jhuolan H.S. who goes home one day to his parents telling him they will move to New York City that summer. The title of the new power point presentation was going to be "A Stranger in a Strange Land; A Child's View of New York City." The slides show would include topics such as Satellite Children, Snakehead Refugees, Child Labor Sweatshops and Construction, Territorial Gangs, Safeguarding Yourself from Pick-Pockets and Robberies,  Bullying in Schools, Racism and Sexism, Being a Latch-Key Kids, but also How to Get the Most Out of Your Metrocard, The Lower Eastside Tenement Museum, Museum of Chinese-American History, Ellis Island, and The Statue of Liberty. 

     Multiculturalism in New York City might be an interesting topic for foreign adult visitors, only that ethnic restaurants wouldn't even matter; no Taiwanese visitor would dare go to the places I would introduce or eat any foreign food besides pizza. It would be boring for the kids to hear. The organizer wasn't thinking of them. 

     I asked Leona to ask the organizer to ask the teachers to ask the students to ask questions. When she asked, she learned the students I would be presenting to weren't students of the high school that I would be presenting at; the high school is using my presentation to recruit students from local junior high schools. 

     With only a few days before the presentation, it would be impractical for the students to brainstorm topics. With no preparation, unlike what the  students did in Hu-Wei(https://e-e-o.blogspot.tw/2016/05/read-world-and-world-reads-you.html) with no idea of what they would be hearing, or understanding, the power point would be most important. I would stop after each slide and try to use  reported speech to get students involved.

     That morning, we set out in a driving rain to National Jhuolan Senior High School on the edge of Miaoli in the mountainside, forty minutes from Taichung, across two washes northeast of the Taichung reservoir for me to give a presentation to the twenty junior high students the school was recruiting. I used the “Read the World” and “NYC 7 Day-Trip” power point presentations, combined with an emphasis on using English to travel abroad. Using ‘reported speech’ as a medium, I tried to engage the shy children in asking and answering reported questions, but sticking to the presentation.

      I began with an introduction of myself through slides, emphasizing my connection to Taiwan. I then went into selections from the “Read the World” slide show, stopping at “Places of Interest Outside Taiwan,” “Requirements for Foreign Travel,” “Affording to Live and Travel,” “English Resources for Students,” “Methods for Communication; Reported Speech,” and “Caring for Pets and Wildlife” stopping to give the “Emergency” quiz in which students chose, by raising hands, three items to rescue in a fire the three pets, of course! I then went into the  "New York City; Far From the Madding Crowd 7-Day Trip” slide show.
"Read The World And The World Read You"  
https://1drv.ms/p/s!AjeCH0KvEOz8hUFMLbJZfapNIjvd

"New York City; Far From the Madding Crowd 7-Day Trip” 
https://1drv.ms/p/s!AjeCH0KvEOz8iV9semqeiq2qu4Zy

      Before I started the "New York City; Far From the Madding Crowd 7-Day Trip” slide show, I asked how much they thought it would cost; one teacher guessed it would cost 100,000 NT-$3125 for a seven-day trip to New York City. I worked on that premise, showing the children the cost of expenses like airfare, hotel lodgings, subway and attraction admission, and food, making a joke out of eating ramen noodles and slices of pizza and how they could get by on that amount.
     The children loved the slides that had videos embedded in them, such as the "Museum of the Moving Image" video with views of Star Wars costumes they have on display, and the videos of Wonder Wheel, The Cyclone, and The Parachute Jump (defunct as it is) on the Coney Island slide. 
     Before we knew it, time was up. It was a delightful 90 minutes for the children and me. The children in this obscure Hakka town that had been devastated by the 1999 earthquake loved having a foreign teacher  from New York City visit and talk with them. They could see how important it was to learn English well.