Seri Su’s Summer in Taiwan
Written by Mia Miller.
As a PPA and Global Commerce double-major, Seri Su was already studying relations between China and Taiwan here at Denison. “Taiwan has a special place in my heart,” says Seri, whose father was born in Taiwan. She’d never visited before and hadn’t studied Chinese formally, but she always knew she wanted to study abroad. Seri was exploring options around at the OCS Fall Fair when she spoke with the provider CET. Once she heard that CET Taiwan would allow her to study over the summer, take a political science course, do an internship, and learn Chinese, she said it was a done deal.
Seri described Taiwan as being often trivialized and reduced to its political relations, with people overlooking how uniquely wonderful it is. When sharing about her summer abroad, she frequently got questions like “Isn’t that where microchips come from?” For her, Taiwan meant so much more, especially now that she’s studied there.
Academics Abroad
Part of what was appealing to Seri about CET was the program format. With different tracks to choose from, Seri got to build her own summer. While in Taiwan, she took a Chinese language course, a Cross-strait Relations between Taiwan and China field course, and an internship course. Her Chinese language course was through the National Taiwan University’s Chinese Language Division (NTU), while her elective courses were through CET with NTU professors. She enjoyed having small class sizes, a familiar educational style, and professors that were passionate and knew their audience well.
Her cross-straight relations course took her out of the classroom on visits to education foundations outside the city, a temple, and a civilian resiliency/defense organization. Not only were these courses engaging, they also transferred back towards both her majors. Both majors also required that she take an upper level of language, so she said that taking Chinese over the summer, “helped give me peace of mind about finishing my language requirements on time.”
Working with Fulbright Taiwan
For her internship course, Seri worked with Fulbright Taiwan. Although some placements required a level of Chinese fluency, this internship valued her English skills and lived experience in America. Her main project was working with Taiwanese teachers preparing to move to the U.S. to teach Chinese. “I was like an American college consultant. They asked me any questions they couldn’t Google, like if their students would think it’s weird if they asked them out for coffee.”
At the annual commencement dinner, Seri ended up meeting a teacher that is now teaching Chinese at the College of Wooster! She met all kinds of people at the dinner, but what stuck with her was how bilingual the event was. She described it as being very integrated, with people all over switching back and forth between English, Chinese, and even other languages. Her final project with Fulbright was sorting through stacks of paper archives dating back to the 1940s. The archives included meeting notes, lists of scholarship grantees, and even copies of scholar exchange agreements between other countries. By the end of the internship, she gained work experience, great memories, and an offer from the executive director to serve as a professional reference.
Life Outside of the Classroom
Daily life outside of class was full of new things to do and unfamiliar weather phenomena. The day she arrived was the hottest day in Taiwan in 100 years, getting up to 104 degrees Fahrenheit. The sun in Taiwan was brutal, even compared to the heat in her hometown in Texas. She was especially thankful that the apartment she shared with CET and local Taiwanese students had air conditioning. Seri felt prepared for the cultural difference of being in another country, but what took her by surprise was city life. As someone from a rural town, she said “the city was honestly more foreign than the country.”
Her first time taking public transportation by herself was actually in Taiwan. She used the bus, train, and bikes. Bike rental stations were everywhere, making it easy for her to bike from campus to get food. She says the only time she really cooked was when she was stuck inside the apartment during a typhoon. Of all the food options, she said she was most surprised by 7/11. “I expected greasy hot dogs, but they had fluffy ham sandwiches and fresh onigiri,” and other quality meal options. With convenience stores on every corner and lots of smaller family businesses, she had fun trying new places.
As a student on the Softball team, Seri contacted the team at NTU to see if she could use their equipment or facilities. They were “over the moon” and invited her to practice with them, even though it was an all men’s team. She got to know them well over the summer and even ended up playing in an unofficial scrimmage fundraiser.
Building Connections through Language
Before going to Taiwan, Seri hadn’t studied Chinese and only had a few phrases she’d learned from family. English was prevalent in Taipei, but she also described Taiwan as very “foreigner friendly.” Often when she hit a language barrier with someone, they would call out and a coworker or stranger would come help translate. She said she felt like a mini celebrity, as people were excited to learn more about her and ask questions. But the barrier had a harder side too, as not being able to fully express herself in Chinese kept her from engaging with people the way she normally would. That’s part of what made her language partner, a local student at NTU, so valuable. Through weekly practice sessions, they talked about all kinds of questions, including cowboys and southern culture, and became good friends. Now, she has a collection of letters from her roommates, CET friends, and language partner that she hopes to keep up as a reminder of her time abroad.
Looking back at her time in Taiwan, Seri really valued reconnecting to parts of herself. During the program, her grandmother visited and introduced her to great aunts and uncles she had never met. They took her to a Japanese-style Buddhist temple in the mountains to visit the resting place of her grandfather’s parents and brother. Before studying abroad, she knew she wanted to reconnect to Taiwan, but seeing the temple made the connection fully hit her. “I was in a foreign country but it felt familiar to me.”
Seri’s Suggestions for Study Abroad
To students looking to study abroad, Seri recommends having an open mind and being willing to try everything. It can be easy for fear to hold you back. Thoughts like “I don’t know if I will be accepted in that space” or “I don’t know if I can do it” were tempting, but she found that pushing past them often led her to exciting opportunities. She never imagined it for herself, but she even went cliff jumping at one point! Overall, she said “You have to have the nerve to do it.”
If you’re interested in spending a summer or semester with CET Taiwan, just check out our website! You can also see the Takeover Seri hosted on our Instagram page under the Taipei highlight! It features photos and videos of her housing, classes, internship, and more.