First Day of Class in Taiwan

My first day of class at Ming Chuan University landed somewhere between excitement and a little bit of shock. New country, new campus, new language echoing down the hallway, and it was a lot to take in before I'd even sat down for my first lecture.

Research Methods: familiar ground

This one felt like home. The material itself wasn't new. I've spent the last couple of years knee-deep in research back in Vietnam, so terms like literature review and IMRD summaries are old friends at this point. What stood out was the professor: genuinely supportive, the kind of teacher who makes a big class feel like a conversation. Sitting through the first homework brief actually turned into something more. It gave me a chance to look back at my own research process and notice how far it's come.

Homework number one: track down a peer-reviewed empirical study, print it, and write up a short IMRD summary before Monday.

Intermediate Mandarin: full immersion, no safety net

Then came Mandarin, and the ground shifted. The class was taught entirely in Chinese, no English safety net, no slowing down for stragglers. It was disorienting in a way that Research Methods wasn't. Keeping up with spoken instructions while also trying to formulate answers in a language I'm still building fluency in was, honestly, a lot.

The homework I was supposed to have: record full-sentence answers to questions like "why did you apply to Ming Chuan University" and "do you think pressure helps you grow," entirely in Mandarin.

But the day had one bright spot saved for last. I won a small in-class game, and the prize was a pass on that night's homework. Small win, but on a day this overwhelming, it felt like a big one.

One day in

Two classes, two completely different feelings. One reassuring, one humbling. If day one is anything to go by, this chapter in Taiwan is going to stretch me in ways I didn't fully expect. I'm looking forward to it.