New Students

It's that fun, awkward time of the semester: time for warm-up games and icebreakers, time for learning names and self-introductions. A time to make the right impression - strict but friendly?
It's not unusual for the odd exchange student to get stuck in my class from time to time at the beginning of the semester. It can be strange for me and them, and fun for the students, who of course want to be partners with the native speaker. Most of the exchange students I meet are rotary, but today, I had a girl from France who was on an exchange through a different organization, and she's the only one here! She told me with a relieved look that I was the first other white person she'd seen since she arrived in Taiwan! Interesting situation, she just graduated from high school and has now joined a grade 10 class to learn Chinese. It's the international language of the future people! Start practicing your tones :P

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