Marco Polo Exchange Winter 2018-2019
Marco Polo Report
Personal Report National Taiwan University 2018-2019
My name is Maria Sativa Baumann (m.s.baumann@student.rug.nl) and I am an International Relations and International Organizations student in my third year. During the last semester, I attended courses at the National Taiwan University in Taipei, Taiwan. Overall, I am very satisfied with my experience there and would recommend the programme to other students from our university as well.
First and foremost, as an International Relations Student, I highly recommend going abroad to Taiwan as the political situation is fairly interesting and as it is valuable to gain insights into a country that has a very fragile international and diplomatic position. I started out taking 7 courses initially, however, the Credit System of NTU seems to be very arbitrary and has not been very transparent and consistent. Being an IRIO student at NTU has its advantages, even though being in the Political Science Department, I could visit many courses with an international outlook, focus and theory from different departments without failing to fulfil the requirements of my studies. However, because of the arbitrary credit distribution, I dropped the only course I could do in the Political Science department, European Politics (high resemblance with Policy &
Governance, same authors), because I refused to have 21 hours of class a week for little credits (max. 16h week/Groningen). Finally, the courses I attended were Exploring Taiwan: Women in Taiwanese Society (Liberal Education), Essentials of Global Health (Public Health), WTO Law (Law), Political Communication in the Internet Age (Journalism), Nationalism and Patriotism in East Asian and South East Asian Archaeological Cultural Heritage (Archaeology) and Chinese Elementary Course. As one can see, all of these courses are quite multidisciplinary, but I liked the selection of my minor, since most of the courses lead into different working fields of International Relations, so I have seen this as an opportunity to narrow down my Master Programme choices. The period of the course selection was quite extensive and confusing at times We had 4 selection periods, the first in August for pre-selection, after we entered courses, we could drop the ones we didn’t like. In the third phase, we had to run to all the teachers begging for an entry code for the courses we wanted to participate in, and the final phase was the dropping phase after the first month of class. Nevertheless, at NTU there are specific times to select and drop courses, and generally office hours of some departments were different than those found online. If you have any problems with the courses and/or mentally, NTU has a great student help programme and space for quiet moments around the Campus. Also, they are more lenient with regard to exchange students, so I would always suggest to students to just contact the teachers or the NTU Foreign Affairs Office in case of any struggles.
Generally, the NTU Main Campus is one of the most beautiful I have ever been. The university’s departments and faculties are divided and distributed around Taipei. Every morning, when I cycled towards the Main Library below the palm trees of the principal alley, I felt like a high class student from Beverly Hills going to acting class with Brad Pitt. The main transportation in the city are bikes, metro (average 30cts/ride) and taxi (ca. 2,50-5€). At the beginning, it was difficult to find your way around and to estimate the distances between the buildings, however, most of my courses were on main campus. Only Essentials of Global Health was at the Technological Campus, which was 6 MRT stations further north. As mentioned before, the workload and credits received seemed very arbitrary and not justified in the syllabus. However, all the courses are very interesting and easy to follow, one reason for this is the slightly lower English level, since Taiwanese student follow a Chinese-taught study programme and mostly choose voluntarily to
take part in English-taught. Therefore, the English standard compared to our full taught English IRIO programme is understandingly inferior. Generally, most Taiwanese students understand English very well, however sometimes, they have difficulties to express themselves, but try to learn and talk Chinese. As an IRIO student, the Chinese Language Course is accepted as a minor, however, students from other RUG departments couldn’t have the course credited, which I think is pretty unfair, considering that they learn the language of the country they are staying.
Furthermore, it is the fundamental purpose of an exchange to get closer to a country and its people, and language is important. Especially, Chinese Mandarin is rising to be a new powerful business language. I recommend strongly to participate in the Chinese courses because outside the university, most Taiwanese do NOT speak or understand English. It is very fun, and was one of my favourite classes. Overall, the climate in the classes was friendly and open-minded. If you already know Chinese, you can do a language proficiency test and visit the more advanced courses. After the first weeks of Chinese, I started understanding people on the streets, I could read the food I was buying and I started mini conversations with my Taiwanese friends. It’s a language, which is very context dependent, however, once you understand the idea and structure behind it, you feel proud. Now, I can say I get Chinese. The talking requires exercise, therefore, I advise you to find Taiwanese friends.
One thing, I really like about NTU was the wide selection of student associations and clubs. In the first weeks, they organise a fair where all those clubs present themselves. It took us 2-3 hours to see all of them. Some of the clubs, which are sport- or social work-based clubs might bring credits. Here, you have a good chance to meet Taiwanese students who share the same interests.
At the beginning, I was part of a fire dancing club, but my Chinese courses was overlapping with the practice times and no one (except for two) spoke English, thus, I quit it after few weeks.
Nevertheless, some international students have made very good experiences and those clubs generally are the basis of student activism on campus. When you are chosen to visit NTU, you will find a cup rental system, which has been planned and organised while I was there, and it was also initiated, too, by one of the (obviously) German friend. Hopefully, it will spread through the other Taipei Universities as well. So, make it happen and make use of this system once you’re in Taiwan. There is a lot of plastic waste in Taiwan, I was shocked, so be prepared!
Although the university offers accommodation, I would not recommend to live in those buildings.
First, the administration is very complicated and they require you to pay the transaction costs to reserve the room (deposit + 1 month rent), while they will pay you the deposit back in cash when you leave Taiwan. Secondly, the climate is very international and you hardly meet Taiwanese students. Third, the buildings are gender separated and you are not allowed to drink and smoke on territory, nor are you allowed to have someone stay overnight in your room. They are very strict about this, and can you kick out without refund. There are rooms at similar pricing (140 – 250€) available in shared apartments in the same part of the city (Gongguan). If you decided to take a room at the dorm, take the normal room without a kitchen. Since, Asia generally is known for their street food, Taiwan is no exception, eating out is very cheap. Most of the time cheaper than buying food in the supermarkets. A plate of 10 dumplings or a big bowl of noodles can cost only NT$ 50 (1,40€), and they’re delicious. There is this guy called Papa Le, close to the shop with the best Bubble Tea, eat there! Also some part of the nightlife is in Gongguan.
Finally, I would greatly recommend the program to students from RUG that are interested to learn more about non-European cultures while also wanting to obtain a good quality education with beautiful facilities and friendly teachers and staff.
