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Photo Essay: CET Taiwan

Photos by Nicola Kalderash (University of Washington), Student Correspondent CET Taiwan Summer 2019

Hello and welcome back to my second to the last blog from Taiwan! I can’t believe that my time here is almost coming to an end! I figured today would mostly focus on some photos of my “real life” here. I mean it’s great showing all the fun and exploring we have the chance to do here but there is definitely a rigorous program here also! As you know in this program, there is an internship component which allows you the opportunity to practice your Mandarin in a real work setting which is extremely helpful.

I interned at YPCloud. An up and coming technology company that focuses on cloud technology. This was awesome because even though I’m here studying Chinese, I’m actually a tech major. My dual majors are Informatics and International Studies. This is one of the three offices that YPCloud has in the Taiwan World Trade Center. There is a lot of fun stuff nearby, including Taipei 101 right next door!
As mentioned above, here’s the Taiwan World Trade Center again. A huge exhibition hall where I kid you not, as soon as one exhibition ends, they’re tearing down to build-out for the next one. I never saw it empty during my entire internship. Every convention was back to back with one happening or building and tear down. At your internship, you’re required to work a minimum of eighty hours and I was lucky my spot was so conveniently located with many ways to get to it. And there’s Taipei 101 again!
Here is a photo of the majority of the team. Everyone’s role is very important and valued here. It was really neat to get to meet some of these people. Some even were just here for the summer like me and were actually studying abroad in America during the academic year.
As I said earlier, everyone’s experience will vary greatly. Here is me presenting a master copy to Steven the CEO of YPCloud of the SOP I developed. An SOP is basically like a company manual/guide. The SOP I had created was to fill in gaps of missing information to make the company more efficient. So it had information such as what to do in emergencies, dress code, how to optimize code, cybersecurity, work attire, organization chart, performance evaluation, pay information, office information, work behavior, and more. Now, I’m an older student in my mid-20s with many years of working experience and having worked for companies small and large and have a lot of leadership experience as well. I’ve been a manager and project manager, so creating something so dense was within my abilities and I had a company that needed/wanted it. Your experience will probably not be the same and that’s okay. Hopefully, your internship is enjoyable and you get a lot out of it. I did
Although we post a lot of photos and my blog showed how much fun I’m having and exploring that’s when I have time in between the intense classes and my internship. Here’s us studying like madmen. To be successful in this program, anticipate at least three hours of study per day in Chinese on top of your three hours of class. It is a lot and can feel overwhelming and you’ll wanna give up multiple times, but 加油 (Go for it)! Your Mandarin-speaking, listening, and writing will greatly improve.
All the classes are taught in Mandarin and spoken in Mandarin, no matter what your level is. This includes explaining the grammatical structure in Mandarin too. You’d be surprised how quickly your brain will adapt. Oh and yeah you obviously have to answer the questions or talk to your teachers in Mandarin. This is Wang LaoShi. She’s the best!
Here is a schedule of the class. Here the syllabus is given weekly to you and you need to study what’s listed on that day, the day BEFORE. Concepts are expected to be self-taught prior and you formally learn the subject in class. Meaning if you don’t study you’re gonna be miserable and get potential anxiety, because guess what, you have a 1-on-1 class and your other classes have no more than 3 other students, so YOU WILL be called on. For me, it happened a few times in the beginning and it was torture, it taught me real quick, and you feel like you’re disappointing your teacher for real. Live and learn.
And in conclusion for today’s post, let’s talk about food. If you’re American, I got some good news, the U.S dollar goes far out here. The food is cheap. You can eat well. 30 National Taiwanese Dollars is equal to 1 US dollar. And to give you perspective, you can buy some 包子 (Steamed/Fried Bun with or without meat) on the street for 25NTD and in a restaurant for like 90NTD. So you can easily have three meals a day here for like $20 total. Of course, it is the capital city and you can find glorious and tasty expensive food too. Choose your own adventure. I got this personal hot pot with juice for 190NTD or $6.

Well guys, thanks for joining me here today. There will be one more post before I say goodbye and also go home shortly. Time goes fast when you’re having fun and stressed about your Mandarin. Haha.

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Cover photo caption: Here’s a photo of me from my last day at my internship giving a company-wide presentation on the standard operations of procedure (SOP) that I created and issued to my internship. Everyone’s mileage will vary on what kind of experience they will get from their internship and what they can deliver. More on that in a bit.

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