by Dylan Wilson

From the Archives: this blog post is taken from a student exchange report from 2019

I find it hard to detail my excitement in venturing through Taipei for the first time, a land very distant from that of Hamilton, New Zealand. I choose Taiwan for the same reasons I have fallen in love with Taiwan, it is the challenge that comes with living in a foreign city, where the people speak a completely different language and live a completely different lifestyle.

But don’t worry, exchange is great because you are not alone, you’ll have over fifty students all in the same boat as you, with the same goals of seeking new experiences through travel and meeting new people. As the only Kiwi, it was great to make new mates from all over the world, such as U.S, Canada, Finland, Germany, France, Poland, Norway, Italy and heaps more!

Taipei is the capital city of the small island of Taiwan, which is just of the coast of China. The people primarily speak Mandarin, so it’s great if you’d like to learn the language, however, lots of people, especially youth can speak basic English. Taiwanese people are also extremely friendly! Any difficulty you find yourself in they will more than likely be willing to help or find someone who can! Importantly, Taiwan is a free, democracy with a generally liberal population and internet access is not limited like the Mainland of China.
Taipei is an awesome place to live. Before coming out to Taiwan, I was worried I wouldn’t
get my nature fix and become suffocated by the madness of big city life. But it is not like
that at all, the university is located in the South of the city, encircled by lush bush, filled with tea houses and easy walks aplenty.

The university itself and the course options are easy to choose once you are over here, with the school providing lots of time to confirm your class choice, so don’t stress as from NZ the course curriculum can be quite hard to navigate. Be sure to also double check that the course is offered in English as they have on offer both exchange study courses and course with local students. I would recommend that you look to some of each as the exchange student courses lectures are familiar with the priorities of exchange students and courses with local students is the perfect chance to become mates with Taiwanese students too.

Another piece of advice, is to make the most of the student exchange events and activities. International Youth (IY) is the NCCU version of our Study Abroad Network (SAN), whose purpose is make the internationals students feel welcome in Taiwan. They run several events, one day trip and one weekend trip. I personally went to almost all the events as it’s a great chance to hang out with local students and also lots of fun!