Chapter 78 Section 2 The Beginning of Cultural Exchange

In the early summer of 1956, I taught full-time at Taichung No. 1 Middle School for three years, and was awarded the "U.S. State Department Exchange Teacher Program" grant. In September, I went to the United States to study English teaching for a semester, and traveled for half a year. At that time, I was already in college It's been nine years since I graduated. The Fulbright Cultural Exchange Act was the most successful international peace promotion program in the United States since the end of World War II.Senator Fulbright of the Foreign Relations Committee proposed in 1946 that American cultural figures and educational and cultural representatives from various countries should be selected to conduct mutual visits. Through the exchanges of different cultures, heal the pain of war and promote world peace.Over fifty years.The exchange of visitors between Taiwan and the United States alone has exceeded 10,000 people.The number of invitees from all over the world is dozens of times higher than this, and it is the most far-reaching program of American cultural diplomacy.I have been engaged in literary exchange work all my life, which should have made a good start.

At that time, the selection in Taiwan was sponsored by the U.S. Information Service. Like students taking a test, some rectangular wooden tables were set up, and seventy-two qualified teachers sat around to write English compositions and answer many questions.After passing the primary selection, there is also an individual interview with a five-person interview panel.One of the questions that I least expected was that MiSS Whipple, the US News Director at the time, asked me, "You have three children so young at home, will your husband let you go?" In addition, in a moment of quick wit, I added a sentence, My husband encourages me to go, He is a domesticate dman. , (my husband encouraged me to go, he is a family man).This answer caused everyone to laugh, which probably helped me a lot in scoring.In the 1950s, feminist movements around the world were just emerging, and the term "family man" was just a dream for them.But I just read a report in Time, the only weekly English magazine in the library of Taichung No. 1 Middle School. I was deeply impressed by the concept of "domesticated man". It is a good example of the English part of speech change that I am most interested in. .However, if this question is two years late, I will not be able to answer it in this way.Because he has retired after more than 20 years since he devoted himself to the construction of the railway CTC, he rarely spends time at home.

After the war, when the Republic of China moved to Taiwan, life in the province was very hard. Many children did not have school shoes, and electric fans in summer were a luxury.The United States is on the other side of the Pacific Ocean. It is the hometown of MacArthur and Chennault, the heroes of World War II. It is a distant and beautiful dream land, and sightseeing is just a word in the dictionary.Now that I have been admitted to the scholarship of this exchange program, it is indeed a dream come true. I have obtained a passport, a visa, which is difficult for ordinary people to apply for, and the best arrangement for future professional training.On the night when I arrived in Washington, I sat in front of an eighteenth-floor window, feeling agitated by all the illusions.

The exchange teachers in my class (both universities and middle schools) come from more than 20 countries, with the most in Europe and South America. Iran and Japan each have four people (maybe they need peaceful exchanges most?), and the only one is South Korea Gao Yunan, a lecturer at Ewha University, and me from Taiwan.We first received ten days of briefings and training in Washington DC, and the host was Mr. Shamlin, a commissioner of the US State Department.He made many incisive and humorous comparisons about the differences between American life concepts and ways and those of our countries. I admire his intellectual attitude of serving the country.

Next, we were sent to the English teaching training of Ann ArbOr at the University of Michigan, and we took two and a half months of classes. We were glad to catch up with the last class of the founder Dr Fries before he retired, and heard his views on improving English grammar. .We, more than 30 people, get along day and night, and we have a lot of time to communicate and understand each other's national culture, and we also have a fairly in-depth understanding.As I was arranged to live with different host families, I was able to experience the American way of life firsthand. I lived in the home of Dr. Albert Wheeler, a professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Michigan. That was the first time I saw a high-educated black family in the United States.His university nickname is Dr. Sunshine (Dr.SUnshine).In the 1960s, I read in Time magazine that he was a candidate for the Nobel Prize in Biology.During the period when I lived in their house, he and his wife treated me very well, talked with me about many black and white race issues, and answered many of my cultural questions.Dr. King is already their good friend. He is also the earliest founder of the "American Association for the Advancement of Colored People" in Michigan. He served as the mayor of Ann Arbor in the 1970s. A park in the city was later named after him. .During language teaching weekends, we visited the auto industry, farms in the Midwest, watched several football games, and even learned to shout for Michigan oil.

Leaving the cold state of Michigan in the winter of that year, I chose to go to the colder state of Wyoming to practice teaching and try Dr. Fries's new grammar.Everyone was surprised why I made that choice.One is because my little sister was studying in neighboring Utah (Utah), and the other is because I want to experience the severe cold conditions of my hometown (the three eastern provinces) that I have never been back to.People in Wyoming welcomed me, a rare Chinese woman, very warmly. Some ranch owners took me to see their desert ranch. One old gentleman said that they moved to a new ranch fifty miles away from the neighbor, and it was too crowded.During those three months, the weather was always below minus 10 degrees, and the comfort of the indoor facilities, the normality of life, and even the joyousness fully demonstrated the American spirit. Sometimes it reminded me of my father's half-life struggle for his hometown.One day when the temperature dropped to minus 40 degrees, I got out of the car and walked to experience the beauty of "ice and snow". Within five minutes, I was overtaken by a police car and escorted back to the room to "avoid stupid death".

At the end of the visit, more than 30 of us returned to Washington, where we gathered for a discussion and described our experiences and feelings, and we were reluctant to say goodbye.From the eastern part of the United States, I took the famous sightseeing train "California Spring Breeze" across the central states of the United States to San Francisco on the west coast. Along the way, I saw the magnificent mountains and rivers of the United States and the different scenery of each state. It was an eye-opening trip. In the spring of 1957, after completing the Fulbright exchange program, I flew back to Taiwan.On the plane back to Taiwan, an old American gentleman sitting next to me asked me many questions about Taiwan, and I answered them to the best of my knowledge.Before he got off the plane, he gave me a business card: Dr. Anderson (Dr. AndersOn, president of American UniVerSity). After returning to Taiwan, I returned to teach in Taichung No. 1 Middle School. The Minister of Education at that time was Mr. Zhang Qijun. Once he When I came to Taichung, I informed the principal of Taichung No. 1 Middle School, Song Xinmin, that he would summon teacher Qi Bangyuan. At that time, only people with status took a tricycle. The principal was very excited and took me to see the Minister of Education in his official tricycle. Minister Zhang said to me: " Principal Anderson mentioned you several times in his speeches, and he praised you very much, saying that your middle school teachers in Taiwan are of a very high level, and the Ministry of Education hopes that you will work in the International Cultural and Educational Office." After I returned home, I discussed with my husband and father, and it was as I expected. They didn’t agree. Later, the Minister of Education sent another letter, saying that if I wanted, he could help and transfer my husband’s work to Taipei, but he is not willing to accept such an arrangement. I wrote back and said that Zhiqi was teaching. And reading, thank you for his kindness.