Taiwan Hostfamily Program, which is one of the overseas students supporting programs from the MOE, held a multicultural event on November 14th. In the event, a new publicity film of the program was released. Also, students from Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines and Peru were invited to attend communication of international culture. There were 25 members of the host family and 35 overseas students who attend this event. Atmosphere of the activity was lively and warm.

To support overseas students, MOE has put effort on the Taiwan Hostfamily Program since 2010. This program arranges overseas students with host families in Taiwan. By leading and helping from these families, these overseas students from distinct countries are able to adapt and discover their life in Taiwan easily. As a result, MOE hopes that the program can make these international students have a better experience when they study in Taiwan. Until 2020, this program has supported 32 colleges to establish the process of host families for overseas students and has  succeeded in providing more than 3,000 host families for 6,042 overseas students from 104 countries. Overall, there are 4.397 host families have accomplished the training of the program.

The multicultural event in November was revealed by the publicity song being sung by 5 foreign students. The music video described the story of foreign students, including their desolation and anxiety when they came to Taiwan. By supporting from their host families, they felt kindness and warmth here. Therefore, they were able to take Taiwan as their second hometown. At the end of the clip, ‘Oh! I’m not alone. Taiwan is my second hometown’ scripts in Indonesian made every participant feel pleasure.

On the other hand, the members of international students and host families presented the traditional dances of Thailand, Peru and the Philippines and also the performance of traditional instruments of Bengal together. At the end of the performance, the indigenous club of Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology provided a Taiwan traditional indigenous dance as a perfect ending. The indigenous dancers invited the participant to join the dance. All the members held their hand as a circle, showing a connection between Taiwan and the world.

In the communication section, Harshad Dandage, an Indian student of the STUST shared his experience that his host family introduced him to other foreign students. ‘By this opportunity, I made a lot of friends from all around the world. They are my family here’ he said.

The Taiwan Hostfamily Program provides an opportunity that allows residents in Taiwan to know different cultures from other countries. We hope that more and more Taiwanefamilies can welcome overseas students, and that Taiwan can become a better bilingual environment to connect the world. 




https://www.edu.tw/News_Content.aspx?n=9E7AC85F1954DDA8&sms=169B8E91BB75571F&s=233DA6115276E57D
Translated by Matt Liao