A Cultural Bridge Between VAS and Taiwan

Since the start of the school year, I’ve been organizing regular culture and language exchange sessions in our Chinese class with two schools in Taiwan. Our secondary students at Riverside and Sunrise are collaborating with National Chiayi Senior High School (CYSH), one of the top schools in Chiayi City. Our primary students at Sala are partnered with Chiapei Elementary School.

Students have introduced themselves in both English and Chinese and shared interesting topics such as “What You Must Try When You Visit Taiwan or Vietnam” and “Our Favorite Stars.” Everyone has actively participated, and we’ve posted our videos and written introductions on Padlet in both languages.

Here are the links to our Padlet pages:

• Primary at Sala: Padlet Link

• Secondary at Sunrise: Padlet Link

• Secondary at Riverside: Padlet Link 1 and Padlet Link 2

The exchange has been so successful that the Chiapei primary schools decided to organize a trip to visit VAS in Vietnam. This Monday, we were excited to welcome 29 guests from Taiwan, including the principal, teachers, parents, and students, to our Sala campus. It was the first visit from our Taiwanese partner schools and a great step toward building cross-cultural understanding.

We are especially thankful to all the VAS teachers, staff, students and the MFL team for their incredible support. The visit wouldn’t have been possible without their hard work!

We hope all of our students will continue to build meaningful connections and deepen their cultural understanding through this exchange.