Ashley Clark graduated in 2019 with BA in Comparative Studies and a minor in South Asia Studies. Below is a reflection of her time in Taiwan:

A year ago, I only knew Taiwan as a settler-colony, a small island quite near to southeastern China. I had no idea how friendly the people here would be or how beautiful this country is. Taiwan has the largest number and density of high mountains in the world. As a result, the island is sprinkled with waterfalls and hot springs. Taiwan is also one of the safest countries in the world, I can walk alone at night without stress and explore the city on a bike that I can keep without a lock.

I am now in my third semester, my eighth month of studying Mandarin and living in Taipei, the largest city here, located in northern Taiwan. Both the Taiwanese and foreigner communities have amazed me with their kindness and willingness to welcome people into their communities and to create friendships. I came here originally on a “workaway,” where I was volunteering for a co-living space in exchange for free housing while studying in an intensive language program. I have since stopped volunteering and instead tutor English for income.

When it comes to learning languages and cultures, I find that embodied experience is just as important if not more important than classroom experience. With this in mind, I try to find opportunities to meet people and practice my Mandarin here. For a few months now, I have been visiting a tea shop where I have befriended the manager, who teaches me about tea. We’ll chat for hours over tea about tea culture and tea ceremonies. I get to practice my Mandarin and he gets to practice his English, all in the context of tea and sharing stories with each other.

For these experiences, I am endlessly thankful for the Huayu Enrichment scholarship, which allowed me to travel to Taiwan to study. In spring 2019, I applied for the scholarship, provided by the Taiwanese Ministry of Education (MOE) for foreigners all over the world to come to Taiwan to study Mandarin Chinese. It is not required to have a background in Mandarin, although I did take the language for three semesters at OSU. You can choose an intensive Mandarin language program out of a list of selected programs. The MOE simply provides the funding. I was granted funding for six months, which has since ended, but I continue to extend my stay. I have found it possible to support my tuition and living expenses by tutoring English part-time and using what is left of my scholarship money. Later, when the now precarious borders open up again, I would like to travel and work on an organic farm to learn about local environmental practices, permaculture, and to get more hands-on experience with both the cultures and languages here.

My plan is to continue on to graduate school for a PhD in cultural anthropology with a focus on the environment in Mandarin-speaking areas. Many cultural anthropology programs require competency in a second language, so learning Mandarin is essential to my future studies. I had previously participated in a summer global leadership program through the Global Gateways office at OSU and a semester-long study abroad program through CIEE to India. My program to China lasted three weeks, but I decided to stay an additional two months to travel by myself. Traveling by myself forced me to learn a lot of language skills in a short period of time and taught me a lot about traveling on my own. It has been a goal of mine to go back to China to travel ever since. I definitely found that studying abroad through a program was helpful to easing into living abroad after graduation.

I am happy to answer any questions anyone may have about the scholarship, Taiwan, or volunteer work in East Asia. I can be reached at clark.2704@osu.edu.