Expatriate Division, Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

To enrich the teaching staff of overseas Chinese schools, the OCAC actively promotes youth who apply for Substitute Service to serve overseas. Huang, Shancheng and Hsiao, Yuchuan, both graduates of National Taipei University of Education and qualified teachers with teaching certificates, applied for the Overseas Chinese Education Substitute Services and served at Jingxin Chinese School in Chiang Rai, Northern Thailand for nearly a year. They applied the educational knowledge they learned in Taiwan to overseas teaching, not only bringing richer learning experiences to local students but also adding valuable overseas service memories to their own lives.

Huang, Shancheng and Hsiao, Yuchuan, stated that teaching in Northern Thailand is a challenging yet rewarding job. Since the students' native language is not Chinese and their ethnic backgrounds are complex, they must constantly adjust their teaching methods to make it easier for students to understand. Huang, Shancheng shared that he designed many interactive teaching activities by observing students' interests, successfully stimulating students' learning motivation. For example, he found that one student was particularly interested in origami, so he incorporated origami into his teaching, allowing the student to have fun while learning. He also introduced the concept of board games into learning, making learning more than just memorization.

Hsiao, Yuchuan mentioned that due to cultural and language differences, classroom management is a more challenging aspect of overseas teaching. Faced with students' disobedience in class or off-track behavior outside the classroom, they listen and understand the students more under basic regulations. For example, they communicated with parents through home visits, designed a two-way communication mechanism for contact books, encouraged students to learn together, and gradually improved classroom order and student adaptation issues.

Speaking of this overseas teaching experience, both of them said that cross-cultural teaching was very different from their teaching experience in Taiwan, and they gained a lot of insights and inspiration. They encouraged young people who aspire to work in education to seize the opportunity and apply for teaching service at overseas Chinese schools. In the future, they will also apply the relevant experience to the domestic elementary schools where they teach, helping students learn to respect different cultures and increase opportunities for cross-cultural exchange.