A Nice Encounter with Konraad

Today my classes had a special guest, Konraad, nicknamed K. K talked to two of the classes for one hour respectively and one for two hours. From the students' response, I knew they loved to have the chance to really use English to communicate with a native speaker. Hopefully, the students was impressed with the power of English. Besides practicing English, the students also learned positive attitude toward life.

The following are notes of part of the interactive chat. I'll post some photos on this entry later.

1. K Compared high school life in the US with that in Taiwan
In the US, students arrived at school at 8:30, and left at 2:30. After school, they spend much of their time doing sports and extracurricular activities.

2. In the US, the criteria for students to get into a college varies from school to school. For some, SAT may account for 60%, school scores 20%, and extracuricular activities and others 20%

3. When asked what aspect of Taiwanese culture impresses him most, K said it's Taiwan's festivals.

4. K said if he could go back to years ago, he would work on more languages, like French

5. The best way to learn English is to be exposed to as much English as possible. Watching videos like Friends helps learn English, too.

6. Have positive thinking so that positive things will come to you. If you always focus on something negative, you’ll miss good things.

7. When looking for a part-time job, besides making money to support yourself in some way, take into consideration if you can learn something which is related to your future job .

8. One important thing to learn in college is how to talk to people and how to present yourself to the public; in a wrod, communication.

9. Find what you enjoy doing and do it well.

10. When it comes to choosing a major in college, opt for what you are interested in instead of worrying about your future job.

11. When asked about how to date a girl, K said all you need to do is ask her out and do something fun. Also, you can say something so that she knows that you like her.

12. When asked why he came to Taiwan, K answwered after he graduated from college, he wanted to go to some place different from the US. He chose Taiwan. At first, he intended to stay for just one year. However, one year turned into two years, and then two years turned into four years. Finally he has stayed here for about 11 years. Well, no one can predict what will happen, right?

Dear Konraad, thank you for the interesting and thought-provoking talk.