I am an exchange student now, and I am from Taiwan. Why do I want to be an exchange student? To improve my English. I also want to experience American culture and education because most people in Taiwan have beautiful imaginations about life in the United States, but we can only imagine it by watching movies and social media. 

Compared to Eastern education, Western education always gives students more time to explore themselves. I think there are good and bad ways of education in the East. The crammed education allows you to absorb knowledge quickly, so that we can do well in mathematics, physics, chemistry and similar subjects. The problem is with classes like history, literature and democracy, which need more thoughts and reflections, but cramming education makes us unable to do so. 

In my high school we weren’t allowed to use cell phones, and they were taken away from us upon entering the classroom. They weren’t given back until the end of the school day. In the classroom, everyone is quiet. We are required to take notes, write down key points, and go home to review and prepare for an exam. 

I like Mission High School. People are very welcoming and teachers are also very nice.  I haven’t been to any other high school in America, so I cannot contrast the difference between schools in America. 

Compared to my high school in Taiwan, there are big differences, such as time. I studied at a private high school, so the time was different from other schools. I spent most of my time in school studying from 7:30 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Sometimes close to a big exam, I also needed to go to school on Saturday and Sunday.

Here I have a lot of time to do things I am interested in, such as clubs and sports teams. I am very happy to be able to study here. There is not much pressure from schoolwork, but at the same time I also learn a lot of useful knowledge. I’m going to enjoy this year.