What I Learned From A 19-year-old Boy
In the last two years, I worked for a Swiss company. Every summer, the headquarter of our company provides opportunities for Swiss students to have an internship in Taiwan.
Jan and Markus, two 19-year-old Swiss boys, came to Taiwan last year. I took the opportunity to introduce Taiwan to them, and we went to Elephant Mountain, night markets, and National Palace Museum.
It was a culture shock when we talked about our ways of life. Jan told me that they could either start a job or join other schools for further education after the apprenticeship.
*Most kids start an apprenticeship after they graduated from elementary school.
Another culture shock for me was that they moved out of parents’ house when they started an apprenticeship. That is, they had lived without parents since they were 16. On the other hand, most Taiwanese lived with parents until getting married. (It was also a culture shock for these two Swiss boys.)
Before having a conversation with them, I thought that it was dangerous to live without parents at such a young age. However, I realized it was also a really good opportunity to learn how to live on your own.
Most teenagers in Taiwan, like me, rely on parents too much sometimes. Thus, we couldn’t see the world through our eyes and don’t know how to make a decision for ourselves. It’s usual to hear a reason ‘My parents told me to do that.’ when asking why. Although it takes a long time to change education and thought in Taiwan, I will change myself first.
