Day 4 reflections

Today is different from the past few days in Taiwan. Instead of heading to local attractions, we went to the National Tsing Hua University for an immersion program, to learn more about Mathematics. There, we learnt more about the university system in Taiwan, about how certain modules have to be taken and a certain number of courses needed to pass the year and graduate in a certain faculty. In a way, the system is very similar to that in Singapore, as in Singapore, there are also a certain number of credits needed to pass the major that is chosen. It was a surprise to find out that there is no need for students to attend lectures in Taiwan university, as long as the students pass the course, the teacher would not care if the student attended the lecture or not. After that, we were also told that this was the same in Singapore universities. I didn't know about this fact before and thus found it very interesting.

We also learnt more about the Games Theory, whereby logic and knowledge is needed for a best solution to be achieved. An example is the "prisoners dilemma". It was fun to try to think as other people in a set situation. Lastly, at a large tuition centre in Taiwan, I found out that the tuition classes were at a very large scale. As many as 300 and more students attend a same class, like a mass lecture. I was really shocked, as tuition centres in Singapore emphasize a lot on small class sizes. In fact, most tuition centres in Singapore only hold classes of around 20-30 students, and not 10 times as much, like in Taiwan. The students in Taiwan are also very diligent and seem to pay much attention in the big lecture classroom.

One thing I am still unsure of was the mathematical part of the lecture held in the university. The topic taught by a student younger than us was a complicated topic, and even though it was taught in English, I did not really understand the gist of the topic. Another thing is that I wonder how the students do cope with such tuition, tuition homework and school all at the same time.

The tuition centre that we visited was a very interesting visit, as I have never really taken tours around such a large tuition centre before. It was also very surprising to look at all the facilities prepared for the students in the tuition centre, and realize that the Taiwanese do their best to give a best study environment for the students, very much different from in Singapore.