Pia Lin: Bringing the World to Taiwan
Name: Pia Lin
Occupation: Founder – The World in Your Classroom – Taiwan
University: Taiwan Normal University
Major: English
In Vine Education’s Career Profile, we ask business leaders all about success— from the best advice they have received to what skills attribute to their success or continued search for success. Here, The World In Your Classroom’s Tia Lin talks about how she turned her passion side business into an organization that reaches thounsands of children across Taiwan.
Foreigners living in Taiwan are very lucky. Many strangers treat foreigners very nice, sometimes nicer than they treat other Taiwanese people. The truth is that Taiwanese people are tying to make things easier for foreigners because they know this is not their land. The culture here is different than the culture in their country. This is what we call a “culture barrier”. Pia Lin, is a wonderful teacher who has been trying to breakdown the culture barrier between Taiwanese and foreigners. She is the founder of The World In Your Classroom – Taiwan, a non-profit organization. They aim to match foreigners living in Taiwan with the opportunity to volunteer in local schools and to let Taiwanese students learn foreign culture. She also hosts a wonderul podcast (Subscribe to her Podcast) where she shares more culture stories.
We invited her to share her experience and insight on how to be successful.
What is a normal day like at work for you?
This is my side business, but I treat it like my main business. In fact, this is a joint initiative by a group of young people who are passionate about international education. The six of us have a regular Nine-to-Five job on weekdays. Tweeting, planning meetings, events, admin stuff; that’s all done during our off time. But this off-hours work is our true passion!
What skills contributed to your success?
When promoting this kind of cross-cultural communication activities, the most important skill to have is good communication, followed by good lesson planning. As the founder of this NPO, I have always embraced activities that help students understanding of the world around us. The stories shared by our volunteers can have an impact on the outside of Taiwan.
Curiosity, however, is very difficult to stimulate in students. One thing we have to do is help teachers and foreign volunteers understand that this is not an English class, but a story class, a story about the volunteers’ culture. This is where lesson planning is important. We have to consider What questions to ask or what activities the teacher should do to make the lesson more interactive. Basically we have to see how volunteers can introduce their own culture and their stories in an organized manner.
We must do a lot of three-way communication between our organization, teachers, and volunteers such as providing lesson plans and shared best practices. This is most useful because not all volunteers are professional teachers. For me, having multi-directional communication skills not only helps me solve problems faster in the workplace but also improve the program’s effectiveness. In this manner students are able to get a deeper understanding of foreign cultures.
What advice do you wish someone had given you when you were younger?
What I wanted to say is that I should have gotten multiple internships at various companies and meet different people, or look for more opportunities to study abroad. But really I would tell myself to exercise more! It’s a habit I want to develop even now. I realize that as you get older finding time to exercise is more and more difficult but it’s a necessary habit! No matter how big your ambition is, no matter what you accomplish, it’s useless without good health.
P. What does being professional mean to you?
It is a sense of responsibility! Especially when you know that there aren’t many organizations in Taiwan connecting foreign residents and Taiwanese schools. You have an infinite sense of responsibility and devotion to try harder. For us, this isn’t about making money as there is very little money in this field, but there a tremendous amount of fulfillment.
O. Who inspires you?
We have received so much positive feedback over the past four years. One students once wrote to : “Thank you for this opportunity. This is the first time I have spoken to a Muslim person.” This short sentence may not mean a lot to most people but to me it means that we are allowing Taiwanese students to have many first cross-cultural experiences: the first time to eat Indian dishes, the first time to play musical instruments with the people of Saint Nevis, or the first time we break certain stereotypes like French being romantic or German history is more than just Hitler and Nazis. All the feedback we receive helps me believe that what we are doing is something truly meaningful
W. What does success mean to you?
To me, success means giving back to the society. No matter who you help, no matter what form, no matter how many people, as long as it is helpful to a someone, you will succeed.
E. What makes you smile or happy at work?
Seeing my team members work hard for themselves and for Taiwanese Education, constantly improving our process every year, enhancing our curriculum, and being able to be persistent even when we encounter difficulties, it to it even when there is friction, it is happy for me! Without them five, the association could not have been where it is today.
R. What skill do you wish you had? What is something you want to learn?
Rather than learning, I wish I was more diligent. At the moment I want to develop our marketing. I hope that the stories of our foreign volunteers can be shared with more students online. I believe that stories can move humanity and inspire change in people. I am hoping to cooperate with more educational institutions or international exchange organizations to recruit more foreign volunteers.
What advice would you give others who want to develop themselves?
There is this movie called We Bought a Zoo. In it they say:
“You know, sometimes all you need is 20 seconds of insane courage, just literally 20 seconds of embarrassing bravery, and I promise you something great will come of it.”
It is a good thing to develop yourself and it starts with execution. You must first try it. “Even if you fall on your face, you’re still moving forward”, the important thing is process.
This interview has been translated and condensed for clarity.
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