Working Holiday in New Zealand
紐西蘭打工度假
打工度假，顧名思義就是在一段長途旅行或度假中，可以同時合法工作得到收入，只要年齡介於18~35歲之間，符合各個國家簽證申請標準，加上一顆勇於冒險跳脫舒適圈的心，打工度假將會在你人生寫下截然不同的精采故事！而我，在2016~2017間，選擇了紐西蘭為我人生第一個打工度假！我將把我的經驗簡單地分成三部分，從先前準備，到使用英語上的困境，最後我想分享打工度假帶給我什麼。
在正式出發打工度假前，我大概準備一年多。在財力部分，我努力工作，確保自己夠負擔紐西蘭來回機票、簽證費用、打工度假生活必需品以及足夠的錢支持我到找到第一份工作。在簽證申請部分，我光顧好幾次紐西蘭移民局網頁，確保我符合一切申請標準，並且填寫所有線上表格。另外我也瀏覽許多有經驗的網友分享的文章，從而得知旅程開始後有可能遇到的困難和問題，以及網友們的建議，讓我大概有個心理準備。
英語帶給我最大的困境莫過於我無法正確或流暢的表達我的思想，畢竟我生長在一個重視紙上分數大於實際運用的教育體系下。還記得在紐西蘭的某一天，我遺失了錢包，在無可奈何之下我撥了電話到當地警察局，電話那頭耐心等著我報告狀況，而在我腦袋裡有好多單字飛來飛去，卻遲遲無法完整的拼湊出一個句子來。這讓我嚴重意識到，能否有效運用英文表達自己遠遠比紙上分數多高還要重要!
打工度假不僅帶給我與以往不同的生活方式，也讓我心靈成長許多!在紐西蘭的一年多的旅途中，我遇見了好多人，來自不同國家帶著不同背景故事，互相幫忙互相照顧，從中學習到人與人之間最真誠的相處，每一個人都像一塊拼圖，慢慢地在我的打工度假中拼湊出截然不同的故事!而因為生活於異地，所有對周遭事物的認知必須重新來過，去認識和適應新的環境，從居住，到伙食，再到工作，全部從零開始，自己想辦法生存，因此紐西蘭也培養我變成更獨立更負責任的我。
我真心推薦，一生一次打工度假。
Working Holiday in New Zealand
Working Holiday literally means working while travelling. It provides people aging from 18 to 35 (permitted ages varies depending on country) with opportunities to travel overseas while legally working for temporary income. Personally, I had a great Working Holiday in New Zealand from 2016 to 2017 which was a wonderful and marvelous journey in my life. In this article, I am going to break it down into three sections. How I prepared, what struggles or difficulties I had with English and why I consider Working Holiday is unmissable.
Firstly, I had spent one or more year to prepare myself with this long-term journey beforehand. I had worked hard to make sure I could afford flight tickets, Working Holiday VISA , other related essential things and enough saving to making a living .Additionally, I browsed New Zealand immigration websites to ensure that I met all the criteria of VISA application, filling in all the necessary online forms, and then had a look at blogs where I could get reference about any possible problems or difficulties and ways to solve them.
Secondly, speaking skill is probably the most neglected aspect in schools´ conventional teaching. Like most of the students, I had done various English multiple-choice exams and got well marks before I finished school. However, I extremely lacked in speaking skill which played a vitally important role. Take one story for example. I once lost my wallet in New Zealand so I called police for help. Due to lack of practice, I had a hard time expressing what had happened. Nervousness, embarrassment and fear gradually emerging during the conversation. Since then I realized that whether being able to express ideas or thoughts in English is much more important ahead of those marks on the papers.
Finally, I highly recommend having Working Holiday once in life since it not only brought me so many amazing people who I have learnt a lot from and so much fun experience which I would never be able to encounter in Taiwan, but also transformed me become a better and more responsible me. It was unquestionably a fabulous year in my life.
