Lola Fregoso, Asian studies major and 2023-24 CAPS student assistant

在台北留學的經驗 – My Study Abroad Experience

This past summer contained some of the most unforgettable experiences of my life. As I’m sure that studying abroad is a dream of many students, I am happy to say that I was given the privilege to make this dream into my own reality by attending the ICLP (International Chinese Language Program).

Living in Taiwan – an island with a subtropical climate and enough mosquitos to eat you alive – for two and a half months during the hottest and most humid time of the year was definitely not an item on my bucket list, but if I could go back and do it again I wouldn’t change a single thing. 

I must say that Taiwanese people are generally some of the most welcoming people, even more so when they find out that you can speak their language. With Taipei being a high-volume tourist city, I am sure that shopkeepers and restaurant staff must deal with a lot of very confused foreigners, and their glee over being able to communicate in their own tongue can be infectious. I quickly became very good at explaining that I was a “liú xuéshēng” or study-abroad student attending a program at National Taiwan University.

Every weekday, I attended four hours of class taught exclusively in Chinese – speaking English was prohibited while in the ICLP building. Along with the time spent on campus, I also spent about three to five hours a day studying and preparing for my classes. Short to say, I was learning Chinese in hard-mode. However, my friends and I still managed to make time to visit as many night markets, nature sites, and other attractions as we possibly could during our brief time in the country. We visited the Taipei Zoo (the biggest zoo in Asia), the Taipei 101 (the tallest building in Taipei and briefly the tallest building in the world), the National Palace Museum that holds some of the country’s most precious historical artifacts, and much more. If anyone is looking for a reason to travel to Taiwan (or Asia for that matter) this is your sign. This summer of 2024 has been the best of my entire life. 

Beitou Hot Springs

Me with my 16 textbooks assigned for four classes