Parkland High School students in Latin 3 and 4 participated in a cultural exchange with Taoyuan Municipal Yang Ming High School in Taiwan this spring.

Students selected this project from among the more than 100 available on the International Education and Research Network platform.

Projects based on the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals are featured on the site.

Teachers and students who are interested, join the project group and then interact on the site’s forum, providing real life perspectives.

This feature allows teachers from other countries to connect and to collaborate.

Many projects use English as the language of communication but there are some which use Spanish or French, for example.

The Cultural Exchange Packet Project allows for either a physical or virtual exchange with a partner school.

Parkland students opted to do a physical exchange packet.

After posting a request, this reporter and Latin teacher, Mary Redline, received a response from Charles Ku, an 11th grade English teacher, at Taoyuan Municipal Yang Ming High School, a school of about 2,300 students in Taoyuan City, Taiwan.

Ku worked with three other English teachers on this project as an engaging way for their students to practice English skills and to learn more about the United States.

Parkland students were eager to learn about life and culture in Taiwan.

Thus, on both sides of the Pacific Ocean, items typical of their culture or representative of student life were chosen as they prepared an exchange box.

The worldwide pandemic, however, altered the timeline of the project.

Schools in Taiwan closed in February for two weeks and, then on March 16, schools in Pennsylvania also closed for two weeks and subsequently for the remainder of the year.

Just before the closure, Parkland students had assembled their box with items they thought would be of interest to the students in Taiwan.

These included a school calendar, course description booklet, student activities booklet, school newspaper, children’s books for learning words or information about each state, sample food items (Oreos, Pop Tarts, chewing gum, Jell-O packs, Doritos, Gertrude Hawk chocolate bars), a deck of playing cards, a Cat’s Meow (wooden cutout) of Parkland High School, American coins and an explanation of their symbolism.

Ku and Redline mailed the packages on March 12 and March 14, respectively.

Postage to Taiwan was $87, courtesy of the Parkland High School Latin Club, and the package, mirabile dictu, arrived March 23.

The Taiwanese package came after the school closure. It was not until May that Redline was permitted to enter the school building to retrieve it.

While students in Taiwan enjoyed the grand opening of the exchange box in class, Parkland students had their grand opening via Zoom.

Each of the four teachers and their students had prepared a separate portion of the packages within the large box.

The package contained many interesting items, including various cookies and snacks, chop sticks, good luck lanterns and a cut out of Taiwan, supplies for writing in Chinese characters, sandals, reusable shopping bags, a box of loose-leaf tea and dried melon cubes (to be dissolved in water for a refreshing beverage), paper money for the dead, and a bottle of a floral perfume (also used for deodorant and other purposes) whose formula dates to 1907.

From this box, Redline then created sampler containers of the food items so students could experience an actual taste test.

Latin 4 students were delighted to get a package in the mail and compared notes at the next Zoom meeting about their samples and additional questions they had for their counterparts in Taiwan.

Meanwhile, Ku’s students posted their feedback on the American exchange package on iEARN’s practice group and Parkland students could post a response.

For example, Taiwanese students thought the Cat’s Meow was some sort of paperweight or surmised a Richard Scary children’s book was a Native American story.

Parkland students had difficulty identifying some items as well, as they were not familiar and, in some cases, their labels were written exclusively in Chinese.

Learning about the items led to understanding better how the selected items represented the culture and customs.

The culmination of the project was a real time Zoom meeting May 27 for American students and May 28 for Taiwanese students because of the 12-hour time difference.

Parkland students participated from home from 9-10 p.m. with the Yang Ming High School students during their class period.

When Zach A. appeared on the screen, a group of girls started screaming.

The Parkland students were confused at first, but then Miss Miriam [Huang] explained,

“The girls think you are so handsome, Zach.”

It was obvious students in Taiwan had prepared careful answers to the Latin students’ previously submitted questions as groups of students came to the microphone to share their responses.

Parkland students learned about the two school uniforms, dress and athletic, as well as their reaction to American food items.

Students there did not like the Pop Tarts. They were too sweet but the Gertrude Hawk chocolate bars were a hit.

Near the end of the exchange, students who wanted to shared their Instagram handles so they could keep in touch.

Some of the Parkland students reported the conversations continued long after the Zoom session concluded.

Working on an iEARN project during e-Learning was an ideal way for students to have a real-life experience with students across the globe.

At the concluding Zoom meeting, Parkland students shared items learned.

Jill B. was surprised the students there considered it easier to learn English than Chinese characters.

Andrew S. was impressed with how prepared and organized the students were for the virtual meeting.

Carlie P. noted students there go to school until 5 p.m. each day.

This year, the students will also have to make up the two weeks they missed in February, meaning their school year will end July 15.

Some students were amazed it could be two different days at the same time in different parts of the world.

All the students were impressed with how well the students at Yang Ming High School had learned English.

Ga Young L. commented on how students addressed teachers, by a title and first name, e.g., Miss Miriam.

And, Eric H. provided the insight that despite the different countries and customs, students in Taiwan were very much like us.

Redline was deeply touched by the enthusiasm. Miss Miriam was so excited she couldn’t sleep past 4 a.m. on the day of the trial Zoom run. She was also impressed by the preparation her colleagues in Taiwan exhibited.

Their commitment and encouragement made this project a positive highlight of the school year.

Although no one could not have foreseen the circumstances of how the project would unfold, the lessons learned and the friendships made will last a lifetime.