The Fulbright program sends recent graduates from the United States abroad to conduct scholarly research and to teach English in classrooms around the globe. In Taiwan I teach 3rd-5th grade English at an elementary school in Chiayi County, a mostly rural county in Southern Taiwan. Rural counties in Taiwan generally have less access to resources, such as funding for education, and consequently have lower English proficiency levels than their counterparts in larger urban areas.
One major difference between Taiwan and the United States’ education systems is the prevalence of buxibans, or privately run cram schools that tutor students after regular school hours. Cram school culture here is quite pervasive, and many students can be found studying at these buxibans well after school has ended for the day. I recently asked my students if they loved Fridays, assuming the answer would be a resounding, "yes", but I was immediately met with a surprising level of anti-Friday sentiment. My students informed me that many of them attended cram school until late into the evening on Friday nights, going hours after regular school lets out.
