Building friendships is the best education

In my classroom, you can find students from Vietnam, the Philippines, India and Thailand sharing the same space. I am from Guatemala. Just like the 140,417 international students reported by Study in Taiwan for last academic year, we came for a degree or an exchange program. The first big surprise in Taiwan for me was not eating with chopsticks or using an EasyCard; it was finding myself in a classroom full of young people from many parts of the world.

Taiwan has become a hub offering world-class education, attracting people from diverse continents. This is partly thanks to scholarships and funding opportunities provided by the government and other institutions to connect the world with Taiwan.

Beyond scholarships, there are other elements that make Taiwan and its education system special. According to a study published in 2012 on international students’ perceptions in Taiwan, 36 percent of international students chose to study in the nation because it had a “surrounding suitable for learning.”

In terms of a conducive environment, some people might simply imagine quality infrastructure, modern technology or innovative approaches. However, there is something rarely discussed that is also important for effective learning: collaboration, diversity and inclusion.

The same study identified three main aspects that international students recognized as part of classroom and campus norms in Taiwan. One was that they felt cultural differences were respected at school. The other two aspects were related to academics and their initiative to encourage interaction and efforts to support international students.

After 14 years, I can affirm that this sense of respect, safety, and above all, teamwork remains active and tangible. I was surprised when one of my professors set aside an entire morning just to get to know me and my international classmates, learning where we came from, what we had previously studied, and even identifying what we truly hoped to learn in Taiwan.

On the student side, if there are 30 people in a classroom, I can guarantee that I have heard perhaps up to 12 different accents. In addition to the Asian touch I mentioned earlier, one can distinguish those who come from France, some Caribbean tones from the Americas, and others from Africa. Coming across such an environment proves that these values are not merely reflected in statistics or studies, but are part of the daily language in the country.

Another data point mentioned in the study was that 40 percent of international students wished to have a Taiwanese friend. This remains a significant challenge for those of us who have come to this country. Popping the bubble of feeling like a foreigner is not so easy. Saying “hello” and “thank you” in Chinese is not enough to make friends.

One day, a Taiwanese classmate asked me, in Spanish, whether I spoke Spanish, and I said: “Yes.”

He told me he had learned some words on Duolingo. Ever since, whenever I see him, I greet him in Spanish, and he responds in kind.

In a world filled with technology, we sometimes forget that the best way to connect is still the simplest. Academic prestige and scholarships attract young people from all over the world to Taiwan, driven by the cultural openness and inclusion of its universities. However, it is those small, everyday exchanges — a spontaneous greeting, a smile in the hallway or an attempt to understand each other — that remind us that, at the end of the day, the best degree we can take home from here is a good friendship.

Pablo Mendoza is a scholarship recipient from Guatemala under the Taiwan Global Pathfinders Initiative studying smart agriculture in Taiwan.