My Life as a Superstar

If you’ve ever wondered how the other half lives (okay, maybe just the elite 5%), you should come to Taiwan and teach English.

Teacher-student relationships in Asia are quite different than their Western counterparts.  In the Asian classroom, the teacher is king; what they say is regarded as irrefutably true and correct.  It is a relationship brimming with respect.  In Western culture, on the other hand, truth is placed at a higher value than giving the teacher the respect he or she is due.  People are viewed as fallible and open to bias, and so debate is encouraged.  We are taught to be skeptical, to question, to evaluate information from multiple sources in order to come to a well-informed conclusion.

Teachers in general are highly regarded.  In fact, there is an annual holiday called Teacher’s Day (which is next Monday, as it happens), where students show their respect for their teachers by, say, serving them tea.  Foreign teachers, then, are special on two counts; not only are they teachers, but they’re also foreigners, still a relatively rare sight here.

Because of this, I’m beginning to understand what life must be like for celebrities.

Consider what happened in my classroom today.  First, I got a letter from one of my adoring fans… I mean, students.  The letter was folded up in some incredibly complex fashion that I couldn’t figure out, so I had to have my student unfold it for me.  I’m including the unaltered text of the letter below for your perusal.

Rebekah: Teacher:

Thank you!!

Happy Teacher’s day!!

Student: Julie 98/9/24

By the way, one common method of measuring the year in Taiwan is in regards to the fall of the Qing Dynasty, which makes this the year 98.

Anyway, back to my rock star life.  Later today, after the writer of the fan letter had come and gone, I spent about 15 minutes surrounded by cheering children begging for my autograph with tears of joy in their eyes.  Well, maybe they weren’t quite cheering, and maybe they weren’t quite crying, but I must have signed my name about 60 times.  In multiple languages.  I had glittery pens shoved into my hand and blank spots in textbooks indicated, awaiting my signature.  They also liked it when I wrote their names for them.  I should’ve left them motivational messages:

Dear (Student X),

Study your English and you’ll go far in life!

Best,

Rebekah

費瑞白

And, last, as is the pattern every time I leave school for the day, I underwent my 300-foot-long walk of fame.  That is, I have to walk about 300 feet to get from my classroom to my scooter so that I can leave.  Every student of mine that sees me feels personally obligated to offer up some sort of salutation.  I am greeted with a chorus of “hello” and “hi” and “Rebekah!!!”  I wish I could say I at least recognized them all, but the truth of the matter is that I have 15 separate classes with at least 30 students each, giving me more than 450 students.

I highly doubt that I will ever be a rock star or achieve fame or notoriety by any other various means.  In any case, one year of living like a superstar will probably prove to be enough.  Especially if the compensation doesn’t drastically increase.