National Chengchi University’s English Diner Fosters Cross-Cultural Conversations

Article by Jason Wen 
Editor/ Ruby Liao

National Chengchi University (NCCU) is hosting the “English Diner” event comprising 12  sessions, with the first session taking place on March 5 at the NCCU-iHouse. Students from the U.S., Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Honduras are acting as table leaders during lunchtime discussions that focus on social media experiences.

Themed Conversations Provide 
Free Bilingual Environment

The event is supported by the Ministry of Education's Bilingual Program and is a collaboration between NCCU's Bilingual Education and Multicultural Promotion Office, and the Office of International Cooperation (OIC). The experienced professor Chrissy Cook is the students’ mentor. The international students are leading lunchtime discussions in English that are based on weekly topics with local students. The discussion topics include social media, table manners, food, and tourism...etc.

Evoking European Exchange Experience and Continuing Cross-Cultural Exchanges

Jenny Ho, a senior psychology student, sees the program as an extension of her exchange experience in the Netherlands last semester. Ho said the most important thing when practicing English is to communicate with others and she is happy to gain more experience from the sessions.

Tseng Yu-Hsin (曾鈺欣), a senior international business student who previously studied abroad in Austria, said that she made many European friends during her exchange program and she hopes to get to know more international students better through the initiative. Tseng revealed that her classmate from Brazil shared how he uses X (formerly Twitter), which helped her understand how social media use differs between countries.

Improving Job Hunting Opportunities Through Social Media

Miguel Mejia, a senior business administration student from Honduras, said that he would like to help others speak English more fluently through his role as a table leader. Mejia said his table shared stories about places they have visited and cultural experiences, expanding their international perspectives. He said the group discussed LinkedIn, compared Western and Taiwanese usage, local job search platforms, and strategies for building professional LinkedIn profiles to enhance their job prospects. 

Learning to Let Go of Social Media and Focus on In-Person Communication

Thailand’s Schawin Kongthawee, a sophomore in the International Master’s Program in International Communication Studies (IMICS), was also a table leader. He said the program fostered deeper communication than other teaching experiences. He added that he could make friends more naturally and help peers to open up by talking about certain topics.

"It was interesting to hear a classmate sharing experience about deleting his Instagram account." KonThawee said. "This made me value real-life friends more. While social media connects me with friends, the discussion made me consider spending less hours on social media and focus on in-person interactions."