Welcome to
Yangming

Mila Koivula and Hannah arrived in Taiwan on the evening of May 6, 2026. The next morning, they walked through Yangming's gates for the first time — and for the following three weeks, the school became their classroom, their laboratory, and their most honest teacher.

Mila 與 Hannah 於 2026 年 5 月 6 日晚間抵達臺灣。隔天早晨，她們第一次踏進陽明國中的校門，接下來的三週，這所學校成了她們的教室、實驗室，以及最真實的老師。

Their practicum followed a deliberate, progressive structure — one that placed them first as observers, then as collaborators, and finally as teachers fully in charge.

她們的實習遵循一套有層次的漸進架構：先以觀察者的身分進入課堂，再成為協同教學的夥伴，最後獨立主導課程。

What They Came to Learn 她們來這裡學什麼

Both Mila and Hannah are working toward careers in TESOL — Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. That context matters. Yangming's classrooms gave them something no textbook does: the feel of teaching a language that lives in another culture's rules, rhythms, and expectations.

Mila 與 Hannah 都朝著 TESOL（英語作為外語的教學）方向發展。正是這個背景，讓這段實習有了不一樣的重量。陽明的課堂給了她們任何教科書都無法給的東西：真實感受一門生活在另一種文化規則、節奏與期待裡的語言，是如何被教、如何被學習的。

Hannah, whose graduate work focuses on writing and literacy within TESOL, brought particular attention to how students approach reading and written expression in English as a second language. Mila — whose background combines economics, international studies, and a TESOL minor — saw the practicum as a window into the cultural work that underlies every language lesson.

Hannah 的研究所方向是寫作與讀寫素養，因此她在觀課時格外留意學生如何以英文作為第二語言進行閱讀和表達。Mila 的學術背景橫跨經濟學、國際研究與 TESOL，她將這段實習視為一扇窗，讓她得以看見每一堂語言課底下那層文化工程。

A Homestay, Not a Hotel 住在臺灣家庭裡

Throughout their three weeks, Mila and Hannah lived with local host families — not in a hotel or dormitory, but in real Taiwanese homes, at real Taiwanese dinner tables, in the middle of real Taiwanese daily life. That immersion was not incidental; it was part of the design.

整整三週，Mila 與 Hannah 都住在當地寄宿家庭，不是飯店，不是宿舍，而是真實的臺灣家庭、真實的餐桌，以及真實的臺灣日常。這份深度浸潤不是偶然，而是計畫的一部分。

Weekends in Taiwan 假日的臺灣

On weekends, they explored — visiting well-known landmarks and historical sites, moving through the layered textures of a country they had only known from a distance. The Taiwan they encountered was warmer than any description they had read. People's kindness and local food left the deepest impression.

假日時，她們到處走訪，造訪知名景點與歷史古蹟，在這片她們過去只能從遠處想像的土地上慢慢感受臺灣的層次。她們所遇見的臺灣，比任何文字描述都更溫暖。臺灣人的熱情友善，以及在地的食物，在她們心裡留下了最深的印象。

What They're Taking Home 帶回去的

Three weeks is short. But the kind of understanding Mila and Hannah built here — of how a classroom works when English is not everyone's first language, of how culture shapes the way students learn and respond, of what it really means to teach across a language gap — that is the kind of understanding that takes years to build in a textbook.

三週很短。但 Mila 與 Hannah 在這裡建立起的理解——了解當英文不是每個人母語的時候，課堂如何運作；了解文化如何形塑學生的學習與回應方式；了解跨越語言鴻溝的教學究竟是什麼感覺——這樣的理解，用課本堆疊需要好幾年。