Rough Draft

Talking in English is not easy, especially when you have to teach it to people who can't speak the language.

In the year of 2005 Emily Allen made her 14 hour plane ride from Utah all the way to Taiwan in Asia.

"I wanted to see another part of the world and I wanted to take photographs, but I also wanted a job. I didn't want to run out of money and I wanted to spend more than a small amount of time in Taiwan. The easiest job to get as an America without a degree is teaching English. They always need teachers and it's a good way to meet people. I taught English at a school that was called a kindergarten but was really ages from 2 all the way to 12. Most of the kids I taught were between 6 and 10 years old," Allen said.

As Allen was taking that first step onto the plane a lot of thoughts must have been going through her mind.

"I was mostly really excited when I left. I felt very independent, and it felt like an adventure. I wasn't nervous at all. I just got on the plane and went for it. It was cool. I knew it was also going to be a safe place," Allen said.

Before getting on the plane Allen had to break the news to family and friends.

"I start talking about things long before they actually happen, so I kept bringing it up and saying 'I think I want to do this, I think I want to do this', and as I kept bringing it up things started coming my way. People would say 'oh I met someone from Taiwan' or 'oh I know someone'. I just tried to talk with anyone I could who might know someone or has experience," Allen said. "I told my parents, but they didn't take me very seriously at first. Then when they did take me seriously they were really nervous and scared. They were afraid I was making a foolish decision because I didn't have a lot of money and I didn't have a job lined up. Woody[stepfather] wrote me a letter saying he disagreed with my decision. I just went anyway though. I appreciated their opinion, but I don't think they knew my reasons though, so i'm just gunna do it," Allen said.

Hearing that your sister is moving to a different country can come as quite a shock but Allen's sister Holly Wray seemed to handle the situation well when first learning her sister was leaving.

"I thought it sounded pretty cool, but also a little bit scary because she was moving to a country she has never been to and not knowing the language," Wray said.

Allen's mother, Lynne Godfrey, was also nerved when she heard about Allen’s trip.

“I was asking her where will you get a job, where will you live, what are you
thinking? She just responded I guess I will get a job teaching English and you know i'll just figure it out at the airport. So, of coarse, I was scared out of my shorts and said my prayers 5000 times a day that she wouldn't get kidnapped,” Godfrey said.
While being in Taiwan Allen got to experience many great adventures. One being teaching English to kids at a school in the area she lived in. Allen explains what her students were like, and how they treated her.

"The little kids were really hyper, and were really excited about me because I was their more fun teacher, less disciplinary teacher. They we're really, really adorable. They are always taught that things have to be said a very specific way, so they are really scared to talk. I tried to let the teachers know that they could say things a lot of different ways, and they should be able to say it however they want. Then they can be comfortable and confident. Any way they were really cute and any time I went into the classroom they would all say at the same time 'Good morning Ms. Emily', then I would say 'How are you?'. Then at the same time they would say 'I'm fine, thank you, and you?'. It was really really cute. I also once volunteered for a short period of time at a high school and the high school kids were really, really shy around me. They were really nervous about speaking English and they follow very strict rules in the high school, so that was a little harder to try and get my class to open up, and talk more. They had a hard time doing that with me," Allen said. "They were very nice. The little older boys like 10, 11 year olds would try and cause a little trouble, just like all boys do at that age to their teachers. That was hard at first then I figured out how to deal with it, and eventually they calmed down."

Living in a different countries is not all fun and games though. There were many hard challenges that Allen had to face on her own because she did not know many people in Taiwan.

"I think when you can't totally communicate with the majority of people it's challenging. I think I was lucky, this is going to sound bad, but I was a white American and people like white Americans in Taiwan. It made my life easier. I think it would have been harder if I wasn't white or I wasn't American. I am so, my experience is that people were really friendly, helpful. I remember being on a train and being a little confused on where I was going, and some guy could tell. He came up and he spoke English, so he asked 'can I help you' and then I would've gone the wrong way if he hadn't come up and told me. I felt lucky, I had a lot of experiences like that. I think the hardest thing is, I'm a very social person I like my alone time, but I need people. I felt very disconnected from close friends and for the culture. I was making friends when I could, but I also got lonely," Allen said.

Allen had spent about a year and four months in Taiwan before making her trip home. Allen explains her satisfaction to be making her way back home, so she can finally feel a connection between people again.

"At that point I was very ready to come home. I had been there a year and four months, and I really missed my family and friends. I missed being able to communicate with anyone I see, and how I want to communicate. Not simplifying my speech and my emotions. I think a big thing I learned is that humor, like ways of humor, is really really different in different cultures, and thats something really hard to express! Anything that I thought was funny or what other people in America thought was funny, they didn't get it or didn't think it was funny. I had to tell all these really basic jokes that I felt like I was telling a little kid, but then that would make them laugh. I realized I really liked to make people laugh, so that was hard, because I couldn't do that very often there. I was just ready to come home. I missed everything and I wanted to connect back with my people," Allen said.

Allen came back home feeling that her experience had been fun, free, and educational. Allen also know that her trip had changed her for the rest of her life.

"Yeah, definitely it changed me. I think whenever you go somewhere thats really different then what you are used to, like when you leave the country, it really opens your mind. It gets you thinking maybe all these huge things that you thought were so important in your life aren't as big of a deal. I mean they are still important because its part of your life, but you realize that there are so many different lives going on. Things that you maybe thought were cool and not cool don't really matter because they are totally different when you go somewhere else. It makes you less worried about little silly things. It makes you open to different people, and different ideas. This trip for me to, because I was in a small town and I had some friends but not a lot and I did get pretty lonely just for a couple months, I think that changed something in me too. It made me appreciate home and really realize that I like my alone time, but I can't isolate myself to much or I get depressed," Allen said.