My purpose

I feel as if though I have stumbled upon a hidden gem nestled in the center of an up and coming city. The people are so friendly, the environment so beautiful, and the food delicious (although I could do without stinky tofu). I followed my instincts after several virtual AIESEC interviews, and my instincts have pulled through. I will really enjoy my next few months here.

The temple always needs help; whether its doing physical tasks such as sorting lanterns for New Years or taping coins to handouts for an upcoming ceremony, helping to create food such as the traditional dish Tanguan (see May's post), or social media such as this blog or our Instagram they always seem to need more volunteers. I am very glad to help them and reciprocate the kindness they have shown myself or the other interns on a daily basis, but maybe not in a way they expect me to. I like to be different, and I think I have come up with several ways to stand out.

In Taipei it is extremely easy to find someone who speaks English, likely because it is a larger city with more tourists and international business. But in Taichung one of the largest obstacles I face daily, if not hourly, is the language barrier. I often resort to smiling and nodding, or pointing and hoping I get what I want. In Yuan Bao temple it is no different; thank goodness we have Jennifer and Poconz here to translate for us or else this internship would have all been a guessing game. Although I don’t speak the native tongue I have quickly come to realize one of my strongest and most unique assets I could contribute to this team; my native English. Strong communication skills (i.e. native English) are a must when giving short but powerful messages over social media.

My ultimate goal in this internship is to create a larger outreach to English speakers in order for Yuan Bao temple to become more welcoming to foreigners like myself. I wish to make it easier and more welcoming for English speakers to experience this temple, whether it is for an hour or a whole day.

I can do this through three different ways: Instagram, translation videos and temple introduction videos, and the blog. Instagram can be a powerful way to convey a message, because pictures along with brief but thorough explanations can be very powerful and remain with someone for quite some time. I wish to use videos because a short, but concise and thorough video can explain a lot in an interesting and artistic way. Lastly, a blog is a very good way to convey my thoughts, and should someone seeking a similar experience to myself wish to see what I was thinking they could see my thoughts quite easily.

I hope these methods of communication are effective, we shall see come two months!