This week in Global Club, we were lucky to have Pamela Peng (Year 13) speaking to us about Taiwanese culture and the difference between Taiwan and NZ in regards to the education system.

Pamela is from Taiwan and has been at Otago Girls' with us for two and a half years.

In Global Club, Pamela spoke about the cultural heritage in Taiwan being a blend of Taiwanese, traditional Chinese, and Japanese.

She also spoke about how Taiwan has a population of 23,908,094 Million whilst NZ has a population of 5,124,100 Million.

Pamela spoke about how Taiwan has 126 universities whilst NZ only has 7 universities and how Taiwan gets Earthquakes daily.

She spoke about how schools in Taiwan start at 7 am and end at 5 pm whilst compared in NZ schools here start at about 9am and end at about 3 pm.

Pamela spoke about stores in Taiwan being open 24/7 and how Taiwan has the highest scooter density in the world.

She spoke about Taiwan having 16 ingenious groups of people which are the Amis (also Pangcah), Atayal (also Tayal), Bunun, Kavalan, Paiwan, Puyuma, Rukai, Saisiyat, Sakizaya, Sediq, Thao, Truku, Tsou, and Tao (also Yamei). In 2014, the Kanakanavu, and Hla'alua were added. Ten lowlands Indigenous Peoples’ groups (Pingpu) are not recognized as such by the government and hence are not extended the same rights as the 16 recognized groups and are excluded from the Council of Indigenous Peoples (CIP) policies and programmes. The ten unrecognized peoples are Babuza, Hoanya, Kaxabu, Ketagalan, Makatao, Papora, Pazeh, Siraya, Taokas, and Tavorlong.

Thank you, Pamela, for giving us the wonderful opportunity to listen to you talk about Taiwanese culture and the difference between Taiwan and NZ education systems.