Halloween

I don't know what Halloween means to you. In some places it means dressing up in scary costumes and harassing your neighbours for candy, but in a Taiwan cram school it means one thing and one thing only.

More work.

This year for Halloween my kindergarten had it's own little Halloween party. For the entire week we had to teach Halloween related grammar, flashcards, and songs. And on the day of the party everyone was dressed up in their own little Halloween costumes. Each teacher also had to do their own little segment for Halloween, like a song, craft, or story book, and the children rotated between classrooms.

We also build a haunted house, complete with scary music, and grabbing the children.
Most of them cried. I'm sure that back home if children are to the point of tears they wouldn't be forced to go though with it. The Chinese teachers seemed very into it, and if the child refused they would forcefully drag them though.

 I felt a little guilty because most of the children in my class are quite good kids, I don't want to emotionally damage them, but the next day they all seemed fine. The problem child in my class was forced to go through it twice. He's also terrified of ghosts. There was a moment when I was scaring him from one side, and another teacher was grabbing at him from behind. He was trying to fight us off from both sides, and was waving his little arms and legs about. He even left a shoe in there.

We had to remove the house the next day, but I think it would have been good to leave there for a while. Every time a child misbehaved in class we could have thrown them in there and turned the lights off.  Apparently even the regular public school had its own event for Halloween. A kid from my cram school class came in dressed up as a ghost, and proceeded to try and scare all his classmates. I find it interesting because they seem more into Halloween here, than when I was back in Australia. Apparently the Taiwanese are quite into the decorations and theme related goods, but they don't actually do anything on Halloween.

There are also various Halloween parties going on in Taipei if you're a die hard Halloween fan. A friend was telling me about the biggest party which is apparently called "monster mash" which is held near Taipei 101 and you have to buy tickets. Brass Monkey also has a Halloween party which is free for women in you arrive dressed up. It's not too difficult to find something to do.