PHOENIX — As the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company continues construction in north Phoenix, more families from Taiwan are moving to Arizona. The Deer Valley Unified School District saw about 400 students come into their school system in the last year and a half.
Stetson Hills School saw the most students from Taiwan, with about 100 in the last year, and it’s been an adjustment for both the schools and Taiwanese students.
“My classmates are so friendly, and my teachers are so patient and caring and nice,” said Victoria Lai, a third-grader from Taiwan now learning at Stetson Hills.
She moved to Arizona about eight months ago with her parents as her dad works for TSMC.
Victoria’s mother, who goes by Gloria as her American name, tells ABC15 that life in Taiwan is “totally opposite,” but she enjoys it.
“The whole environment in Taiwan, people will think fast, walk very fast, everything is very fast there,” she said. “The teaching environment is very different in Taiwan than in Arizona. In Arizona, students need to be spontaneous and they are able to explore themselves but in Taiwan, we prefer children to be good at various subjects and have more homework.”
Gloria said adapting to life in America is a lot easier than she thought. While she’s never visited the United States before, she did study abroad in Canada when she was younger.
She tells ABC15 that learning English is the biggest challenge, however, she said she’s learning by watching movies with subtitles on the screen and with help from others.
“The people here are very friendly. I really appreciate the teachers here at Stetson Hills. And they helped me and Victoria a lot,” she said.
Brittany Dyer-Hurdson, the principal of Stetson Hills said it’s been a pleasure to have students from Taiwan at her school. She said it’s beneficial for both the Arizona students and staff, as well as the Taiwanese students.
“Our students have had an amazing opportunity to be able to share what life is like here, and for them to share what life is like in Taiwan. For us to bring more global awareness to our campus through that, it’s been a really eye-opening experience for our staff, too,” she said.
The biggest barrier is language. Some Taiwanese students have some ability to speak in English while others may not.
Dyer-Hurdson said they have two full-time English language teachers who help the Taiwanese students at their school. Those students also have to go through the English Language Learners program.
In some classrooms, teachers also have visual aides to help the students in Mandarin.
The Deer Valley Unified School District also has a large Mandarin immersion program. Though it wasn’t at the Stetson Hills School, Dyer-Hurdson said those teachers do come to their location and help with translation and tours when they’re in need.
Scott Holman, the head of human resources for TSMC, said they couldn’t do this alone. Being able to partner with the school district to help the families is helpful.
“Just an impossible task given the numbers of families that we’re bringing in and bringing them to a place, again, a lot of them never been to the United States before, maybe even never left Taiwan before, and we’re asking them to come to a foreign country because we asked them to because of their expertise,” Holman said. “We have to partner with our local community and Deer Valley was one of those.”
More students and families from Taiwan could be coming in the future, and the school district is prepared to help integrate the students into their schools.
“If these students are going to be here for a long time we want them to feel like they’re part of our community, part of our school culture. So, we’ve incorporated all of their different things. We had lion dancers out here last year to celebrate the Lunar New Year. Things like that to really show that we love having them here,” Dyer-Hurdson said.
