NSLI-Y 2026 Taiwan – Week 6
by Alexia, Emilia, and Anya
Dear families and friends,
Nearly 6 weeks ago, 19 kids from all over the United States boarded a plane to travel across the world together. We were excited to embark on a new journey, nervous to meet host families, and curious as to what the next 6 weeks would hold.
Now, as we approach the end, it is impossible to believe that there was a time where we weren’t all such close friends.
At our PDO in Seattle, Nan Laoshi told us a very valuable, yet very simple statement: “You are here to learn Chinese and make friends.”
Sure, we did other things, like see Taipei 101, visit various night markets, and try a lot of new food, climb mountains, interview strangers on the street, consume gallons of bubble tea, but there is one thing we certainly all did: learn Chinese and make friends.
Entire Cohort style by NSLI-Y: Learning Chinese and Making Friends
We began our final week with a fan favorite group outing; can you guess what it was? (Hint: We already had a preview of our skills with song class, at spontaneous in-class performances, and on the bus to TSMC.) That’s right, we were preparing for Karaoke! We had some electric group performances and captivating solos, shout out John, and some of our friends truly surprised us when they revealed their hidden singing talents. We gave it our all and showed our range of talent with many songs written by Michael Jackson, Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift. We then moved swiftly to the group YMCA, followed up by a majestic “Hey Jude” duet from Nan and Pan Laoshi, and lastly we made Mick proud by closing our performance with “我們” to keep it fresh for our upcoming closing ceremony.
At Karaoke, Seraphina, Lily, Emilia, Alexia, Anya, and Eliza sing their hearts out to “Dancing Queen” by ABBA
Veena and Seraphina take the stage with a captivating duet.
A tribute to the Jackson 5, Rohin, John, Liam, Lincoln, and Arthur surprise us with a spectacular rendition of “Rock With You” by Michael Jackson.
For our final language partner afternoon, we got competitive with a series of games; huge shoutout to our language partners for this one! We started off strong with a tense game of Kahoot, then a scavenger hunt where teams ran around the DaZhi and the Shih Chien University vicinity to find key locations, some harder to find than others. After completing this challenge and while we were still fueled with adrenaline, we prepared recitations of Chinese poems and tongue twisters. In the end, the winners was clear. Veena gave a speedy and accurate recitation of a tough tongue twister 媽媽騎馬, and John (you may know him from the Week 4 Ào dé sài Odyssey, also pending Oscar recognition ) gave an Oscar-worthy performance of Chun Xiao or 春曉. His grand finale is pictured below.
Pictured is John’s grand finale of 春曉 poem recitation that left everyone applauding and speechless.
During the language partner scavenger hunt, Seraphina, Arthur, and language partner Abraham race against time to collect points around Da Zhi.
During this trip we shared quite a lot of “firsts” with each other; but as this NSLI-Y season comes to a close, we began to realize how we also began sharing our “lasts.” At our final RD meeting, each of us shared thoughtful reflections on what we’ve learned throughout this life-changing summer. We noted how not only we will leave with Chinese language progression, but lifelong friends, host family connections, and monumental personal growth. Our meeting wrapped up with student nominated Paper Plate Superlatives: congrats to everyone!
Panda Class Superlatives! Thank you to Lincoln and Eliza for organizing!
Tiger Class Superlatives! Thank you to John and Liam for organizing!
Panda Class Superlatives! Thank you to Seraphina for organizing!
Through navigating our morning and conversation classes, we have displayed our language skills in a range of ways throughout the program: From creative role plays and dialogue skits to competitive charades and BINGO Hanzi games, to interviewing local Taiwanese people to language partner activities to movie making.
After a week preparing for final exams, OPIs, and culminating projects, we all destress and watch Mulan in Chinese.
And with our final project, all led to a room full of our Taiwanese friends and family. We proudly presented our culminating projects, as a final display of the 6 weeks worth of effort (and maybe some blood, sweat, and tears.) Listening to everyone’s presentation was such a full circle moment. It is crazy to imagine that most of us started from zero language skill and created an articulate depiction of Taiwanese people’s perception on complex topics ranging from Sports (Liam and Lincoln) to Typhoons (Avi) to Westernization (Veena) and Caffeinated Drinks (Rohin) and much more.
Listed is the Culmination Project Topics of our cohort. We were blown away by everyone’s topics and speeches. So proud of the work we have all put in. Congrats everyone!!
Eliza enchanting us with her project report on Music Culture in Taiwan.
Arthur presenting Favorite Places to Eat in Taiwan.
Joined by friends, family, teachers, and language partners, all eyes are on Amelia as she presents her culminating presentation on Food, Festivals, and Seasons in Taiwan.
Everyone singing “我們” and our very own Eliza playing the backing guitar! Hope we made Mick proud!
Post presentations and closing ceremony, we all pose with all the families and the friends we have made along the way.
Panda Class with Zhang Laoshi.
Tiger Class with Liu Laoshi.
Dragon Class with Ye Laoshi.
Rohin, Alexia, Amelia, Anya, and John with the signed Taiwan Flag at the Closing Ceremony.
Cameron, Arthur, John, Liam, Emilia, and Cadence with Liu Laoshi and the signed ROC flag.
Rohin waiting to see if his sword can get through security in Taipei.
Liam also waiting to see if his sword will make it back home.
In Seattle: Emilia, Cameron, Eila, Veena, and Vivaan on their way to their gates.
Pandas always find their way back to each other– as they pose for one final photo at the Seattle Airport.
Somehow we always find our way back to the Taiwan MRT, finding a parallel with the Yellow and Green Line at the Seattle Airport.
Savoring our last moments together, we take a photo (with shǔtiáos) together before heading to our separate gates. Definitely an emotional moment hidden behind smiles.
Avi, Nan Laoshi, Pan Laoshi, and Lily enjoy a final breakfast together!
We made it!! You have reached the close of the Week 6 Blog! What a journey we have been on together. All coming from diverse backgrounds, we arrived in Taiwan, left with a new forever family, and created unforgettable memories together.
This is your NSLI-Y 2026 Taipei Cohort signing off. Thank you to our teachers, Shih Chien Staff, Host Families, all our classmates, and Friends/Family back home.
One final 再見, but not goodbye, until our next adventure together,
Your NSLI-Y 2026 Taipei Cohort
Below please find our NSLI-Y 2026 Taipei Cohort RAPID FIRE REFLECTION (trademark pending):
- AVI’s favorite thing to do with Host family: NanTou Trip!
- EILA’s favorite drink shop: Schrödinger’s Cat (薛丁格的貓).
- ROHIN, voted biggest fried chicken consumer, how many times did you eat fried chicken per week? A whopping 5 times per week.
- EMILIA’s favorite coffee shop is Kooka Coffee, a must try!
- ELIZA favorite place in Taiwan is a park by her house.
- ANYA When asked what the first thing you will do when you come back to Taiwan, without missing a beat she replied: “see my Host Family”.
- CAMERON, when faced with the same question, swiftly replied that he would see his teachers.
- LIAM’s favorite Mike memory – enjoying Japanese bbq .
- ARTHUR’s favorite quote: “do you know who the villain of Taipei is – you’re looking at him” said by Lincoln about 3 times per day.
- LINCOLN’s most villainous thing he did in Taiwan was eat pikachu on the jiéyùn.
- JOHN’s favorite side quest was facing Elephant Mountain in the middle of a storm with our emotional support shǔtiáo (This is also LIU LAOSHI’s favorite side quest!!)
- LILY says her favorite group trip was to Jie Fun (PAN LAOSHI seconds this)
- VEENA’s Favorite conversations included one with Ollie, our traditional Chinese Dance teacher and one with the Chairman of Shih Chien
- ALEXIA’s favorite memories include late night dinners and conversations with friends and favorite quote is everyone saying “謝謝朋友” or “Ni howdy” all the time.
- LUIS’s favorite side quest was going to Mao Kong with Mike in cable car.
- CADENCE recounts her funniest moment as the in-class role plays with CAMERON and LIAM.
- VIVAAN, rightfully named our group caffeine addict, reported a weekly average of 20 cups of coffee consumed.
- AMELIA’s best memories included karaoke and Jiefun.
- NAN LAOSHI’s favorite performance was by far Vivaan’s impersonation of Britney Spears where he serenaded us with his Chinese rendition of “Hit Me Baby One More Time,” supported by Eliza and Cameron.
- PAN LAOSHI’s favorite performance was the movies that we made.
Veena interviewing the Shih Chien University Chairman.
Cameron, Lincoln, Arthur, Liam, Anya, and Alexia posing with Arthur’s Host Dad (Shout out Timin) and friends with the astounding Taipei City Skyline and the iconic Taipei 101.
Arthur, Lincoln, and Liam posing as Heroes at the top of Taipei!
Eliza spending time with her Host Family: making bagels!
Cameron and his host family posing with Buzz Lightyear.
Group mirror selfie in a Jiufen shop.
Enjoying dinner out with the unforgettable view of the Taipei skyline at sunset.
Not done yet! Included are BONUS notes from the very people who made this experience possible and fulfilling.
- MICK says “The thing I’ll miss the most is every moment we spent singing Chinese songs together. Even though I knew you all were already tired after four hours of Chinese classes every morning, you guys always found the energy to smile and sing. Those moments were when I felt closest to all of you all, and they became my favorite memories of this summer.”
- PARRY says “My favorite performance was definitely the short videos you all filmed in class! I honestly didn’t expect you to create such fun and engaging content in such a short amount of time. I loved them so much that I included them all in the recap video so everyone’s work could be celebrated once more! What I’ll miss the most is simply not being able to see everyone around campus anymore. I’ll miss hearing your warm “Good morning, Parry!” when we bumped into each other in the morning, and the bright “Hi Parry!” whenever we passed by each other at school. Thank you all for making the summer of 2026 truly unforgettable!
- LIU LAOSHI says “Best quote ：薯條！我要薯條！ I looked forward to every class with you because you always participated wholeheartedly and had so much fun with every activity. Watching you grow from being quiet and hesitant to speak Mandarin to joking around and chatting in Mandarin has brought me so much joy. Seeing your confidence grow and witnessing your progress has been one of the most rewarding parts of this summer. I’m incredibly proud of each and every one of you.