Perceptions of Students

Malaysia

Yew Pei Jing


University
National Chengchi University
Major
Psychology


I am Yew Pei Jing, a student from Malaysia,  22 years old now. I am currently a junior student studying  psychology in Taiwan National  Chengchi University. I really like psychology and I hope to study further in this major,  to become a clinical psychologist. In my free time,  I enjoy reading and being with my  friends who share similar values with me.



1. What made you decide to study in Taiwan?



There are three major reasons, which I considered about financial, environmental and future possibility issues. First is the financial part, I studied in Chinese high school in Malaysia, where doesn’t accept my Chinese education background so that I was forced to choose between private school or overseas school for further study. Under my parents and I serious considerations about financial support, I decided to come to Taiwan as the tuition fees are relatively low. Second, I grew up in a Chinese village surrounded mostly by Chinese, as I am already used to the Chinese culture, I thought Taiwan would be a suitable place for me. Lastly, I knew that the university system in Taiwan is well-developed and provides abundant resources for students, which is also attracting to me.



2. Briefly tell us about the program you are studying. What subjects are you studying? What have you enjoyed the most in your studies?



I am majoring in Psychology, which is a four-year degree program with 128 credits as graduation requirement. Psychology is the study of human mind, brain, and behaviors, actually, we study all aspects of human being, including cognitive psychology, social psychology, clinical psychology and so on. What I have enjoyed the most is social psychology, this is the basic knowledge about understanding the relationships between human and others, also environment. I have always amazed by the discoveries in social psychology, which could help me practice psychology knowledge in my daily life.



3. How is studying in Taiwan when compared to studying and being a student in your home country? (Teaching Quality、Environment、School Equipment、Laboratory or others)



From what I know, there is quite a bit different between studying in my own country and studying in Taiwan. First, is the language environment, Malaysia u universities use mainly English as teaching language whereas Taiwan universities use Chinese, which leads a big influence on students’ English language abilities. Second, as I mentioned before, Taiwan has well-develop university education system, so as the development of domain specific subjects, it turns out that Taiwan owns more programs for student to study due to the abundant resources of teachers, plus the policy supports from government. The last difference accounts for the type of university systems, most of the universities in Malaysia follow British university system which is a three-year based professional education degree whereas Taiwan follows America university system which is a four-year based general education degree.



4. What has been the most difficult part about applying to study in Taiwan? How did you overcome the difficulty?



I do have overcome a really difficult part of application, which was writing my S.O.P about applying Chengchi university, which requires me to think deeply about my study motivations and future study plan. I had spent a plenty of time to write it and sought help from friends and high school teachers.



5. What do you plan to do after you have finish your studies in Taiwan? Would you like to stay in Taiwan?  Why?



I am planning to do my master degree in Clinical Psychology. Although Taiwan’s universities provided such programs, think study in Malaysia would be more suitable as I want to work and stay in Malaysia after my studies, plus, the certificate from Taiwan are not well accepted in Malaysia, and mainly, I need an English environment for me to practice my English abilities.



6. How do you think studying in Taiwan can benefit you in your future career?



I would say it’s the interpersonal connections, I make a lot of friends in Taiwan, not only Taiwanese and Malaysian but also people from other countries. I think we might have some opportunities to work together in the future, who knows?



7. What do you see as your key achievements when studying in Taiwan?



I think the key achievements should be my personal growths, including my ways of thinking, my global values and the understanding of myself (about the questions of who am I, what I am going to become) because I get tremendous chances to try a lot of new things, met a lot of smart people here and they do teach me lessons.



8. What advice do you have for other interested overseas students who want to come to Taiwan to study?



For students like me before, I would suggest them to take deep considerations of choosing where to study, make comparisons between countries, whether they want to go Taiwan, abroad or stay in Malaysia, choose the environment which would well prepare them to go to their next step. If they had decided to come to Taiwan, I would request them to remember being open-minded all the way, go to the peoples in the new environments, try anything they are interested especially those they might not have to chance to try in Malaysia. Most important thing is to enjoy the trip.