Tough But worth it!!

We had the opportunity to interview a College of Management IBMBA student. She is currently studying for her double degree in France and NSYSU. This twenty-one year old French female student is participating in International Kaohsiung dragon boat competition.

1. Why did u choose to participate in the dragon boat competition?

Because this is actually a good activity to do with my friends and it is a good opportunity to discover more about Asia and Taiwan. It is a way to do sports every two days, to know each other more and it is a fun activity. It is something you start and you do not have a choice but to stick to it to the end. You learn a lot about team spirit and it is my belief that it will become an unforgettable memory for me.

2. Does France have a sport that is somewhat similar?

While France has various team sports competitions, there is nothing like this which requires over a month of training, and a big competition that occurs only once a year.

3. When did the training begin? How did you all train?

We began training towards the end of March. The trainer coaching us is a girl from Guatemala. She has been in Taiwan for years and is taking part in this competition for the third time. She helps us take care of a lot of stuffs and assigns tasks to us according to our abilities. Our training is directed by her. First of all, we began muscle training. The first month was spent in the field running, followed by two hours session, thrice a week at the swimming pool, practicing rowing strokes for dragon boat. Within two hours, we will be doing around 200 push-ups. This kind of training was really tiring for us but I am still very happy to have the opportunity to participate in this competition. In all trainings around 70% of the people will show up, the percentage of turn-outs are high. This is because since you are participating in this competition with your friends, so even when you don’t feel like going for training there will be at least one friend who pushes you to go to training with her. All of this ensures that we continue to stick to the training regimen.

4. Did you have any actual experience with the dragon boat?

We had our first on boat training on May 11^th. It was really a tiring day. When you are actually sitting on the boat, only then can you really understand the importance of all prior trainings. You are using not just your arm muscles but your entire body’s muscle. The process of canoeing is really demanding. But when every time we shouted the motivational words ‘ 1,2,3 sha(殺)’ , we were reenergizing each other. We were motivating each other and although the process was tiring, it was all worth it.

5. Does the dragon boat team members know each other?

The participants and the trainer for this time adds up to around 80 people. We were group under male’s team, female’s team and international students’ team. I am participating in the female’s team and I am confident that we will definitely win this competition!! In the beginning I didn’t know the people in the team but now I practically knows all of them and am even able to call the Asians by their names. We will utilize Facebook to maintain contact, go out together, eat together and so on, deepening our team spirit.

6. Finally, can you please share what you like about Taiwan?

I came to Taiwan last September and found the weather here to be quite pleasant, quite unlike France’s winter which is quite chilly. Regarding people, I love the Taiwanese most among the Asians, I found them to be quite friendly and as such, I became good friends with a lot of Taiwanese people. If I am to compare the two countries, I actually quite prefer Taiwan even over France. France has a more cultural diversity and subsequently, more complicated social groups whereas Taiwan is comparably simple. Hence, I hope to be able to work in Taiwan after graduation