Wake up, check your email.
A new message tops your inbox. Received: 4 a.m.
It was sent just after their class ended at 5 p.m. While you were sleeping.
This message has traveled halfway around the world.
Anticipation builds as you click to open it, wondering what they wrote that would add to a conversation that is already 50 messages long.
A moment of connection with someone living thousands of miles away, speaking a different language, living a completely different life.
This will be the daily reality for students participating in the new study buddy pen pal program in the Chinese department with the Sacred Heart School in Taiwan.
During the summer of 2024, Gene and Alice Oltrogge Master Teaching Chair Janet Lin visited Taipei, Taiwan, and toured five different schools.
As she talked with the teachers and the heads of the schools, she aimed to establish a connection with their students that would follow through to the next school year for the Chinese language department. Lin’s main focus is to engage deeply in the language that students in her class learn and master to incorporate it in the real world, beyond the classroom’s limits. After her third year of teaching here, in 2019, Lin organized her first class trip to China.
“My plan was to do a trip like this every other year with a new body of students, but then COVID hit, so everything paused,” Lin said. “So this year, it’s more like I’m resuming my plans.”

Lin proposed to have two summer trips this year to the department head: one to Taiwan and one to China.
But she’s also taking the experience from the summer trips and placing them in the classroom for students to learn Chinese at a deeper level.
“To find the perfect school for our full-year interaction, I took a survey of my classroom, asking them if they wanted an all-boys school, co-ed or girls school to be their study buddy,” Lin said. “So, you know, they chose an all-girls school.”
Lin already has a few activities in mind for this school year for all of her Chinese classes.
“I wanted (my students) to send an initial email to get to know the person on the other side with me in the loop,” Lin
said. “But after that, I want them to start freely talking with each other.”
After sending out the initial email and having a back-and-forth for a few weeks, the students will engage in their
first “cultural exchange.” Each student will record a one-minute introduction in Chinese, and their study buddy will reply in English.
When Christmas rolls by, they’ll exchange holiday cards, each written in their native language, along with packages
of their favorite snacks.
Nearing the end of the school year, both schools will create campus tour videos, giving each side a glimpse into each other’s learning environment and educational style.
“I definitely want to include more activities, but because this is our first round, I don’t want to hassle my partner in Taiwan,” Lin said. “I would need to work it into our already tight schedule. This is still a work in progress, but we are definitely going to hit it hard this year. If it’s well received, and the kids like it, we will do more.”
For senior Asher Babilla, who has been learning Chinese for nearly eight years at school, he looks forward to spending his last year at school learning Chinese in a new way for the first time.
“The main thing I look forward to in this program is that I hope to gain a window into Taiwanese and Chinese culture,” Babilla said. “This is the first time we have ever done this, and it feels like it will be fun, but it’s also honestly kind of strange.”
Because of the hands-on nature of the pen pal program, for Babilla this supplement will essentially put the characters
learned in class into action.
“This summer, a few juniors will be going to Taiwan to meet their study buddies, go to class with them and hang out,” Babilla said. “I went to Taiwan last summer, and I’m sure that after this program if I ever do go back, I’ll be more prepared.”
But so far, the program has only just started, and to Babilla, the program will get bigger and bigger.
“I’ve introduced myself via email, and she replied, but that’s as far as we’ve gotten so far,” Babilla said. “We’ve only gotten our pen pals a few days ago, so there will definitely be a lot more communication with each other.”
Fostering a connection to the school and sustaining it will be a separate challenge. For Lin, however, this is all worth it.
“The entire idea is how can I create a fun and engaging method of learning Chinese with people who are thousands of miles away, linked together through learning one language,” Lin said. “Think about how cool that is. They, and we, are definitely really excited about this. This is what we call connection.”