Sadly I was only able to see my language partner once before spring break. We used this time to discuss current events happening in the world and the major hot topic currently, the coronavirus. The week before spring break, we were still discussing what we would think would happen for classes and whether or not the virus was really that serious. Turns out our predictions were pretty accurate. We thought that it was gonna spread even more in the United States and that we would probably not be able to come back after spring break. The virus is now a pandemic which means it is a disease prevalent all over the world. The spread started slowly in China but developed into a rapid spread over many Asian countries, South Korea being one of those countries.
I think this pandemic kinda shows how good a country is at handling a crisis. It seems like the United States was not ready for this pandemic even though we had months to prepare for the arrival. In many of the Asian countries, it seems like it is stabilizing. In Taiwan, there were only 67 cases with 1 death. Sure this might be because it’s a small country in comparison to other countries like China and the United States but I think it speaks volumes to how ready and well prepared the country was for the arrival of the virus. I think that it’s concerning to see how unprepared the United States was. Almost as if the United States thought the virus was a joke. I do understand that the United States is a really big country and that it might be much harder to control but we had so much time to prepare for it.
Just a couple days ago, news reports show that South Korea is stabilizing the coronavirus outbreak. While there are large numbers of infections with the coronavirus in South Korea, there is aggressive testing for the virus which allow them to quarantine those who test positive. They also have really fast testing. I think this is also due to the faulty healthcare system we have in the United States as well. To be ready for a serious pandemic outbreak this big, there would have to be large amounts of supplies at the ready as well as enough employees and resources. It’s a known fact that the United States healthcare system is very faulty and lacks a lot which is why I suspect that our faulty healthcare system might be a large reason for the rapid spread of the virus.
It’s hard to predict how much longer this outbreak will last and whether or not we will return to school but I don’t think a remote education is the best way to learn. Although this self-directed language course is partly online, the other half relies on person-to-person interaction which will be hard to do now. Hopefully, we will be going back and the coronavirus will be stabilized by April 3rd.
Comments
Hey Annie. Great post. It indeed is a very uncertain time that we are living in. Understandably, the outbreak of the coronavirus is impacting the learning plans and goals of self-directed language students on campus. Hopefully, the world finds a vaccine to the virus sooner than later. Thanks for providing with interesting facts about Taiwan and Korea. Glad to know real progress is being made in at least some parts of the country.