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Every year, it seems like the rush to sign my kids up for summer camp begins earlier and earlier. For some of the more competitive programs, enrollment can begin as early as January or even November/December of the previous year.
As a mother of five, that's too much for my addled brain — let alone my wallet. Unless it's concert tickets to K-pop band BTS, I try never to compete for anything — mostly because it spikes my blood pressure, and I hate the anxiety it induces.
Instead, I send my kids to summer camp in Taipei because not only will my children have fun and learn, but they'll be doing so in Chinese.
One of the primary reasons I enroll my children in local camps is so that they are forced to speak and listen to native Chinese speakers. Though my children have Chinese tutors and can speak, read, and write the language, I know that is an artificial environment. Being able to speak and respond in a classroom environment is very different than doing so in "real" life.
Courtesy of the author
I choose to throw my kids in a Chinese only environment so that they have to communicate in Chinese out of necessity. Truthfully, many Taiwanese people will try to speak English to my kids even though my kids understand Chinese just fine.
Plus, not only do my kids get to see our relatives, but they also experience a whole new way of living for four to eight weeks. They try new foods, live a car-free existence and navigate the bus, subway, and train systems — sometimes unaccompanied — and have far more personal freedom than I would allow them in the US due to safety. They also venture out on their own to buy food from local restaurants and convenience stores.
Every year, it seems as if the cost of summer camps in the US increases — and while I do want people to be paid a fair wage, it can also be true that with four children, paying for camps becomes cost-prohibitive. However, thanks to the exchange rate of about $1 USD to $32 NTD and the lower cost of living in Taiwan (on average, it is 35.6% lower than in the US), I can sign up my children for a fraction of the cost.
Courtesy of the author
For example, through our town's parks and recreation department, a half-day camp for five days costs around $300 a week. If I enrolled them elsewhere for a week-long full-day camp, the price range is around $725 to $1,200 (and doesn't include lunch). For a weeklong sleep-away camp for five days and four nights, the cost is about $2,000 to $3,000.
However, even in Taiwan's capital and most expensive city of Taipei, I can enroll my kids in all the fun camps I would not consider in the US due to cost. A one-week, full-day camp, including lunch, is about $207 per child. If I wanted to be fancy and send them to a Model UN-like camp for the same amount of time, it would be $529 per child. For an 8-day, 7-night sleep-away camp for teenagers, the cost for the entire camp would be $711.
Yes, the cost of traveling to Taiwan is expensive (the average round-trip flight will be $1,200 to $1,500 during peak season), and of course, I do have to pay for additional housing, but food expenses will be lower, and we don't have to pay for utilities. But I also try to maximize the time spent in Taiwan, so the trip doubles as a vacation, too. In the end, I will choose to gift my children an international summer of family and fun over costly US camps any day of the week.
