Hsieh says that he originally planned to study furniture design. But when he arrived in Madrid, he roomed at a Taiwanese-run restaurant whose owner suggested that he try ceramics, a field few students from Taiwan studied. Thus began his academic experience in an exotic land where he was a stranger to the language and artistic traditions.
謝嘉亨表示，剛到馬德里時住在當地台僑所開設的餐廳裡，原本想學家具設計，這位台僑卻建議他選擇台灣學生較少就讀的陶瓷學校，就此，展開他語言和創作都完全陌生的異國求學生涯。