Has it really been three months since I last wrote? Unbelievable how fast time flies when you're looking back.
The past few months have seen many changes, changes in my language ability, changes in the weather, changes in the date/year, and a change in the Chinese symbolic animal for the year (this year is year of the Dragon).
I am trying to think of something cultural I have done recently that I can report on so you can feel you really are reading about Taiwan, and the last thing I can remember is walking down what is known as "Snake Alley" in a semi-drizzle during a very quiet New Year holiday a couple weeks ago. Snake Alley is near a famous "Dragon Temple" which will be even more famous this year as it is year of the dragon. But Snake Alley is famous for what its name suggests, except rather than a reptile house in the zoo, Snake Alley is a street of restaurants, and they sell every imaginable dish of...yes, snake.
I saw one particularly large, anemic looking snake perhaps twice the thickness of my arm, sitting slumped in a small glass cage at the front of one such restaurant. A huge handwritten sign up above the snake's head warned "No pictures" in large bold letters. Off to the right were several smaller cages, a couple filled with smaller sized snakes, and a couple filled with fidgety bouncy tiny white mice who kept running around in circles. I suppose the mice were for the snakes and not directly part of the menu (although indirectly they were).
I will say that was quite a cultural experience, but I am afraid that I have started to settle down so much so that I spent most of my holiday relaxing at home rather than traipsing about the country getting every little spot of sight seeing in.
But since I mentioned settling down, perhaps I should mention what my schedule looks like these days so you know what "settling down" means to a Taipeitian, at least a foreign one who is studying Chinese.
For me it means waking up sometime before 10 am, doing at least an hour of Chinese homework (if I don't do it the night before), traveling by MRT (metro/subway) 20 minutes to get to my university, then sitting in 3 hours of class which is broken up by 10 minute breaks every hour. Perhaps I mentioned this all before. Anyway, this is a new term, and it is still the same schedule. The breaks are fun because it's the time to socialise with all my friends from around the world and set up times to do exciting things like eat stinky tofu in the night market (haven't done that since last year though).
After class is usually time for another meal and some more socialising and discussing the day's class and the grammar with fellow classmates, and after that I may go to the library and try to study in between checking my e-mail, or I may go home and relax and do some homework or watch a Taiwanese drama online (with English subtitles).
If I feel like it I can stop by a night market on the way home and walk along the brightly lit up streets filled with other Taipeitians or visiting tour groups from various other Asian countries.
The nice thing here is that night life is always exciting and always full of people and things to do. If you want to buy a drink, you will pass by at least a dozen tea stores before you finish the end of a long street. And if you want to eat something, you only need to think of what you would like to eat, and then walk to the nearest place selling that item, anything from deep-fried mozzarella sticks, to freshly cut fruit, to recently baked yams, to a sit-down meal in the somewhat famed Toilet restaurant where you receive all your food in toilet-shaped dishes and you sit on a toilet-shaped seat.
But back to the language learning. As I write and think, I sometimes switch to Chinese in my mind because sometimes it's faster to say something in two Chinese words than in 5 English words. That's when I get excited, when the words just come to mind when I am trying to express a thought, becauseI truly am beginning to have the vocabulary to express myself in Chinese. I have never had the experience of speaking in a second language, and I must say it truly is fun!
While I am happy about my progress, I am still woefully behind when it comes to speaking ability, since most of my friends and I speak English to each other. So about once a week I meet with a language exchange partner and we teach each other English and Chinese for a couple hours, talking about anything we can think of and practicing our new vocabulary.
My class recently finished the last lesson in the second book and started the third book in the series of textbooks most every university uses here in Taiwan for Chinese teaching. We are now discussing more exciting topics such as meeting roommates, or applying for scholarships, and our vocabulary is getting deeper and we're moving from words such as "almost" and "grapes" and "picnic" to more "advanced" words like "rent," "government," and "earthquake" (not that they are related in anyway :)
Yes, life here is exciting and I realise I have grown to really like this city and the friendliness I am surrounded with everyday, from smiling restaurant owners, to random people who politely tell you to close your backpack because it's open and your stuff might fall out, to helpful 7-11 staff who will assist you with buying a phone card when you don't understand enough Chinese to use the machine on your own, to small kids who pass you on the street and immediately practice their English on you "Hello!" and then walk off giggling. Yes, it's hard to put into words the specialness of this place. I really wish you could see it for yourself. Maybe next time I will be able to describe it in more detail. If you ever want a personal tour of Taipei, I promise your tour will include the best budget vegetarian restaurants you can imagine :)
until then,
:)
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Change your first impressions
So this post is more about first impressions of things you see around you than for meeting people, although traveling to other countries always gives you a chance to change your first impressions of people.
But this particular road sign caught my attention from the very beginning. Perhaps it was sometime last year, when the bus to church took on a new route due to the International Flower Expo, and you would find yourself suddenly hurtling at top bus speeds (not that fast) into a lane usually reserved for oncoming traffic.
A couple weeks ago I saw a blue road sign that loudly proclaimed the lane below it as a "Reversible Lane" and I had to stop and think about it. Did that mean the lane itself could turn inside out like a jacket? No, it couldn't be. Then did the lane turn around? Of course not. The only explanation I could come up with was that the lane could be used for traffic coming in either direction, thankfully though, despite the many many confusingly parallel roads here in Taipei, it is usually very well understood who can use the reversible lanes, and when, and so far I haven't heard of any collisions in such a lane. But I still keep thinking of reversible jackets when I see the sign.
Another unique thing about Taipei is that I would say it is one of the few, if not the only place you will find on your cafe menu something like "Camellia Sinensis Tea," or, green tea. Actually usually green tea goes by its color, and red tea does as well, but some lesser-known teas are given even lesser-known names when they are placed on the menu.
Speaking of menu, a couple weeks ago I took an adventurous turn and decided to try to order something I couldn't read, which meant of course that I had no idea what I was ordering, except that I knew it was either noodles or rice or soup. Thankfully I could ask if something was vegetarian and thankfully they understood me this time. There have been times that wasn't the case, but I prefer to forget those times :)
Well I still have some homework to do. Until next time,
:)
But this particular road sign caught my attention from the very beginning. Perhaps it was sometime last year, when the bus to church took on a new route due to the International Flower Expo, and you would find yourself suddenly hurtling at top bus speeds (not that fast) into a lane usually reserved for oncoming traffic.
A couple weeks ago I saw a blue road sign that loudly proclaimed the lane below it as a "Reversible Lane" and I had to stop and think about it. Did that mean the lane itself could turn inside out like a jacket? No, it couldn't be. Then did the lane turn around? Of course not. The only explanation I could come up with was that the lane could be used for traffic coming in either direction, thankfully though, despite the many many confusingly parallel roads here in Taipei, it is usually very well understood who can use the reversible lanes, and when, and so far I haven't heard of any collisions in such a lane. But I still keep thinking of reversible jackets when I see the sign.
Another unique thing about Taipei is that I would say it is one of the few, if not the only place you will find on your cafe menu something like "Camellia Sinensis Tea," or, green tea. Actually usually green tea goes by its color, and red tea does as well, but some lesser-known teas are given even lesser-known names when they are placed on the menu.
Speaking of menu, a couple weeks ago I took an adventurous turn and decided to try to order something I couldn't read, which meant of course that I had no idea what I was ordering, except that I knew it was either noodles or rice or soup. Thankfully I could ask if something was vegetarian and thankfully they understood me this time. There have been times that wasn't the case, but I prefer to forget those times :)
Well I still have some homework to do. Until next time,
:)
Friday, October 21, 2011
Dr. Dolittle
So I am a bit behind in my movie reviewing, but the other day as I was walking home from school, deep in thought as I usually am, little bits of sounds from conversations around me filtered through my subconscious until I suddenly "woke up" and realised with a start that I knew what those conversations were about! For the first time in my time in Taiwan, I was understanding pieces of what people were saying as they walked past me or talked on the bus. It felt like someone had opened a door and suddenly transported me into another world where suddenly what was previously just different, yet familiar sounds, suddenly turned into meaningful conversation. I imagined it to be a little like how Dr. Doolittle must've felt, hence this blog's title. This isn't to say I compare conversations here to the ones of the animals in the film. My analogy is purely single-faceted, connected only to the 'ear opening' aspect of the film.
I must say, it is exciting to learn Chinese, or any second language for that matter. To be able to converse and think in a different way is fun! It can be challenging though. We struggled greatly when we were introduced to the idea that "who" could also be used for "anyone" and "where" could be used for "anywhere." So now our sentences became more confusing for we still thought of those words as "who" and "where" - so when we said "everyone likes to drink tea" it sounded to us like "who wants to drink tea" except there was no question mark. And when we wanted to say "I can go anywhere" it sounded like we were saying "I can go where." It was highly confusing, but once you switch your thinking around, and hear the new use of an old word often enough, it becomes a little easier to grasp.
If you ever do come to Taiwan, don't worry about not knowing what to talk about when you arrive. Even though it's considered a boring topic to discuss, you can still fall back on the weather as a topic for conversation. And you will never run out of things to say for the weather is always changing. One day it may be summery and hot and humid, and the next day it may be blustery and cold and rainy. It all depends, on something, (I never studied earth science so I have no answer for what that 'something' is at the moment).
The last two days were getting a bit cold and I thought I needed to look for my winter jacket, but today, even though it was rainy and dreary, the humidity crept back somehow and was in full force today and still is this evening. If you don't have ramrod straight hair, you're in trouble. I know from personal experience. I always compare my hair to velcro when it comes to living in humid climates; it's awful.
Oh, on my way up the Yang Ming Shan mountain today, I saw a large black beetle, along with a jumpy lizard who kept trying to climb a vine to get away yet couldn't quite manage it. The beetle didn't seem to take any notice of me. Then later I saw a reddish beetle of sorts, and felt glad that I live in the city and not in the country. I have seen the larger-than-your-hand spiders and feel this is indeed a tropical jungle. Anyway, if you'd like to see a picture of what the beetle looked like, you can find a picture on this website:
http://www.beetleshop.net/forum/english/english%20forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1770
And on that note, I think I shall end :) Thanks for checking in and I wish you a wonderful week. Oh, and I had internet issues, and moved house and a few other things, so that's prevented me from writing. But things seem to have calmed down a bit and I now have more reliable internet access, so all is right with this side of the world right now :) until next time!
I must say, it is exciting to learn Chinese, or any second language for that matter. To be able to converse and think in a different way is fun! It can be challenging though. We struggled greatly when we were introduced to the idea that "who" could also be used for "anyone" and "where" could be used for "anywhere." So now our sentences became more confusing for we still thought of those words as "who" and "where" - so when we said "everyone likes to drink tea" it sounded to us like "who wants to drink tea" except there was no question mark. And when we wanted to say "I can go anywhere" it sounded like we were saying "I can go where." It was highly confusing, but once you switch your thinking around, and hear the new use of an old word often enough, it becomes a little easier to grasp.
If you ever do come to Taiwan, don't worry about not knowing what to talk about when you arrive. Even though it's considered a boring topic to discuss, you can still fall back on the weather as a topic for conversation. And you will never run out of things to say for the weather is always changing. One day it may be summery and hot and humid, and the next day it may be blustery and cold and rainy. It all depends, on something, (I never studied earth science so I have no answer for what that 'something' is at the moment).
The last two days were getting a bit cold and I thought I needed to look for my winter jacket, but today, even though it was rainy and dreary, the humidity crept back somehow and was in full force today and still is this evening. If you don't have ramrod straight hair, you're in trouble. I know from personal experience. I always compare my hair to velcro when it comes to living in humid climates; it's awful.
Oh, on my way up the Yang Ming Shan mountain today, I saw a large black beetle, along with a jumpy lizard who kept trying to climb a vine to get away yet couldn't quite manage it. The beetle didn't seem to take any notice of me. Then later I saw a reddish beetle of sorts, and felt glad that I live in the city and not in the country. I have seen the larger-than-your-hand spiders and feel this is indeed a tropical jungle. Anyway, if you'd like to see a picture of what the beetle looked like, you can find a picture on this website:
http://www.beetleshop.net/forum/english/english%20forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1770
And on that note, I think I shall end :) Thanks for checking in and I wish you a wonderful week. Oh, and I had internet issues, and moved house and a few other things, so that's prevented me from writing. But things seem to have calmed down a bit and I now have more reliable internet access, so all is right with this side of the world right now :) until next time!
Friday, September 30, 2011
So this seems to be the week to get sick. In three days we've had three different teachers, and unfortunately I'm able to use our new vocabulary from book 2: "我感冒了" or "I got a cold." Or perhaps is 我生病了, I got sick. Either way I'm feeling under this dreary weather. Apparently the temperature is supposed to drop from its lofty 32+C to about 21C this weekend, but I haven't confirmed the fact. I have rarely experienced such temperamental weather.
But besides learning how to say I'm sick and my throat hurts and I have a serious illness, I've also been finding Taiwanese dramas to be quite interesting. Of course the English subtitles are one of the reasons.
Although right now I can actually understand what people say some of the time - make that a very small percent of the time - there are myriads of topics we haven't yet discussed in our uh, beginner-intermediate level. But! I now have some friends in book 4, "Class 4" as I like to call them, and as I hang out with them I get to hear their conversation, which makes me envious of course, since they can talk about anything from shopping to drugs. But it's incentive for me. I only hope to one day be able to really converse on their level with them.
Yes, there's only so much you can learn in one day. Today after class one of my friends said "Don't! Don't talk in Chinese! I've just had 3 hours of class and I had to speak almost half of the time and I just can't take it anymore!"
So there are times when you've had just about all the language learning you can take before your brain tells you firmly that it will not be accepting any new information. That has happened many times to me, where I've stumbled out of the classroom dazed and weary and unable to form a proper sentence in any language.
But I'm pleased to see improvement in my speaking. Except, today one of my friends asked me in Chinese about my language improvement, and I had to ask him to repeat himself many times, so sadly, I think my improvement, while existent, is still slow and sometimes slower. But I press on! Mostly because, um, I did pay for the whole term :D oh yes, and because I enjoy it!
Right now it's evening and my energy is slowing disappearing. The weekends always get busy, but this weekend I'm afraid I'll have to stay and rest a bit. Argh. I hate missing the social life. Well perhaps I shall blog about it. Perhaps tomorrow morning when I wake up again at 3:30 I shall write a blog about the 半夜 or midnight (I think).
(Because Chinese has so many similar sounds and detailed characters, if I write just one line a little shorter than it's supposed to be written, it could potentially change the whole meaning of the character :) Details are important in writing Chinese characters, as I am finding out. Sometimes I tell myself stories to help remember, "the ski character has snow on top and a pair of skis below." 雪
And today we learned why in Chinese you always say East or West first when giving directions, instead of saying north or south first like we do in English. For example, instead of "northeast" you'd say "eastnorth." The reason our teacher gave us was because of the sun going from the east to the west, so the directions follow the sun :) I thought that was very interesting.
There are other interesting stories in Chinese characters that make so much sense when you hear them. The character for day 日 originally was the shape of a sun with a dot in the middle, and the character for moon 月 was originally shaped like a moon. It's fun to write the characters!
Well I shall go in search of some food and then get some rest. Have a lovely weekend on all sides of the globe!
until next time!
But besides learning how to say I'm sick and my throat hurts and I have a serious illness, I've also been finding Taiwanese dramas to be quite interesting. Of course the English subtitles are one of the reasons.
Although right now I can actually understand what people say some of the time - make that a very small percent of the time - there are myriads of topics we haven't yet discussed in our uh, beginner-intermediate level. But! I now have some friends in book 4, "Class 4" as I like to call them, and as I hang out with them I get to hear their conversation, which makes me envious of course, since they can talk about anything from shopping to drugs. But it's incentive for me. I only hope to one day be able to really converse on their level with them.
Yes, there's only so much you can learn in one day. Today after class one of my friends said "Don't! Don't talk in Chinese! I've just had 3 hours of class and I had to speak almost half of the time and I just can't take it anymore!"
So there are times when you've had just about all the language learning you can take before your brain tells you firmly that it will not be accepting any new information. That has happened many times to me, where I've stumbled out of the classroom dazed and weary and unable to form a proper sentence in any language.
But I'm pleased to see improvement in my speaking. Except, today one of my friends asked me in Chinese about my language improvement, and I had to ask him to repeat himself many times, so sadly, I think my improvement, while existent, is still slow and sometimes slower. But I press on! Mostly because, um, I did pay for the whole term :D oh yes, and because I enjoy it!
Right now it's evening and my energy is slowing disappearing. The weekends always get busy, but this weekend I'm afraid I'll have to stay and rest a bit. Argh. I hate missing the social life. Well perhaps I shall blog about it. Perhaps tomorrow morning when I wake up again at 3:30 I shall write a blog about the 半夜 or midnight (I think).
(Because Chinese has so many similar sounds and detailed characters, if I write just one line a little shorter than it's supposed to be written, it could potentially change the whole meaning of the character :) Details are important in writing Chinese characters, as I am finding out. Sometimes I tell myself stories to help remember, "the ski character has snow on top and a pair of skis below." 雪
And today we learned why in Chinese you always say East or West first when giving directions, instead of saying north or south first like we do in English. For example, instead of "northeast" you'd say "eastnorth." The reason our teacher gave us was because of the sun going from the east to the west, so the directions follow the sun :) I thought that was very interesting.
There are other interesting stories in Chinese characters that make so much sense when you hear them. The character for day 日 originally was the shape of a sun with a dot in the middle, and the character for moon 月 was originally shaped like a moon. It's fun to write the characters!
Well I shall go in search of some food and then get some rest. Have a lovely weekend on all sides of the globe!
until next time!
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
What time is it? 現在幾點?
I'm doing it! I'm writing in Chinese! The nice thing is that I've learned a lot of handy repeatable words such as "he/she" and "want" and "don't want" and some other random nouns and verbs, so I can write a nice essay, and if you couldn't read it you'd be impressed, but if you could, you'd quickly see that I'm basically repeating myself and my 30+ words :D hehe. Ok, maybe I know more than 30 words, but the more I learn, the more I want to express myself, and the more limited my vocabulary seems.
The first week of class was exciting - I was actually getting to talk in Chinese! I hadn't done that in years The second week of class was even more exciting - I was learning new vocabulary and was able to talk even more about my daily life! The third week of class I began to feel more comfortable with speaking, and now, the 4th week, I'm beginning to become impatient, "Why can't I express myself more clearly?" I demand to know. But when I stay up too late at night, endless checking friends' posts on facebook and writing long e-mails home, a thought manages to crawl into a tiny space in my brain that's open '24 hours' and make itself known that perhaps lack of sleep is one obstacle to my learning at a faster speed, that and the fact that I decided to tackle Chinese, one of hardest languages in the world I've heard, or 聽說, in Chinese.
So right now I'm not sure why I'm awake at such an unearthly hour, and writing about the consequences of staying up late, of all things. Why am I not resting? Who knows. Taipei doesn't seem to sleep at night, which makes me want to stay up too. Why miss out on something exciting?
Except tomorrow I have another dictation quiz and we're starting on book two! I am so excited! Oh the simple joys of a beginner language student :D so now I'm not sure what time it is, but as I peer through half-closed eye lids, I think my computer clock it says it's almost midnight...hm...how do you say that in Chinese? I forgot. No wonder, my brain must've fallen alseep when we learned that in class. Hm.
Ok, I'm convinced. I shall go to bed. After I finish checking my 3 other e-mail accounts of course...
until next time,
:)
The first week of class was exciting - I was actually getting to talk in Chinese! I hadn't done that in years The second week of class was even more exciting - I was learning new vocabulary and was able to talk even more about my daily life! The third week of class I began to feel more comfortable with speaking, and now, the 4th week, I'm beginning to become impatient, "Why can't I express myself more clearly?" I demand to know. But when I stay up too late at night, endless checking friends' posts on facebook and writing long e-mails home, a thought manages to crawl into a tiny space in my brain that's open '24 hours' and make itself known that perhaps lack of sleep is one obstacle to my learning at a faster speed, that and the fact that I decided to tackle Chinese, one of hardest languages in the world I've heard, or 聽說, in Chinese.
So right now I'm not sure why I'm awake at such an unearthly hour, and writing about the consequences of staying up late, of all things. Why am I not resting? Who knows. Taipei doesn't seem to sleep at night, which makes me want to stay up too. Why miss out on something exciting?
Except tomorrow I have another dictation quiz and we're starting on book two! I am so excited! Oh the simple joys of a beginner language student :D so now I'm not sure what time it is, but as I peer through half-closed eye lids, I think my computer clock it says it's almost midnight...hm...how do you say that in Chinese? I forgot. No wonder, my brain must've fallen alseep when we learned that in class. Hm.
Ok, I'm convinced. I shall go to bed. After I finish checking my 3 other e-mail accounts of course...
until next time,
:)
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Learning and Still "Teaching"
Today I'm back online in blog land. It's been way too long, and though I've thought often of updating my blog with my current whereabouts, I always put it off in favor of something more pressing like researching second hand kitchen appliances to buy to add to my collection in my new room.
So I'm back in Taiwan, this time as a student, and I am really enjoying this new position. It's already been over 3 weeks since classes began, and already I can understand a few simple phrases in Chinese spoken at regular speed. That is definitely improvement, as when I first returned I still could not understand anything. I am trying to slowly transition my accent from a thick Beijing accent to a softer Taiwanese accent, so I don't stick out so much when I talk :)
This week we are learning about the weather. The weather is also giving us much to talk about as it is constantly changing. It seems that "qiutian" (pronounced 'tyo tien') or "autumn" may actually be making an appearance. The temperature has dropped a few degrees and it feels much cooler outside. I'm very grateful, as my room is on the 4th floor, and as you know, heat rises, and the higher you live, the hotter you apartment will be, as least I am finding that out.
We are still in the very beginning level of Chinese, but we are fast approaching book 2, and are very much excited at the idea. We will soon graduate to harder lessons and more complex homework. Today we had our first preview of future class 'presentations.' We had to introduce a country and talk about its weather for 1-3 minutes. I chose northern California, and 1 minute :) I talked about how strange (ji gui) the weather is becoming, since it snowed last May. I didn't have a lot more to say after I described the sunny aspect and the occasional rain and the nice temperatures most of the year. My limited vocabulary kind of stopped me after that point.
My classmates are from all over the world. We have Asia, Europe, and North America and Latin America represented in our classroom. It's really quite exciting.
The title of this post is "Learning and Still 'Teaching' " because I can't help but continue 'teaching' or telling everyone I know about the useful information I'm learning, such as where the library is and where the good restaurants are. I couldn't help but tell all my friends about how to get a library card and after a couple trips at least 8 of my friends now have library cards and 4 know where the media center is, where you can watch movies :)
Well it's getting late so I shall begin to end here. One last thing - something I do not cherish about Taipei is the enormous and speedy cockroaches that meet me on the stairs with beady eyes (I think) in the middle of a dark night. Thankfully I've found that light is one weapon I can use against them, and I happily shine my small beam from my small flashlight on them, but we always end up in a dance - I call it the cockroach dance, because usually the cockroach is faster and more scared than me so he usually gets to go where he wants and I have to just jump out of the way. Thankfully not too many have charged towards me, and thankfully I'm still at least 50x times their size (just a random number). But still, I could do without them, as well as the anonymous bugs that have bitten me in at least 14 different places. (I was careful to count my bug-battle scars so I could tell people so they could feel sorry for me. But that's just how a city-raised girl like me feels in regard to insects.)
So until next time, but seeing as how regularly I write, that may not be until next year, at which point I shall probably write in Chinese and you won't be able to understand it anyway unless you use google translate (which I probably will use to write it anyway), until then, have a great time!
:)
So I'm back in Taiwan, this time as a student, and I am really enjoying this new position. It's already been over 3 weeks since classes began, and already I can understand a few simple phrases in Chinese spoken at regular speed. That is definitely improvement, as when I first returned I still could not understand anything. I am trying to slowly transition my accent from a thick Beijing accent to a softer Taiwanese accent, so I don't stick out so much when I talk :)
This week we are learning about the weather. The weather is also giving us much to talk about as it is constantly changing. It seems that "qiutian" (pronounced 'tyo tien') or "autumn" may actually be making an appearance. The temperature has dropped a few degrees and it feels much cooler outside. I'm very grateful, as my room is on the 4th floor, and as you know, heat rises, and the higher you live, the hotter you apartment will be, as least I am finding that out.
We are still in the very beginning level of Chinese, but we are fast approaching book 2, and are very much excited at the idea. We will soon graduate to harder lessons and more complex homework. Today we had our first preview of future class 'presentations.' We had to introduce a country and talk about its weather for 1-3 minutes. I chose northern California, and 1 minute :) I talked about how strange (ji gui) the weather is becoming, since it snowed last May. I didn't have a lot more to say after I described the sunny aspect and the occasional rain and the nice temperatures most of the year. My limited vocabulary kind of stopped me after that point.
My classmates are from all over the world. We have Asia, Europe, and North America and Latin America represented in our classroom. It's really quite exciting.
The title of this post is "Learning and Still 'Teaching' " because I can't help but continue 'teaching' or telling everyone I know about the useful information I'm learning, such as where the library is and where the good restaurants are. I couldn't help but tell all my friends about how to get a library card and after a couple trips at least 8 of my friends now have library cards and 4 know where the media center is, where you can watch movies :)
Well it's getting late so I shall begin to end here. One last thing - something I do not cherish about Taipei is the enormous and speedy cockroaches that meet me on the stairs with beady eyes (I think) in the middle of a dark night. Thankfully I've found that light is one weapon I can use against them, and I happily shine my small beam from my small flashlight on them, but we always end up in a dance - I call it the cockroach dance, because usually the cockroach is faster and more scared than me so he usually gets to go where he wants and I have to just jump out of the way. Thankfully not too many have charged towards me, and thankfully I'm still at least 50x times their size (just a random number). But still, I could do without them, as well as the anonymous bugs that have bitten me in at least 14 different places. (I was careful to count my bug-battle scars so I could tell people so they could feel sorry for me. But that's just how a city-raised girl like me feels in regard to insects.)
So until next time, but seeing as how regularly I write, that may not be until next year, at which point I shall probably write in Chinese and you won't be able to understand it anyway unless you use google translate (which I probably will use to write it anyway), until then, have a great time!
:)
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Starting to perk up
Probably the worst part about being a procrastinator and a teacher, is that there is a stack of homework sitting on my office, begging to be released back into the outside world. I have held some of those papers captive for far too long and it is time now to begin letting them go. However, first things first - one cannot work in an untidy office. So today I spent around 5 hours trying to organise myself and my files for my successor.
I realised I have multitudes of files all saved in mulitple locations bearing similar names... in other words, I was very careful to make sure I wouldn't lose any of my research and worksheets and handouts to any technology malfunctions. I have the files on my USB, my documents, my network places... so I managed to consolidate most of those today. Thankfully it didn't take too much time to figure out the duplicates and happily delete those out of existance, or at least out of sight and into my vitual trash can.
Perhaps it shows, perhaps it doesn't, but with the end of the school year fast approaching, I am beginning to perk up a bit and even venture out into the night life I live so close to. Tonight at 7-something I realised I hadn't yet eaten supper. At 8:30 I finally stumbled out of my office and flew down the stairs in an effort to go find some food for supper. Unfortuntely, by the time I made it to the vendor I had planned to buy some pineapple fried rice from, I realised too late that they closed at 8:00... So I kept wandering around and ended up finding a deep-fried cheese empananda and a vegetarian burrito minus the beans, all for less than $4. I was quite pleased, as was my stomach.
It is so fun to wander around the night market with all its clothes, watches, shoes, and trinkets stores. The food is quite something to behold too. I saw a pizza cone with squid, at least the pictures told me it was squid. I haven't learned that word in Chinese yet, although I did learn "shrimp" after one very unfortunate curry experience.
This week I will have another Chinese class and I forget the topic, but last week we learned how to say where we were from. Unfortunately I still don't know how to answer that question, in any language, so I alternated between "America" and "England" giving my classmates a bit of confusion. I made one new friend and was so excited because she is from England and I have so far not talked with anyone from England here in Taiwan. Of course I felt very un-British around her.
Perhaps I should end here for now and continue another night. It's hard to keep up with life sometimes, and other times it drags by. This is one of those speedy times, and I know I will soon be wondering where in the world the time has gone, and how a year could have passed by already. You may even find me looking under the cushions in my house to see how I could have misplaced a whole year's worth of time. Where did it all go? I know at least half of it has sped past me. The other half is best left to itself.
It will feel good to say I survived my first year of teaching. I am quite sure that my students' learning is at least comparable to how much I have learned from this year. I'm thankful to my students for being such fun teachers. Teenage years are definitely the hardest and I have certainly had my struggles trying to combat this in my classroom. But there are those days that just stick in your memory forever, days when you laugh wih your students and watch them happily oblivious to the adult woes we carry so heavily on our shoulders. The memory of these days lasts longer than the hard days where your energy just goes into breathing deeply after every confrontation you face.
The happy days I'm talking about are when you watch a student up front expertly taking prayer requests and offering up the prayer; the times you watch your own students teach the class, and pattern their class after yours; the days where your students ask you about your plans and what you think about a topic; the days where someone has an 'aha' moment and suddenly gets what you have been trying to explain; the days when you read a 'thank you' note from a student, or you watch your students help a classmate to succeed... these times I will not forget, and I'm so thankful for memory and that I can keep these good memories as long as I want to, and think back on them anytime I want a smile or a little tear of nostalgia :) perhaps this is the reward many people talk about - deeper than those "I finally understand" moments in your teaching career; it's the connecting your students do for you when you don't realise it, connecting you back to life and away from the minutiae that takes you away from people and being part of life. Thank you students... I never knew this was the lesson you would be teaching me. I knew I had something to learn, but I never realised it would be the one lesson I had come to teach you... so thank you. For all the energy that went into planning your classes this year, I can only say that it was well worth it, and you certainly surprised me with your own lessons for me. I wish you the best this next year. I know you, and I know each and every one of you has the potential to succeed. May you never forget how to love and how to live.
Until next class,
- RL
I realised I have multitudes of files all saved in mulitple locations bearing similar names... in other words, I was very careful to make sure I wouldn't lose any of my research and worksheets and handouts to any technology malfunctions. I have the files on my USB, my documents, my network places... so I managed to consolidate most of those today. Thankfully it didn't take too much time to figure out the duplicates and happily delete those out of existance, or at least out of sight and into my vitual trash can.
Perhaps it shows, perhaps it doesn't, but with the end of the school year fast approaching, I am beginning to perk up a bit and even venture out into the night life I live so close to. Tonight at 7-something I realised I hadn't yet eaten supper. At 8:30 I finally stumbled out of my office and flew down the stairs in an effort to go find some food for supper. Unfortuntely, by the time I made it to the vendor I had planned to buy some pineapple fried rice from, I realised too late that they closed at 8:00... So I kept wandering around and ended up finding a deep-fried cheese empananda and a vegetarian burrito minus the beans, all for less than $4. I was quite pleased, as was my stomach.
It is so fun to wander around the night market with all its clothes, watches, shoes, and trinkets stores. The food is quite something to behold too. I saw a pizza cone with squid, at least the pictures told me it was squid. I haven't learned that word in Chinese yet, although I did learn "shrimp" after one very unfortunate curry experience.
This week I will have another Chinese class and I forget the topic, but last week we learned how to say where we were from. Unfortunately I still don't know how to answer that question, in any language, so I alternated between "America" and "England" giving my classmates a bit of confusion. I made one new friend and was so excited because she is from England and I have so far not talked with anyone from England here in Taiwan. Of course I felt very un-British around her.
Perhaps I should end here for now and continue another night. It's hard to keep up with life sometimes, and other times it drags by. This is one of those speedy times, and I know I will soon be wondering where in the world the time has gone, and how a year could have passed by already. You may even find me looking under the cushions in my house to see how I could have misplaced a whole year's worth of time. Where did it all go? I know at least half of it has sped past me. The other half is best left to itself.
It will feel good to say I survived my first year of teaching. I am quite sure that my students' learning is at least comparable to how much I have learned from this year. I'm thankful to my students for being such fun teachers. Teenage years are definitely the hardest and I have certainly had my struggles trying to combat this in my classroom. But there are those days that just stick in your memory forever, days when you laugh wih your students and watch them happily oblivious to the adult woes we carry so heavily on our shoulders. The memory of these days lasts longer than the hard days where your energy just goes into breathing deeply after every confrontation you face.
The happy days I'm talking about are when you watch a student up front expertly taking prayer requests and offering up the prayer; the times you watch your own students teach the class, and pattern their class after yours; the days where your students ask you about your plans and what you think about a topic; the days where someone has an 'aha' moment and suddenly gets what you have been trying to explain; the days when you read a 'thank you' note from a student, or you watch your students help a classmate to succeed... these times I will not forget, and I'm so thankful for memory and that I can keep these good memories as long as I want to, and think back on them anytime I want a smile or a little tear of nostalgia :) perhaps this is the reward many people talk about - deeper than those "I finally understand" moments in your teaching career; it's the connecting your students do for you when you don't realise it, connecting you back to life and away from the minutiae that takes you away from people and being part of life. Thank you students... I never knew this was the lesson you would be teaching me. I knew I had something to learn, but I never realised it would be the one lesson I had come to teach you... so thank you. For all the energy that went into planning your classes this year, I can only say that it was well worth it, and you certainly surprised me with your own lessons for me. I wish you the best this next year. I know you, and I know each and every one of you has the potential to succeed. May you never forget how to love and how to live.
Until next class,
- RL
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