So, a little before 12 this morning, I showed up at the ESP KoJen office, bright eyed and bushy tailed and ready to teach my first English class of the day. (Actually, it would really be my second English class of the day since in the cab driver who took me to the office spoke just enough English for a halting but full conversation during our 1/2 hour cab ride.) After conferring with the office staff and my manager, Paul Dunne, I was off with Sharon (our Taiwanese office manager) to the offices of the Tomen corporation to educate their fine sales employees in English.
Arriving just before the scheduled 12:30 class time Sharon and I were shuttled into a small meeting room and proceeded to wait for the students to come....and wait....and wait....Eventually one of the 5 showed up, followed shortly by two more, the other two being off on business. Sharon gave them the basic class rules and information in Chinese, smiled and then wished me good luck as she vanished out the door.
And, I was off!
I introduced myself and then gave them survey handouts which contain a series of interview questions which they have to ask their partner. Once they are done the interviews, it's their job to introduce their partner to the rest of the class. This is a great exercise suggested by Alan (one of the other ESP teachers) and it worked like a charm, we spent our whole 45 minutes of class time doing interviews and introductions, and breaking the ice. They're not a bad bunch, and were actually quite bright and fairly eager, if a bit shy. I think I will have a good time with them, at least I hope so, since I will be teaching them for 50 minutes twice a week as we try to polish their business English.
All in all, not a bad start, and luckily for me they're next to a major MRT station, so I can take the subway to get to and from their office quickly.
Rob, signing out. ^_^
Thursday, March 03, 2005
A Foreigner's Life in Taiwan
I recently stumbled across the page of an American university Professor teaching here in Taiwan who has put together an astounding page about living here as a foreigner that includes vast numbers of photos and quite a picture of Taiwanese academic culture.
http://users2.ev1.net/~turton/teach_index.html
Highly recommended reading when you get the chance, if for no other reason than all the pictures of life here.
Rob
http://users2.ev1.net/~turton/teach_index.html
Highly recommended reading when you get the chance, if for no other reason than all the pictures of life here.
Rob
Monday, February 28, 2005
Movie Reviews
Recently Rob has been blessed or cursed with seeing a few flicks, so without further ado...
New Police Story: Jackie Chan's newest HK film and a continuation of his Police Story movie series that I never really followed, but it was shown on the plane back from Singapore and it won lots of awards, so I thought "what the heck!". The story is an old cop loses his spirit after losing his partners to a bunch of extreme-sports cop killers and regains it thanks to a spunky new recruit. This is one odd movie, about 90% of it is a typical (if mildly more serious) Jackie Chan movie that has that odd vapidness almost all of his movies have. Those of you who have seen them (and I suspect it's most of you) know what I mean, there's just nothing much to his HK films except stunts and the time spent between stunts. (Not that the American ones are much better, but they do seem a little more "solid" in the character department.) There is just something about his films (and many HK films) that makes them feel "unreal" that I have never been able to put my finger on. I'm not referring to stunts or gunplay, but character and drama, and the ability to tell a story with multiple levels of meaning. (There are exceptions, but Jackie usually isn't in them...)
Anyways, back to New Police Story, as I said, it's 90% brainless entertainment, but every now and then there will be something happen that's shocking, touching and bordering on truly great movie moments. I was honestly ready to start crying twice while watching it, and only held back because I was on the plane and Connie would start laughing at me. (The plane was so new it had video screens in the back of every seat on the plane with video on demand, video games, video shopping, and the remote attached to each seat could even be used as a satellite cell-phone. So she was watching "Alfie" while I watched this...)
Blade III:Trinity: Blade kills vampires amid much bad acting and dialogue, do da, do da. Don't even rent it, you'll be wasting precious moments of your life, much less your money.
The League of extraordinary Gentlemen: Yes, Rob finally caught this one on one of the movie channels the other night. Overall, since I have never read the original and had no preconceived ideas (except that it wasn't very good) going into it, I kind of liked it. A group of Victorian Age adventurers are assembled to defeat a foe, and use their unique powers and skills to do so despite the odds and a few twists. Typical adventure-film fare, and not as badly done as it could have been. (See Blade:Trinity) I'm not going to see it again, and don't mind not having paid to see it, but then, I paid to see Blade...
Meet the Fockers: A guy takes his girlfriend's stuck-up parents to meet his laid back hippie parents, I think they called the sitcom version of this Darma and Greg. A cute comedy with most of the best bits already in the preview, but it still made me and the rest of the audience laugh. A nice rental.
Hide and Seek: After his wife's suicide, a psychiatrist takes his young daughter to the countryside to recuperate and weird things start happening in the horror-thriller way of things. I admit this one did a decent job of keeping me guessing what was going on right up until the end (it has a typical Hollywood ending once the truth comes out, but is good until then) and with lots of red-herrings and misdirections. I'd actually recommend this one as a rental.
That's all for now.
Seeya in the theatre!
Rob
New Police Story: Jackie Chan's newest HK film and a continuation of his Police Story movie series that I never really followed, but it was shown on the plane back from Singapore and it won lots of awards, so I thought "what the heck!". The story is an old cop loses his spirit after losing his partners to a bunch of extreme-sports cop killers and regains it thanks to a spunky new recruit. This is one odd movie, about 90% of it is a typical (if mildly more serious) Jackie Chan movie that has that odd vapidness almost all of his movies have. Those of you who have seen them (and I suspect it's most of you) know what I mean, there's just nothing much to his HK films except stunts and the time spent between stunts. (Not that the American ones are much better, but they do seem a little more "solid" in the character department.) There is just something about his films (and many HK films) that makes them feel "unreal" that I have never been able to put my finger on. I'm not referring to stunts or gunplay, but character and drama, and the ability to tell a story with multiple levels of meaning. (There are exceptions, but Jackie usually isn't in them...)
Anyways, back to New Police Story, as I said, it's 90% brainless entertainment, but every now and then there will be something happen that's shocking, touching and bordering on truly great movie moments. I was honestly ready to start crying twice while watching it, and only held back because I was on the plane and Connie would start laughing at me. (The plane was so new it had video screens in the back of every seat on the plane with video on demand, video games, video shopping, and the remote attached to each seat could even be used as a satellite cell-phone. So she was watching "Alfie" while I watched this...)
Blade III:Trinity: Blade kills vampires amid much bad acting and dialogue, do da, do da. Don't even rent it, you'll be wasting precious moments of your life, much less your money.
The League of extraordinary Gentlemen: Yes, Rob finally caught this one on one of the movie channels the other night. Overall, since I have never read the original and had no preconceived ideas (except that it wasn't very good) going into it, I kind of liked it. A group of Victorian Age adventurers are assembled to defeat a foe, and use their unique powers and skills to do so despite the odds and a few twists. Typical adventure-film fare, and not as badly done as it could have been. (See Blade:Trinity) I'm not going to see it again, and don't mind not having paid to see it, but then, I paid to see Blade...
Meet the Fockers: A guy takes his girlfriend's stuck-up parents to meet his laid back hippie parents, I think they called the sitcom version of this Darma and Greg. A cute comedy with most of the best bits already in the preview, but it still made me and the rest of the audience laugh. A nice rental.
Hide and Seek: After his wife's suicide, a psychiatrist takes his young daughter to the countryside to recuperate and weird things start happening in the horror-thriller way of things. I admit this one did a decent job of keeping me guessing what was going on right up until the end (it has a typical Hollywood ending once the truth comes out, but is good until then) and with lots of red-herrings and misdirections. I'd actually recommend this one as a rental.
That's all for now.
Seeya in the theatre!
Rob
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