Team NuSkin: Al, Nancy, Sophia, Rob, Regina, Elaine and Ileen
Tuesday, August 23, 2005
Wednesday, July 06, 2005
Multilingual Week Continues...
So, after my lunchtime class, I headed down to the nearby bus stop to catch a bus to meet Connie.
As I walked up to the bus stop I noticed there was a Taiwanese woman there checking out the bus routes, 40 something but with pigtails that made her look like someone trying to be younger than she was. I didn't think much of it and flopped down on the bench to await my bus.
Several times the woman wandered past me, occasionally offering glances at me, but since locals do that sometimes (must be my stylish clothes) I didn't pay much attention to her.
Then suddenly she comes back and walks up to me.
"Can y'help me?" She says with a strong American accent that I couldn't quite place.
It turned out she'd been in Taiwan two days to visit her cousin and managed to get lost, speaking on the bare minimum of Mandarin. She was from New York (which explained the accent) and needed to find her way back to the subway lines.
Not a problem. I, having now been here 6 months, quickly gave her the instructions she needed to get back to the subway line and I also told her to have her cousin give her a card with his home address written on it in Chinese so that she could just show it to a cab driver and get whisked home if the need arrived. (Travel advice that's saved me many the time.) After putting her on a bus headed in the right direction I went back to waiting for my own bus and musing that you really do never know what will happen next in Taipei...
As I walked up to the bus stop I noticed there was a Taiwanese woman there checking out the bus routes, 40 something but with pigtails that made her look like someone trying to be younger than she was. I didn't think much of it and flopped down on the bench to await my bus.
Several times the woman wandered past me, occasionally offering glances at me, but since locals do that sometimes (must be my stylish clothes) I didn't pay much attention to her.
Then suddenly she comes back and walks up to me.
"Can y'help me?" She says with a strong American accent that I couldn't quite place.
It turned out she'd been in Taiwan two days to visit her cousin and managed to get lost, speaking on the bare minimum of Mandarin. She was from New York (which explained the accent) and needed to find her way back to the subway lines.
Not a problem. I, having now been here 6 months, quickly gave her the instructions she needed to get back to the subway line and I also told her to have her cousin give her a card with his home address written on it in Chinese so that she could just show it to a cab driver and get whisked home if the need arrived. (Travel advice that's saved me many the time.) After putting her on a bus headed in the right direction I went back to waiting for my own bus and musing that you really do never know what will happen next in Taipei...
Tuesday, July 05, 2005
Livin in a multilingual world...
So, the stop before my MRT stop on Tuesday nights is next to a mildly famous Night Market here in Taipei and it's normal for my train to gain more than few people from that stop as people head to Taipei main station. But, as I sat reading my copy of Midshipman Hornblower tonight on the train and we hit that stop I was broken from my reading by an abnormally large group of people getting onto my car.
"Whoa, must be party night." I thought myself and went back to my reading as the doors closed and we continued on our way.
But, no sooner had we started to move than I realized that I wasn't hearing Chinese being spoken around me, but French! Looking up in surprise, I peered through the standing crowd looking for the usual foreigners, only to find there weren't any, the French was coming from the Chinese-looking people around me.
I couldn't help it, I smiled, and then quietly laughed a bit as I returned to my book, deciding that probably I was surrounded by a bunch of University students practicing their French on their way home. But, no sooner had I looked down than I became aware of a shadow over me, and looked up to find myself face to face with a twentysomething Chinese girl leaning in to look down at the book I was reading to check the language.
"Anglais," I told her, smiling. Oddly enough, Hornblower is actually filled with French, so it's a language that I have been exposed to recently, just not hearing or speaking it.
"Where are you from?" She asked me in French, but I knew what she said without thinking.
"Je suis Canadian," I replied, remembering from High School to pronounce the "d" as a "j".
Of course, this got me a long stream of French in response that poor Rob had no hope of understanding. So much for being continental!
"Je n'parle pas francais." I said apologetically, using my last bit of French.
"But, you're speaking it now!" They answered me in French.
"I only speak a little bit!" I said, dropping to English.
"Oh," said the girl, also switching to English. "Are you from Quebec?"
"No, Ontario."
That got me puzzled looks.
"Next to Quebec," I added to still puzzled looks. (Maybe the maps in France just show Canada as being 90% Quebec or something...)
To make a long story short, they asked me if I was a traveller, and I told them I'm a resident, and then asked them where they came from. It turns out I was quite wrong, I was in the middle of a group of international students from France! (And Tunesia.) The girl I was speaking to turned out to be from Paris, and it seems they were foreign born Chinese here to learn their ancestral tongue.
Unfortunately the next stop was my own, so I had to wish them goodbye and good luck.
Then, after I got home I wandered down the hall to the laundry room to check if I could do my laundry, and as I started to return I suddenly heard the sound of spoken English echoing down the corridor. Considering there are 4 Taiwanese on my floor and none of them has really shown any English ability, I was quite surprised. Following the sound I found myself in front of the door of a young woman I suspected might be a flight attendant.
But, this again was a bit of a shock. You see when people memorize vocabulary, they use a pattern where they say the foreign word first, and then say the word in their own language. As an ESL teacher and language student, I know this pattern very well. Well, the shock came from the fact that she was reciting the foreign word first, and then following it with nearly unaccented English! On top of that, the foreign words were Japanese, not Mandarin! She was memorizing Japanese and translating it to English as her known language!
Stop the culture shock train, I want to get off!
Rob
"Whoa, must be party night." I thought myself and went back to my reading as the doors closed and we continued on our way.
But, no sooner had we started to move than I realized that I wasn't hearing Chinese being spoken around me, but French! Looking up in surprise, I peered through the standing crowd looking for the usual foreigners, only to find there weren't any, the French was coming from the Chinese-looking people around me.
I couldn't help it, I smiled, and then quietly laughed a bit as I returned to my book, deciding that probably I was surrounded by a bunch of University students practicing their French on their way home. But, no sooner had I looked down than I became aware of a shadow over me, and looked up to find myself face to face with a twentysomething Chinese girl leaning in to look down at the book I was reading to check the language.
"Anglais," I told her, smiling. Oddly enough, Hornblower is actually filled with French, so it's a language that I have been exposed to recently, just not hearing or speaking it.
"Where are you from?" She asked me in French, but I knew what she said without thinking.
"Je suis Canadian," I replied, remembering from High School to pronounce the "d" as a "j".
Of course, this got me a long stream of French in response that poor Rob had no hope of understanding. So much for being continental!
"Je n'parle pas francais." I said apologetically, using my last bit of French.
"But, you're speaking it now!" They answered me in French.
"I only speak a little bit!" I said, dropping to English.
"Oh," said the girl, also switching to English. "Are you from Quebec?"
"No, Ontario."
That got me puzzled looks.
"Next to Quebec," I added to still puzzled looks. (Maybe the maps in France just show Canada as being 90% Quebec or something...)
To make a long story short, they asked me if I was a traveller, and I told them I'm a resident, and then asked them where they came from. It turns out I was quite wrong, I was in the middle of a group of international students from France! (And Tunesia.) The girl I was speaking to turned out to be from Paris, and it seems they were foreign born Chinese here to learn their ancestral tongue.
Unfortunately the next stop was my own, so I had to wish them goodbye and good luck.
Then, after I got home I wandered down the hall to the laundry room to check if I could do my laundry, and as I started to return I suddenly heard the sound of spoken English echoing down the corridor. Considering there are 4 Taiwanese on my floor and none of them has really shown any English ability, I was quite surprised. Following the sound I found myself in front of the door of a young woman I suspected might be a flight attendant.
But, this again was a bit of a shock. You see when people memorize vocabulary, they use a pattern where they say the foreign word first, and then say the word in their own language. As an ESL teacher and language student, I know this pattern very well. Well, the shock came from the fact that she was reciting the foreign word first, and then following it with nearly unaccented English! On top of that, the foreign words were Japanese, not Mandarin! She was memorizing Japanese and translating it to English as her known language!
Stop the culture shock train, I want to get off!
Rob
Sunday, July 03, 2005
War of the Worlds Review
So,
As you can guess from the subject, I saw Spielburg's latest venture with media darling and scientologist Tom Cruise, so here's my quickie review:
The special effects are amazing, I have never truely seen giant robots look that realistic and lifelike on the big screen. If the rumoured Evangelion movie looks like that (and I can't shake the feeling that EVA did influence the way the tripods are presented, although I can't say exactly why...) then I am going to be one happy camper. Visually, the movie is top knotch, if a little cold and distant...actually, a lot cold and distant.
Which brings me to the bad stuff!
First off, Chad was soooo right! Every selfless act in the movie is committed by a black guy, and every selfish and horrible act is committed by a white guy while other ethncities stand around and watch. The most stunning example of this comes near the end when a black soldier goes out of his way to help Cruise's character and all I could think of was...So why didn't you help the guy who the aliens mulched BEFORE Cruise? Or the guy before that? What made you suddenly become a hero when it became Cruise's turn? (One could argue that Cruise had a daughter with him, but I'm not sure that's a plus...as I'll comment on below...)
Second, Cruise and his two kids are the most unlikable trio I have seen in movies in a long long time, not only is their "acting" boring, bad and lifeless, but the characters are just honestly not interesting or likeable in any way. Cruise's character is a selfish, willful and quite stupid man who is perfectly willing to sacrfice anything and anyone to make sure he and his kids survive. (You know the scene in the previews where Cruise is waving his hands and yelling to army troops "There's nobody alive in that direction!" As though he's trying to save them? When you see the full version you'll see he's yelling that to his son who wants to join the troops and is slightly off camera. Screw the troops, he doesn't care that they're going off to their deaths!) The son is just boring and sulks through the whole movie in his attempt to "get back at his father for abandoning him" (divorce) as though they're off on a road trip and that's important right now! And the daughter...well...let me tell you Dakota Fanning can scream, I know this because even Connie (who is a big Dakota fan) was wishing little Dakota would just shut up 2/3rds of the way through this movie. (I was wishing that the aliens would vape her long before that.) She literally spends the whole movie doing nothing but screaming or staring at the camera with her big blue eyes...I hope they didn't pay her to act, cause she wasn't doing it!
Lastly, despite the need to stick with the original ending of the story (all here should know what I'm talking about, and I won't spoil it if you don't), they STILL have to change it so that both Cruise and American Soldiers (America referenced in the movie as "the greatest power mankind has ever known") kick some alien butt before they go down. (Well, the soldiers just beat on dead aliens...way to go guys!) Unlike the George Pal 1950's version, there is no sense of building to a climax or dramatic menace, just the aliens up and...stop when they run out of special effects money or something...I don't know...I hear I'm not the only one unimpressed by the ending.
So, to sum up, looks great, but is basically politicaly correct flag waving nonsense with really bad characters and mediocre writing. The George Pal 1950's version still kicks it's butt where it counts, despite the 50's acting and changes they made to the story.
Rob
As you can guess from the subject, I saw Spielburg's latest venture with media darling and scientologist Tom Cruise, so here's my quickie review:
The special effects are amazing, I have never truely seen giant robots look that realistic and lifelike on the big screen. If the rumoured Evangelion movie looks like that (and I can't shake the feeling that EVA did influence the way the tripods are presented, although I can't say exactly why...) then I am going to be one happy camper. Visually, the movie is top knotch, if a little cold and distant...actually, a lot cold and distant.
Which brings me to the bad stuff!
First off, Chad was soooo right! Every selfless act in the movie is committed by a black guy, and every selfish and horrible act is committed by a white guy while other ethncities stand around and watch. The most stunning example of this comes near the end when a black soldier goes out of his way to help Cruise's character and all I could think of was...So why didn't you help the guy who the aliens mulched BEFORE Cruise? Or the guy before that? What made you suddenly become a hero when it became Cruise's turn? (One could argue that Cruise had a daughter with him, but I'm not sure that's a plus...as I'll comment on below...)
Second, Cruise and his two kids are the most unlikable trio I have seen in movies in a long long time, not only is their "acting" boring, bad and lifeless, but the characters are just honestly not interesting or likeable in any way. Cruise's character is a selfish, willful and quite stupid man who is perfectly willing to sacrfice anything and anyone to make sure he and his kids survive. (You know the scene in the previews where Cruise is waving his hands and yelling to army troops "There's nobody alive in that direction!" As though he's trying to save them? When you see the full version you'll see he's yelling that to his son who wants to join the troops and is slightly off camera. Screw the troops, he doesn't care that they're going off to their deaths!) The son is just boring and sulks through the whole movie in his attempt to "get back at his father for abandoning him" (divorce) as though they're off on a road trip and that's important right now! And the daughter...well...let me tell you Dakota Fanning can scream, I know this because even Connie (who is a big Dakota fan) was wishing little Dakota would just shut up 2/3rds of the way through this movie. (I was wishing that the aliens would vape her long before that.) She literally spends the whole movie doing nothing but screaming or staring at the camera with her big blue eyes...I hope they didn't pay her to act, cause she wasn't doing it!
Lastly, despite the need to stick with the original ending of the story (all here should know what I'm talking about, and I won't spoil it if you don't), they STILL have to change it so that both Cruise and American Soldiers (America referenced in the movie as "the greatest power mankind has ever known") kick some alien butt before they go down. (Well, the soldiers just beat on dead aliens...way to go guys!) Unlike the George Pal 1950's version, there is no sense of building to a climax or dramatic menace, just the aliens up and...stop when they run out of special effects money or something...I don't know...I hear I'm not the only one unimpressed by the ending.
So, to sum up, looks great, but is basically politicaly correct flag waving nonsense with really bad characters and mediocre writing. The George Pal 1950's version still kicks it's butt where it counts, despite the 50's acting and changes they made to the story.
Rob
Wednesday, June 29, 2005
Reading Habits
It's funny, really. When I spend time in Canada, my reading habits tend to be focused almost exclusively on Asia, when I read books at all. But, when I'm in Asia, I read voraciously, and a large part of what I read is related to North America and Europe! I think it has something to do with connecting with the society I no longer feel a part of, alone here, I am reaching for a piece of home and I get it through the written word.
Actually, I consider it one of the happy side effects of living here, I do enjoy reading and regret that I don't do more of it when I am at home in Canada. I read mostly non-fiction, but I do try to catch up on books I have been curious about for a long time or know are classics but have never touched. Especially in my current job, I have to travel about the city and wait a lot, and this affords me a lot of extra time with nothing special to do. For a while I was reading the newspaper, the Taipei Times is an excellent English language newspaper (one of 3 English language papers in Taiwan), but I got bored of always doing that so I started to make trips to the bookstore instead. I find it takes me a week or so to polish off a novel, maybe less if I get so into it I spend all my free time reading it. (Good books suck you in, what can I say?)
Recently I've had an interest in the Napoleonic era of Europe (don't ask why, I have no clue) so when I went into the Page One (the biggest bookstore in Taipei) and found a copy of Horatio Hornblower sitting on the shelf I knew it was what I wanted to read. Set in the Napoleonic Era, Hornblower is the story of how a young seaman goes from Midshipman to Admiral in the British Navy. C.S. Forrester wrote 11 Hornblower novels, and apparently they're considered major classics of British fiction. I remember reading once that Gene Roddenbery based some of the character of Captain Kirk off Horatio Hornblower, which I guess I will understand more when I reach the point Horatio is a Captain. Right now, he's still a Midshipman, and I have to say the first book is a really good read that I can say I recommend wholeheartedly.
One interesting comment I read today was:
"Hornblower was of the type that would continue to observe and to learn on his deathbed."
When I read this, I thought to myself, that's not just Hornblower, that's me! It's interesting how a good book can actually teach you about yourself. Time abroad isn't just a time of learning about the outer world, but the inner one as well.
Actually, I consider it one of the happy side effects of living here, I do enjoy reading and regret that I don't do more of it when I am at home in Canada. I read mostly non-fiction, but I do try to catch up on books I have been curious about for a long time or know are classics but have never touched. Especially in my current job, I have to travel about the city and wait a lot, and this affords me a lot of extra time with nothing special to do. For a while I was reading the newspaper, the Taipei Times is an excellent English language newspaper (one of 3 English language papers in Taiwan), but I got bored of always doing that so I started to make trips to the bookstore instead. I find it takes me a week or so to polish off a novel, maybe less if I get so into it I spend all my free time reading it. (Good books suck you in, what can I say?)
Recently I've had an interest in the Napoleonic era of Europe (don't ask why, I have no clue) so when I went into the Page One (the biggest bookstore in Taipei) and found a copy of Horatio Hornblower sitting on the shelf I knew it was what I wanted to read. Set in the Napoleonic Era, Hornblower is the story of how a young seaman goes from Midshipman to Admiral in the British Navy. C.S. Forrester wrote 11 Hornblower novels, and apparently they're considered major classics of British fiction. I remember reading once that Gene Roddenbery based some of the character of Captain Kirk off Horatio Hornblower, which I guess I will understand more when I reach the point Horatio is a Captain. Right now, he's still a Midshipman, and I have to say the first book is a really good read that I can say I recommend wholeheartedly.
One interesting comment I read today was:
"Hornblower was of the type that would continue to observe and to learn on his deathbed."
When I read this, I thought to myself, that's not just Hornblower, that's me! It's interesting how a good book can actually teach you about yourself. Time abroad isn't just a time of learning about the outer world, but the inner one as well.
The Mystery of the Well Dressed Woman...
Well, continuing my research into where all those well dressed women that populate the streets of Taipei in the absence of men come from, I consulted with a new all female class that I just started to teach. I decided that since they seem to be the people I'm talking about, I should just ask them. To a degree, they were as perplexed as I was as I laid out the situation, and one of them stepped up to bat to point out to her classmates that I was indeed right, there was a disproportionate number of women in the streets of downtown Taipei during the working hours. But, as a group they came up with an answer, which was that what I'm seeing is the result of Taipei being such a huge city. With millions of people living in Taipei and her suburbs, and with the Asian female focus on fashion, what I am seeing they decided was an influx of women shoppers from the suburbs. There aren't malls in Taipei like there are in Canada, people here come downtown to shop in fashionable stores, and so while their significant others and family members worked they are here making their shopping trips. Because of the sheer number of people living around Taipei, it only takes a very small part of the female population making the trip to fill the streets on a daily basis.
Your average woman is indeed working or involved with her family like any other place, we concluded, but others are enjoying their extra time shopping. The men, it seems, just have no reason to leave their air conditioned homes and offices to come downtown.
Rob
Your average woman is indeed working or involved with her family like any other place, we concluded, but others are enjoying their extra time shopping. The men, it seems, just have no reason to leave their air conditioned homes and offices to come downtown.
Rob
Far from home...
It's interesting how things affect you when you're living far away from home in a foreign land, your habits change, your point of view changes, and some things that aren't so important when you're at home suddenly become very meaningful. Probably this is part of adapting to life in an alien environment, but it doesn't help when you wake up to things like a news article about a shooting in your hometown. Of course what happened in London was shocking, but to me it was moreso by the very fact it was in London, and I am far away, so everything that happens there seems somehow magnified from my perspective.
Actually, that shooting may be connected to me in more ways than just it happening in London, because I noted that the people involved were all immigrants. I've noticed that when crimes like this happen it often seems to be immigrants that are involved, whether in Canada, the US or England. I don't think this is because there is anything wrong with the immigrants, per se (although obviously something was wrong with this man), but I do have to wonder if the stress of living in a foreign country might not have something to do with events like this. People who never leave their home countries will never understand the subtle stress and pressure that you are under all the time when you live abroad. You are not at home, you are adrift in an environment you can neither control nor understand (interestingly enough, one article about this case I read notes that the parents only barely spoke English after 15 years in Canada) and you cling to whatever you can find.
If I have to guess, in this horrible case I would suspect the mother had a boyfriend (with another lonely dispossessed soul) while her husband trucker was away, and decided to break it off with him for the sake of her family. The boyfriend lost it, and this is the result. Given that the mother was very likely stuck raising the kids alone for long periods of time in a foreign environment where the loneliness can be crushing, I can sympathize with her. She probably started the relationship out of desperate loneliness with her husband away all the time and no other Polish speaking adults around her, and things got out of control.
A sad story that repeats again and again...One which could probably be cured if there was more community support and outreach for immigrants trying to struggle with a new life in a new land. Sure, they chose that life, but oftentimes they got more than they bargained for.
Rob
Actually, that shooting may be connected to me in more ways than just it happening in London, because I noted that the people involved were all immigrants. I've noticed that when crimes like this happen it often seems to be immigrants that are involved, whether in Canada, the US or England. I don't think this is because there is anything wrong with the immigrants, per se (although obviously something was wrong with this man), but I do have to wonder if the stress of living in a foreign country might not have something to do with events like this. People who never leave their home countries will never understand the subtle stress and pressure that you are under all the time when you live abroad. You are not at home, you are adrift in an environment you can neither control nor understand (interestingly enough, one article about this case I read notes that the parents only barely spoke English after 15 years in Canada) and you cling to whatever you can find.
If I have to guess, in this horrible case I would suspect the mother had a boyfriend (with another lonely dispossessed soul) while her husband trucker was away, and decided to break it off with him for the sake of her family. The boyfriend lost it, and this is the result. Given that the mother was very likely stuck raising the kids alone for long periods of time in a foreign environment where the loneliness can be crushing, I can sympathize with her. She probably started the relationship out of desperate loneliness with her husband away all the time and no other Polish speaking adults around her, and things got out of control.
A sad story that repeats again and again...One which could probably be cured if there was more community support and outreach for immigrants trying to struggle with a new life in a new land. Sure, they chose that life, but oftentimes they got more than they bargained for.
Rob
Wednesday, June 22, 2005
Updating!
Hey all! (If anyone is still checking this blog after not updating in so long!)
Contrary to rumours, I am still very much alive! Not that I can fault a local bug for lack of trying, as I spent the last two weeks sick with one of the worst colds of my life! I am feeling much better now, however, and trying to get back in the swing of things with a healthier diet and lifestyle this time. As I commented to someone recently, I think we foreigners get sick more often than local people in any given country do because we're not immune to as many of the local bugs.
In any case, things at work and my life in general are fine. I'm currently working 17 hours a week and that should be bumping up to 20 in three weeks when I start teaching a new writing course to college and university students at my home branch school on Friday nights. Of those 17 hours, things currently break down something like this:
3 hours a week teaching conversation at NuSkin, which is the local version of Mary Kay Cosmetics or AVON.
5 hours a week teaching business writing at American Pacific Lines shipping company.
2 hours a week teaching business English at the Tomen Corporation, the Taiwanese branch office of a Japanese chemical manufacturing company.
5 hours a week teaching conversation and writing at the Green Seasons Biotechnical Company, a chemical and food testing company. (One of the most advanced in Taiwan.)
2 hours a week teaching conversation at Welltech, which is a furniture and home furnishings supplier and dristributor. (Yes, they even sell Garden Elves!)
This takes up my lunchtimes and evenings from Monday to Friday, with Welltech taking up my Saturday mornings. The rest of the time I sleep, travel, eat, watch videos I download from the internet and recently spend huge amounts of time reading. Actually, I have found that I read far more here than I do in Canada, and about quite a variety of subjects. Maybe it's the isolation factor (although I am making more local friends recently with other foreign English teachers) but I find I crave knowledge when I'm living in foreign countries. Yesterday alone I found myself researching the history of Martial Arts, but not Asian, European. Europe actually had quite the Martial Arts tradition is seems (despite how Hollywood shows clumbsy guys with swords) that pretty much disappeared once the gun became a practical weapon of war. Now we've only got sport forms of Fencing, but once upon a time there was quite a variety of schools of personal combat and technique for armed and unarmed combat. Facinating stuff. As a side effect I'm going to start reading more about rennaisance Italy and Spain, and even found the most fascinating article on Scottish Martial Arts Schools....
Anyways. I better go, the people behind the counter here are giving me dirty looks for hogging the computer. I have papers to mark and dinner to eat. My best to all of you, and I will update when I update!
Later!
Rob
Contrary to rumours, I am still very much alive! Not that I can fault a local bug for lack of trying, as I spent the last two weeks sick with one of the worst colds of my life! I am feeling much better now, however, and trying to get back in the swing of things with a healthier diet and lifestyle this time. As I commented to someone recently, I think we foreigners get sick more often than local people in any given country do because we're not immune to as many of the local bugs.
In any case, things at work and my life in general are fine. I'm currently working 17 hours a week and that should be bumping up to 20 in three weeks when I start teaching a new writing course to college and university students at my home branch school on Friday nights. Of those 17 hours, things currently break down something like this:
3 hours a week teaching conversation at NuSkin, which is the local version of Mary Kay Cosmetics or AVON.
5 hours a week teaching business writing at American Pacific Lines shipping company.
2 hours a week teaching business English at the Tomen Corporation, the Taiwanese branch office of a Japanese chemical manufacturing company.
5 hours a week teaching conversation and writing at the Green Seasons Biotechnical Company, a chemical and food testing company. (One of the most advanced in Taiwan.)
2 hours a week teaching conversation at Welltech, which is a furniture and home furnishings supplier and dristributor. (Yes, they even sell Garden Elves!)
This takes up my lunchtimes and evenings from Monday to Friday, with Welltech taking up my Saturday mornings. The rest of the time I sleep, travel, eat, watch videos I download from the internet and recently spend huge amounts of time reading. Actually, I have found that I read far more here than I do in Canada, and about quite a variety of subjects. Maybe it's the isolation factor (although I am making more local friends recently with other foreign English teachers) but I find I crave knowledge when I'm living in foreign countries. Yesterday alone I found myself researching the history of Martial Arts, but not Asian, European. Europe actually had quite the Martial Arts tradition is seems (despite how Hollywood shows clumbsy guys with swords) that pretty much disappeared once the gun became a practical weapon of war. Now we've only got sport forms of Fencing, but once upon a time there was quite a variety of schools of personal combat and technique for armed and unarmed combat. Facinating stuff. As a side effect I'm going to start reading more about rennaisance Italy and Spain, and even found the most fascinating article on Scottish Martial Arts Schools....
Anyways. I better go, the people behind the counter here are giving me dirty looks for hogging the computer. I have papers to mark and dinner to eat. My best to all of you, and I will update when I update!
Later!
Rob
A question of gender...
When I first got here, I noticed something. As I walked out on the streets of Taipei during the day going from company to company, it seemed that I was always surrounded by women. Women on the street, women on the bus, women in the cafes...and I started to wonder to myself the obvious question: Where are all the men?
Not that I was complaining of course, women here in Taipei like any of the major cities of the world are well groomed, well dressed, and generally of above average levels of appearance. Walking in downtown Taipei at certain times is a little like walking in a living fashion show, and as a heterosexual male I can hardly complain about being surrounded by beautiful and well dressed women!
But, back to the question at hand...Where were all the men?
So, I started to ask around among my students and the people I knew here. And, perhaps not surprisingly the answer is got was "working". The men were in the office buildings which surround me working away while the women...what? Shopped?
At first, I was pretty amused by this, the women shop and the men work, how classically old fashioned! Of course, many women work too (most of my corporate students are in fact female) and then there's those who are mothers and homemakers (not my students, of course, but various other women around me) who flit in and out from their homes during the day.
But, as I took a bus through the high-fashion district today on my way to the McCafe I currently sit writing it, I started to rethink things. Was there really anything to be amused about? These legions of women (many of them in their 20's and 30's) who seem to spend all their time shopping and chatting...who was paying for this coffee? Who was paying for these clothes? Neither of those things are cheap here in Taipei, and someone has to be paying the bills. My students (male and female) are working themselves to the bone doing overtime, so it's obviously not them as they're busy working all day.
So, where is this money coming from?
Well, obviously some of them are still living at home, so their parents supply the cash. And, part-time work will explain some of them as well, with them wandering the streets in the afternoons as they work in the evenings or on weekends. But, as has been pointed out to me recently, wages here are pitiful, and raises are few and far in between. Lord knows the credit cards here in Taipei spend a lot of time being maxed, but unlike our credit cards, theirs must be paid back at faster rates or they will accure high levels of interest.
So, I came back to the answer to question I had been asking.
"Where are all the men? Working hard so the women can buy clothes, makeup and drink coffee all day."
Suddenly it doesn't seem so funny anymore. Is this a symbiotic relationship? (As I first surmised.) Or is this a parasitic relationship? I honestly don't know the answer to this question. Maybe this is my North American "men and women are equal" thinking kicking in, the idea that both partners should be equal in earning their keep. Here in Asia, the thinking seems to have been "a woman's job is being a wife, mother, and beauty for her husband" and that thinking it still part of their culture. It's changing, but when I look out on the streets of Taipei I have to wonder sometimes, how much has it really changed?
I have to say that growing up in a very socially confused time in North American culture I used to marvel at a culture where men and women had clear social roles like Japan, Korea or Taiwan. Men and women are different animals, we naturally are better at certain things, and the idea of us being "the same" to me is a modern politically correct fallicy. We're equal, but we're not the same by any means. Biologically, psychologically...we're different from each other and that's something we need to accept. I always thought "old world" culture was more realistic about this, and I saw the gender differences of the sexes here as representing that.
But now...Now I begin to wonder. Maybe the more egalitarian North American ways really are more fair. Here women seem to be exploiting men (not as a whole, of course, but it does seem rather common) with the men following the traditional roles and the women using the free time modern life gives them to...consume? play?
Is this fair to say? I'm not sure. I'm really just thinking aloud at the moment. Maybe I'm not seeing the whole picture. Maybe I'm seeing women enjoying their freedom during the time before they marry and get trapped at home because there's not enough daycare to go around. But, then again, once they hit school age here, children pretty much spend 24-7 studying at public schools and afterschool tutoring schools. Also, Taiwan apparently has one of the lowest birthrates in the world right now, so apparently these women aren't getting pregnant and having kids after all.
Husbands, boyfriends and families are paying for their lifestyles...But what are all these women really contributing back to their familes and society? Or are they just excess people enjoying life in an affluent society? That's the new question I'm trying to find the answer for...
Rob
Not that I was complaining of course, women here in Taipei like any of the major cities of the world are well groomed, well dressed, and generally of above average levels of appearance. Walking in downtown Taipei at certain times is a little like walking in a living fashion show, and as a heterosexual male I can hardly complain about being surrounded by beautiful and well dressed women!
But, back to the question at hand...Where were all the men?
So, I started to ask around among my students and the people I knew here. And, perhaps not surprisingly the answer is got was "working". The men were in the office buildings which surround me working away while the women...what? Shopped?
At first, I was pretty amused by this, the women shop and the men work, how classically old fashioned! Of course, many women work too (most of my corporate students are in fact female) and then there's those who are mothers and homemakers (not my students, of course, but various other women around me) who flit in and out from their homes during the day.
But, as I took a bus through the high-fashion district today on my way to the McCafe I currently sit writing it, I started to rethink things. Was there really anything to be amused about? These legions of women (many of them in their 20's and 30's) who seem to spend all their time shopping and chatting...who was paying for this coffee? Who was paying for these clothes? Neither of those things are cheap here in Taipei, and someone has to be paying the bills. My students (male and female) are working themselves to the bone doing overtime, so it's obviously not them as they're busy working all day.
So, where is this money coming from?
Well, obviously some of them are still living at home, so their parents supply the cash. And, part-time work will explain some of them as well, with them wandering the streets in the afternoons as they work in the evenings or on weekends. But, as has been pointed out to me recently, wages here are pitiful, and raises are few and far in between. Lord knows the credit cards here in Taipei spend a lot of time being maxed, but unlike our credit cards, theirs must be paid back at faster rates or they will accure high levels of interest.
So, I came back to the answer to question I had been asking.
"Where are all the men? Working hard so the women can buy clothes, makeup and drink coffee all day."
Suddenly it doesn't seem so funny anymore. Is this a symbiotic relationship? (As I first surmised.) Or is this a parasitic relationship? I honestly don't know the answer to this question. Maybe this is my North American "men and women are equal" thinking kicking in, the idea that both partners should be equal in earning their keep. Here in Asia, the thinking seems to have been "a woman's job is being a wife, mother, and beauty for her husband" and that thinking it still part of their culture. It's changing, but when I look out on the streets of Taipei I have to wonder sometimes, how much has it really changed?
I have to say that growing up in a very socially confused time in North American culture I used to marvel at a culture where men and women had clear social roles like Japan, Korea or Taiwan. Men and women are different animals, we naturally are better at certain things, and the idea of us being "the same" to me is a modern politically correct fallicy. We're equal, but we're not the same by any means. Biologically, psychologically...we're different from each other and that's something we need to accept. I always thought "old world" culture was more realistic about this, and I saw the gender differences of the sexes here as representing that.
But now...Now I begin to wonder. Maybe the more egalitarian North American ways really are more fair. Here women seem to be exploiting men (not as a whole, of course, but it does seem rather common) with the men following the traditional roles and the women using the free time modern life gives them to...consume? play?
Is this fair to say? I'm not sure. I'm really just thinking aloud at the moment. Maybe I'm not seeing the whole picture. Maybe I'm seeing women enjoying their freedom during the time before they marry and get trapped at home because there's not enough daycare to go around. But, then again, once they hit school age here, children pretty much spend 24-7 studying at public schools and afterschool tutoring schools. Also, Taiwan apparently has one of the lowest birthrates in the world right now, so apparently these women aren't getting pregnant and having kids after all.
Husbands, boyfriends and families are paying for their lifestyles...But what are all these women really contributing back to their familes and society? Or are they just excess people enjoying life in an affluent society? That's the new question I'm trying to find the answer for...
Rob
Monday, May 23, 2005
Mousetrap!
For you animation lovers, here's a FLASH cartoon from Japan sure to astound and amaze:
http://fchan.hentaiplanet.net/flash/src/Mousetrap.swf
It takes a while to load, but since it's a short movie that's understandable.
Rob
http://fchan.hentaiplanet.net/flash/src/Mousetrap.swf
It takes a while to load, but since it's a short movie that's understandable.
Rob
Episode III
So, yesterday Connie and I went to see Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, and I have to say that overall I liked it. I'm a big fan of Star Wars, I have been since I was 8, but I have been very disappointed with the new films prior to this one, and I admit that even this one doesn't rate as highly with me as the old ones do.
I guess the problem I run into is that the new ones are all about spectacle, with character and story taking an almost second place position to trying to wow the audience. This is wonderful if you're trying to create a movie that the audience will view once and then forget about, but if you want to tell a real meaningful story that people will remember and want to see again you have to give them something with more substance. In this, Lucas comes closest with this new movie, but still falls really short of the mark.
Someone really needs to tell George Lucas when enough is enough, because if he wants to make a giant visual painting using special effects that's fine, but this is suppose to be a story. The biggest problem I found was that even when there was something important happening Lucas feels the need to have a huge number of "cool special effects" going on around the characters which keeps the audience from focussing on what's important. The end fight is a blazing (if you'll pardon the pun) example of this, with the environment getting just as much attention as the fight when in fact the environment should be a minor detail compared to the fight itself. I've always felt that an artist was best served when they were given limits to push and to sometimes break, because I have seen so many artists who have no clue what to do when you given them complete freedom. Editing is good, it can be your friend, and boy does Lucas need an editor.
That said, it really isn't a bad film, just one in need of better storytelling, dialogue, artistic thought and acting. Still, there are some good moments in the movie that will probably be remembered for a long time, one being Padme's comment when the Chancellor becomes the Emperor and the other being the look in Anakin's eyes as he has the mask put on him. Those two moments stuck with me far better than any of the special effects shots of the movie, because they were human moments, and I was there to see a story about people, not computer special effects.
Rob
I guess the problem I run into is that the new ones are all about spectacle, with character and story taking an almost second place position to trying to wow the audience. This is wonderful if you're trying to create a movie that the audience will view once and then forget about, but if you want to tell a real meaningful story that people will remember and want to see again you have to give them something with more substance. In this, Lucas comes closest with this new movie, but still falls really short of the mark.
Someone really needs to tell George Lucas when enough is enough, because if he wants to make a giant visual painting using special effects that's fine, but this is suppose to be a story. The biggest problem I found was that even when there was something important happening Lucas feels the need to have a huge number of "cool special effects" going on around the characters which keeps the audience from focussing on what's important. The end fight is a blazing (if you'll pardon the pun) example of this, with the environment getting just as much attention as the fight when in fact the environment should be a minor detail compared to the fight itself. I've always felt that an artist was best served when they were given limits to push and to sometimes break, because I have seen so many artists who have no clue what to do when you given them complete freedom. Editing is good, it can be your friend, and boy does Lucas need an editor.
That said, it really isn't a bad film, just one in need of better storytelling, dialogue, artistic thought and acting. Still, there are some good moments in the movie that will probably be remembered for a long time, one being Padme's comment when the Chancellor becomes the Emperor and the other being the look in Anakin's eyes as he has the mask put on him. Those two moments stuck with me far better than any of the special effects shots of the movie, because they were human moments, and I was there to see a story about people, not computer special effects.
Rob
Wednesday, May 18, 2005
Written Chinese (full)
Yesterday during my Chinese Language class an interesting topic came up: why do the Chinese people keep using their traditional writing system. Currently, as I'm sure almost all of you know, the Chinese use a system based on writing picture symbols (although the picture element has become extremely abstract) where each Chinese Character (called HanZi in Chinese) represents both an idea and a sound. Unlike English, Greek, Arabic or any of the other phonetic writing systems used by most of the world where each symbol represents a sound, HanZi have no inherent sound beside the one that people memorize to go with it. If you study English alphabet and pronunciation for a week, you can read almost anything ever written in English, your pronunciation might be off and you won't understand what you're reading, but you will be able to read it because it's just codified pieces of sound. If you know the code, you can read it, it's that simple, and on top of that it ties the written language and the spoken language deeply together.
In Chinese, this connection is made more difficult because with HanZi, you either know them or you don't, and if you don't you have almost no hope of pronouncing them. (There are a few tricks that can allow a native speaker to guess, but it's nothing certain.) This makes learning to write Chinese infinitely more difficult than learning to write English, and creates a situation where people who study Chinese for years still cannot read a book if they haven't been also memorizing the HanZi as they go.
And, there are over 50,000 HanZi! Of them roughly 10,000 being in common use, and roughly 3000 being essential to handling a general language text like a newspaper. This means that while growing up Chinese children are spending huge amounts of academic time just memorizing HanZi through rote memorization. And that's just the individual HanZi, they're usually used in combinations of 2 to 4 characters which can change the meaning completely so they also have to be memorized. Quite the feat, actually, maybe they really are smarter than us!
So, we come to my classmate's question: "Isn't that a huge waste of time? Wouldn't the children and society be better served by using a phonetic writing system like English and spending that memorization time on arts, history, music, physical education, science or any number of other subjects or activities?"
The Japanese, Koreans and even the Taiwanese realized this to a degree, all of them developing phonetic writing systems to use alongside the HanZi in varying degrees. The Taiwanese just use their phonetic system as a stepping stone for children to learn first before they learn HanZi, the Japanese use a hybrid of HanZi mixed with phonetics and the Koreans do the same as the Japanese but use the least number of HanZi of all three in their writing system. Both the Japanese and Koreans are actively trying to remove the HanZi from their writing systems, but finding it difficult for the same reason the Chinese are reluctant to remove them: homonyms.
For those who slept through grammar (I know I did, and now I teach it! O_o! Ironic!) a homonym is a word that is pronounced the same as another word so they share the same sound but have different meanings. Well, these asian languages are filled with Homonyms, especially Chinese which has an almost horrific number of them. In speaking, they tell them apart by pronunciation tone and context, but in writing the only way they could come up with to tell them apart was to create separate characters to represent them.
Now, I do have to admit, HanZi are pretty useful once you get used to them, and in fact during Chinese class there are often times when I wish I was looking at the HanZi so I knew which Chinese word written in PinYin the teacher just written on the board. While PinYin does use Tone Markers to distinguish between words with the same basic sound, I find it's often not enough to be sure which word you are looking at since often several homonyms can also be pronounced with the same tone.
Also, HanZi, as some have pointed out, are the spirit and culture of the Chinese people. Those symbols represent a way of thinking different from western thought (so different they use the other side of the human brain when decoding them) and contain deep meanings that often go beyond simple sound. When a Chinese person reads a poem they are not just reading the sound, but looking at a piece of artwork as the HanZi are also carefully chosen to elicit certain ideas or feelings on a level beyond simple phonetic communication. Of course, through word choice an English poet can do the same thing to a degree, how big a degree I don't know because I'm not bilingual enough to compare the two. Nor am I likely to be for a long time, thanks to the degree of difficulty in learning the HanZi system.
Newsweek and Time have both recently had cover stories questioning Does the Future Belong to China? and as someone who is sitting on China's doorstep I have often asked myself the same question. Having a neighborly view into China's windows I have been watching the giant carefully as it moves and deals with an exploding economy and world class status in it's higher levels of society. I often ponder China's future in the world, and consider where it will go from here and if it can overcome the numerous obstacles it faces.
One of those obstacles I can clearly see hindering them is their language, specifically the writing system I am talking about in this journal. As someone who has studied both Mandarin Chinese and Japanese (both touted at times to be the "language of the future") I can't help but notice how few people (foreigners) actually manage to stick with and learn these languages to any real degree of proficiency. Most get as far as "survival" level, and then tend to quickly give up anything more simply because it's just too hard, and one of the major obstacles I've noticed kills most of their enthusiasm is learning to read and write.
If I were to study Spanish, as soon as I began to master the spoken language I could begin putting the written language to work, and the same is true for almost any other phonetic language. This would let me practice and work in that language; improving my skills even if I didn't have a person who spoke the language to practice with. Yes, each phonetic language has it's quirks, and sometimes languages vary in their spoken and written forms, but for the most part phonetic languages are intimately tied with their written forms. And, it's the very discontinuity between spoken and written Mandarin (and Japanese and to a lesser extent Korean) that makes them not only hard to learn but will prevent them from becoming global languages.
When you couple this with the simple point that it's hell to program a computer in Chinese, which means that programmers learn how to program in English, and the languages of business and science are still English, you see why Chinese learn English and not the other way around. I'm not complaining, it means more work for me, but since my classmate brought up the above point I have been thinking about this a lot. Wouldn't the people of China be better served by creating and using a new written language based on phonetics instead of symbols? I'm not saying they should use the English system like PinYin, but even that would be better than being stuck with a language that is both impractical and in the long term limits their ability to compete on a global cultural scale.
And any language which can't compete will eventually die off, no matter how many poor people speak it. Like a corporation, if a language is not expanding, it's dying because another language will be expanding around it.
I know it won't happen, but if Chinese is to be around for another 6000 years, there's going to need to be a few changes made, because they're not isolated anymore and they can't afford to be sentimental if they want their culture and language to survive.
Rob
In Chinese, this connection is made more difficult because with HanZi, you either know them or you don't, and if you don't you have almost no hope of pronouncing them. (There are a few tricks that can allow a native speaker to guess, but it's nothing certain.) This makes learning to write Chinese infinitely more difficult than learning to write English, and creates a situation where people who study Chinese for years still cannot read a book if they haven't been also memorizing the HanZi as they go.
And, there are over 50,000 HanZi! Of them roughly 10,000 being in common use, and roughly 3000 being essential to handling a general language text like a newspaper. This means that while growing up Chinese children are spending huge amounts of academic time just memorizing HanZi through rote memorization. And that's just the individual HanZi, they're usually used in combinations of 2 to 4 characters which can change the meaning completely so they also have to be memorized. Quite the feat, actually, maybe they really are smarter than us!
So, we come to my classmate's question: "Isn't that a huge waste of time? Wouldn't the children and society be better served by using a phonetic writing system like English and spending that memorization time on arts, history, music, physical education, science or any number of other subjects or activities?"
The Japanese, Koreans and even the Taiwanese realized this to a degree, all of them developing phonetic writing systems to use alongside the HanZi in varying degrees. The Taiwanese just use their phonetic system as a stepping stone for children to learn first before they learn HanZi, the Japanese use a hybrid of HanZi mixed with phonetics and the Koreans do the same as the Japanese but use the least number of HanZi of all three in their writing system. Both the Japanese and Koreans are actively trying to remove the HanZi from their writing systems, but finding it difficult for the same reason the Chinese are reluctant to remove them: homonyms.
For those who slept through grammar (I know I did, and now I teach it! O_o! Ironic!) a homonym is a word that is pronounced the same as another word so they share the same sound but have different meanings. Well, these asian languages are filled with Homonyms, especially Chinese which has an almost horrific number of them. In speaking, they tell them apart by pronunciation tone and context, but in writing the only way they could come up with to tell them apart was to create separate characters to represent them.
Now, I do have to admit, HanZi are pretty useful once you get used to them, and in fact during Chinese class there are often times when I wish I was looking at the HanZi so I knew which Chinese word written in PinYin the teacher just written on the board. While PinYin does use Tone Markers to distinguish between words with the same basic sound, I find it's often not enough to be sure which word you are looking at since often several homonyms can also be pronounced with the same tone.
Also, HanZi, as some have pointed out, are the spirit and culture of the Chinese people. Those symbols represent a way of thinking different from western thought (so different they use the other side of the human brain when decoding them) and contain deep meanings that often go beyond simple sound. When a Chinese person reads a poem they are not just reading the sound, but looking at a piece of artwork as the HanZi are also carefully chosen to elicit certain ideas or feelings on a level beyond simple phonetic communication. Of course, through word choice an English poet can do the same thing to a degree, how big a degree I don't know because I'm not bilingual enough to compare the two. Nor am I likely to be for a long time, thanks to the degree of difficulty in learning the HanZi system.
Newsweek and Time have both recently had cover stories questioning Does the Future Belong to China? and as someone who is sitting on China's doorstep I have often asked myself the same question. Having a neighborly view into China's windows I have been watching the giant carefully as it moves and deals with an exploding economy and world class status in it's higher levels of society. I often ponder China's future in the world, and consider where it will go from here and if it can overcome the numerous obstacles it faces.
One of those obstacles I can clearly see hindering them is their language, specifically the writing system I am talking about in this journal. As someone who has studied both Mandarin Chinese and Japanese (both touted at times to be the "language of the future") I can't help but notice how few people (foreigners) actually manage to stick with and learn these languages to any real degree of proficiency. Most get as far as "survival" level, and then tend to quickly give up anything more simply because it's just too hard, and one of the major obstacles I've noticed kills most of their enthusiasm is learning to read and write.
If I were to study Spanish, as soon as I began to master the spoken language I could begin putting the written language to work, and the same is true for almost any other phonetic language. This would let me practice and work in that language; improving my skills even if I didn't have a person who spoke the language to practice with. Yes, each phonetic language has it's quirks, and sometimes languages vary in their spoken and written forms, but for the most part phonetic languages are intimately tied with their written forms. And, it's the very discontinuity between spoken and written Mandarin (and Japanese and to a lesser extent Korean) that makes them not only hard to learn but will prevent them from becoming global languages.
When you couple this with the simple point that it's hell to program a computer in Chinese, which means that programmers learn how to program in English, and the languages of business and science are still English, you see why Chinese learn English and not the other way around. I'm not complaining, it means more work for me, but since my classmate brought up the above point I have been thinking about this a lot. Wouldn't the people of China be better served by creating and using a new written language based on phonetics instead of symbols? I'm not saying they should use the English system like PinYin, but even that would be better than being stuck with a language that is both impractical and in the long term limits their ability to compete on a global cultural scale.
And any language which can't compete will eventually die off, no matter how many poor people speak it. Like a corporation, if a language is not expanding, it's dying because another language will be expanding around it.
I know it won't happen, but if Chinese is to be around for another 6000 years, there's going to need to be a few changes made, because they're not isolated anymore and they can't afford to be sentimental if they want their culture and language to survive.
Rob
Tuesday, May 17, 2005
Roaches and Snakes and Lizards....Oh my!
So, late last evening when I was out for a stroll after returning home from work, something caught my eye. Something reddish brown that moved very quickly through the lighted areas of the Taipei sidewalk, trying to return to it's shadowy home: a cockroach!
Now, in a subtropical city which isn't known for being the cleanest place in the world, seeing a roach, even a large one as the locals are (a good 7-8cm in length) shouldn't even be something to bat an eye about, much less write up on my blog. But, you see this was actually one of the first roaches I've seen since I've been here for the last 4+ months, and the other noteworthy thing was, it wasn't alone.
For the first time since I've been out walking at night, I saw many roaches last night skittering everywhere, it was almost like the horde had been unleashed and was rushing through the city on a quest to eat it's garbage scraps. (That left behind by the hordes of stray dogs and cats that populate this city, not many mice or rats though, because the cats do good work.) I was actually pretty shocked to see them all, and wondered where they were coming from, until I thought about it a while as I walked.
Although last night was fairly dry and calm, it followed a good solid week of rain and a torrential weekend which caused no small amount of flooding outside of the city. So, I reasoned, what was happening was that the roaches had been flooded out of their sewer homes and were forced up into the light with the rest of us.
"Welcome to the party guys, watch out for the scooter drivers, they're nuts!"
An interesting additional note came today during my Chinese Language Class when one of my classmates by the name of Eugene (a pleasant older man with a definite love of travel) related to me that this morning during a walk in the forrest he'd suddenly found himself surrounded by an abundance of wildlife. Making it clear this was not a usual occurance, he said that he'd found the forrest floor to be teeming with lizards and even saw a snake. (Which are quite the rare, if dangerous, thing in these parts.) He also said the birds were more plentiful than usual, and saw a wide variety of beautiful plumage during his walk.
Well, I can't explain the birds (although perhaps they're there to eat the bugs and lizards...) but I related my roach story to him and commented that probably the lizards and snake were also flushed out by the water and forced to seek open ground. It seems the water makes life more interesting for everyone around Taipei.
Rob
Now, in a subtropical city which isn't known for being the cleanest place in the world, seeing a roach, even a large one as the locals are (a good 7-8cm in length) shouldn't even be something to bat an eye about, much less write up on my blog. But, you see this was actually one of the first roaches I've seen since I've been here for the last 4+ months, and the other noteworthy thing was, it wasn't alone.
For the first time since I've been out walking at night, I saw many roaches last night skittering everywhere, it was almost like the horde had been unleashed and was rushing through the city on a quest to eat it's garbage scraps. (That left behind by the hordes of stray dogs and cats that populate this city, not many mice or rats though, because the cats do good work.) I was actually pretty shocked to see them all, and wondered where they were coming from, until I thought about it a while as I walked.
Although last night was fairly dry and calm, it followed a good solid week of rain and a torrential weekend which caused no small amount of flooding outside of the city. So, I reasoned, what was happening was that the roaches had been flooded out of their sewer homes and were forced up into the light with the rest of us.
"Welcome to the party guys, watch out for the scooter drivers, they're nuts!"
An interesting additional note came today during my Chinese Language Class when one of my classmates by the name of Eugene (a pleasant older man with a definite love of travel) related to me that this morning during a walk in the forrest he'd suddenly found himself surrounded by an abundance of wildlife. Making it clear this was not a usual occurance, he said that he'd found the forrest floor to be teeming with lizards and even saw a snake. (Which are quite the rare, if dangerous, thing in these parts.) He also said the birds were more plentiful than usual, and saw a wide variety of beautiful plumage during his walk.
Well, I can't explain the birds (although perhaps they're there to eat the bugs and lizards...) but I related my roach story to him and commented that probably the lizards and snake were also flushed out by the water and forced to seek open ground. It seems the water makes life more interesting for everyone around Taipei.
Rob
Garbage
I have done it! Yes! I have officially become a resident of Taipei!
How, you ask, did Rob accomplish this?
I have...dumped garbage!
Before you laugh, I must relate to you the ordeal which is getting rid of your trash in Taipei. (Then you can laugh...)
Thus far, each weekend when I make a trip to Connie's I have taken my trash (appropriately separated for ecological quality under penalty of death by girlfriend) with me and it's gone out with Connie's family's weekly garbage. But, it was determined recently that I should handle my own trash from now on since Connie got tired of carrying the garbage on the bus. (Appropriately hidden inside innocuous looking shopping bags, of course!)
So, with this in mind, I stored up my garbage for the past two weeks, and tonight once I got home I quickly assembled the bags and set out on a quest for the garbage truck.
For you see, in Taipei, getting your garbage out is something between a community event and a sport. The Garbage truck (and accompanying recycling truck) moves between designated community drop-off points wherein the locals must rendezvous with the truck and get their garbage to the truck before the truck leaves to move on to the next spot. This is not as easy as it sounds, not only is the time the truck will be there limited and somewhat imprecise, each pick-up point serves an area which can be up to several square kilometers in size.
So, tonight when I set off in search of the legendary drop off point, I actually had only a vague idea of where to go coupled with hope that I could make it in time. After 5 minutes of winding my way through my local streets I found signs of the truck; locals carrying the required clear plastic bags with their coupons to pay for said garbage firmly attached. Following the locals I found myself among an ever growing mass of people, those going to the garbage dropoff and those returning stopping to talk to their neighbours.
Eventually, the trucks with their flashing lights came into view around a corner, and I nervously moved with the masses towards the lights. I wondered, did I separate enough? Would I be nailed for having left one or two plastic bags inside my garbage? (I'm a sinner...I confess...) I had even left my recyclables at home, deciding that they would be dealt with on my next trip: basic garbage was a difficult enough task to worry about dealing with leftover cartons of papaya milk!
Finally it was my turn.
I stepped forward. The man at the back of the truck looked at me as I tried not to look at him, praying for no comments or awkward situations. I tossed my trash in with the others, and then quick as I could I slipped away, affording only a glance back to see if anyone had seen my crime. But none had! I was a free man. And, giddy with the thought of what I had just accomplished I strode off past the gathered people; proud that I too was now capable of doing that thing which truly makes one a resident of a city...dumping my own trash!
Rob
How, you ask, did Rob accomplish this?
I have...dumped garbage!
Before you laugh, I must relate to you the ordeal which is getting rid of your trash in Taipei. (Then you can laugh...)
Thus far, each weekend when I make a trip to Connie's I have taken my trash (appropriately separated for ecological quality under penalty of death by girlfriend) with me and it's gone out with Connie's family's weekly garbage. But, it was determined recently that I should handle my own trash from now on since Connie got tired of carrying the garbage on the bus. (Appropriately hidden inside innocuous looking shopping bags, of course!)
So, with this in mind, I stored up my garbage for the past two weeks, and tonight once I got home I quickly assembled the bags and set out on a quest for the garbage truck.
For you see, in Taipei, getting your garbage out is something between a community event and a sport. The Garbage truck (and accompanying recycling truck) moves between designated community drop-off points wherein the locals must rendezvous with the truck and get their garbage to the truck before the truck leaves to move on to the next spot. This is not as easy as it sounds, not only is the time the truck will be there limited and somewhat imprecise, each pick-up point serves an area which can be up to several square kilometers in size.
So, tonight when I set off in search of the legendary drop off point, I actually had only a vague idea of where to go coupled with hope that I could make it in time. After 5 minutes of winding my way through my local streets I found signs of the truck; locals carrying the required clear plastic bags with their coupons to pay for said garbage firmly attached. Following the locals I found myself among an ever growing mass of people, those going to the garbage dropoff and those returning stopping to talk to their neighbours.
Eventually, the trucks with their flashing lights came into view around a corner, and I nervously moved with the masses towards the lights. I wondered, did I separate enough? Would I be nailed for having left one or two plastic bags inside my garbage? (I'm a sinner...I confess...) I had even left my recyclables at home, deciding that they would be dealt with on my next trip: basic garbage was a difficult enough task to worry about dealing with leftover cartons of papaya milk!
Finally it was my turn.
I stepped forward. The man at the back of the truck looked at me as I tried not to look at him, praying for no comments or awkward situations. I tossed my trash in with the others, and then quick as I could I slipped away, affording only a glance back to see if anyone had seen my crime. But none had! I was a free man. And, giddy with the thought of what I had just accomplished I strode off past the gathered people; proud that I too was now capable of doing that thing which truly makes one a resident of a city...dumping my own trash!
Rob
Friday, May 13, 2005
Plum Rained Out
A little over a week ago marked the start of what they call the "Plum Rain Season" here in Taiwan, or as it's known in most other places just "the rainy season". This is a little climatological phenomena we're spared in Canada wherein it rains, and rains, and rains some more for about 3-4 weeks almost continuously. Imagine looking outside and seeing the hardest rain you have ever seen, a good torrential downpour, and imagine it doing that for hours at a time, every day, and you will know what it's like to be in the Plum Rain Season.
I've actually be through it before when I was in Japan, of course that was a little over 7 years ago now and I'd forgotten what a lovely experience it is. Of course, living in Taipei where there are a large number of sheltered walkways it's not too bad, the city is actually built for this since it's a normal part of life here. I carry my folding umbrella with me and it does the job for rushing between sheltered walkways, dashing to buses and getting back to my home.
Today, however, I went out to my weekly assignment in DanShui, literally the end of the line for the local transit system. I love it out there, and it's nice to get out of the city, but what's not so nice is when my 15 minute walk to the office I teach at turned out to be during a particularly hard bout of rain. Needless to say my poor little folding umbrella turned out to be nigh useless as water came at me from all directions, and by the time I got to the office the term "soaked to the skin" just didn't do me justice.
But, as they say in entertainment, the show must go on! So, after putting my shoes and socks out to dry and slipping on some borrowed flip-flops I proceeded to teach my two and half hours of class with a smile.
Speaking of which, I must tell a story.
Today in class we were practicing describing foods, and when it came to local foods it turns out a lot of the local special foods eaten on Holidays use peanuts as a sweet element. No problem, but as one of the students was explaining the food to me the first time he kept dropping the "t" sound in Peanuts, which makes it into 'Peanus". And, I was trying to figure out why he was telling me this dish used "chopped penis", not entirely far-fetched given the Chinese tendency to waste no part of an animal. When I realized he meant "peanuts" I corrected his pronunciation and went on with the class, but slowly realized that almost the whole class was pronouncing it "Peanus".
At this point, I had to stop the class and explain to them very directly what happens when you drop the "t" from Peanuts, and what the word "penis" meant. Actually, when I wrote it on the board, being the bunch of biologists they are, they knew that English word so I didn't have to define it. I told them in no uncertain terms they need to pronounce the "t" sound, and practiced it with them.
That said, I have no doubts it's not the last of "chopped penis" that I hear of. Shades of Lorenna Bobbit.
Rob
I've actually be through it before when I was in Japan, of course that was a little over 7 years ago now and I'd forgotten what a lovely experience it is. Of course, living in Taipei where there are a large number of sheltered walkways it's not too bad, the city is actually built for this since it's a normal part of life here. I carry my folding umbrella with me and it does the job for rushing between sheltered walkways, dashing to buses and getting back to my home.
Today, however, I went out to my weekly assignment in DanShui, literally the end of the line for the local transit system. I love it out there, and it's nice to get out of the city, but what's not so nice is when my 15 minute walk to the office I teach at turned out to be during a particularly hard bout of rain. Needless to say my poor little folding umbrella turned out to be nigh useless as water came at me from all directions, and by the time I got to the office the term "soaked to the skin" just didn't do me justice.
But, as they say in entertainment, the show must go on! So, after putting my shoes and socks out to dry and slipping on some borrowed flip-flops I proceeded to teach my two and half hours of class with a smile.
Speaking of which, I must tell a story.
Today in class we were practicing describing foods, and when it came to local foods it turns out a lot of the local special foods eaten on Holidays use peanuts as a sweet element. No problem, but as one of the students was explaining the food to me the first time he kept dropping the "t" sound in Peanuts, which makes it into 'Peanus". And, I was trying to figure out why he was telling me this dish used "chopped penis", not entirely far-fetched given the Chinese tendency to waste no part of an animal. When I realized he meant "peanuts" I corrected his pronunciation and went on with the class, but slowly realized that almost the whole class was pronouncing it "Peanus".
At this point, I had to stop the class and explain to them very directly what happens when you drop the "t" from Peanuts, and what the word "penis" meant. Actually, when I wrote it on the board, being the bunch of biologists they are, they knew that English word so I didn't have to define it. I told them in no uncertain terms they need to pronounce the "t" sound, and practiced it with them.
That said, I have no doubts it's not the last of "chopped penis" that I hear of. Shades of Lorenna Bobbit.
Rob
Sunday, May 08, 2005
Monday, May 02, 2005
How to profit from the encroaching Oil Crisis!
So, we'll peak production in 2008 and oil will become more expensive than ever, possibly causing a whole lof of financial problems for the Western world. Why is this happening, and better yet, how can you profit from it? Go here for a few ideas!
Rob
Rob
Sunday, May 01, 2005
So, today Connie, her mother and I decided to get out of the city proper and visit one of the national parks to get some fresh air. We caught a bus, hopped on the MRT, and then grabbed another bus for the long drive up into the YangMingShan mountain range. I was shocked to find a whole city-sized community living hidden beneath the trees up in the mountains I looked at fondly each day from the MRT as I worked. This picture is the bus terminal which marks the point where the residential area proper ends and a national park begins. Being a beautiful day, the park was filled with tourists and sightseers, but it's so big that hardly matters.
Just past the flower clock we find a Taiwanese snack seller. Now, not only do they have the traditional Ice Cream stand, but they also have a variety of Taiwanese eats for sale. In the foreground you can see dried squid next to two types of jerky and shredded dried meat. Above them are fried tofu squares on a stick to be heated on the barbecue and there are sausages and hard boiled eggs next to them. Two types of pogo dogs are waiting to go, and above the wooden chest (lord knows what's in that) hang a special rice mix wrapped in leaves. Whew! I feel tired just listing them all!
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