Day 4: Backtracking

6:00 AM. No rain. Lots of roosters (or other animals with loud noises). OK sleep. Spent the night being paranoid about sounds and a truck that parked near my scooter. Not sure what to do today after I return from Wai'ao. Maybe head straight for Taroko.

The Ultimate Map

10 days of scootering down the east coast of Taiwan.

Here's what I wrote about it.

Here's how I did it:

He said "gao wan!"

If you know for a fact that nobody around you can hear/understand what you're saying, that's basically a free pass to talk about whatever you want. This applies to people who go hiking by themselves, adults who talk about "grown up things" in front of the kids, friends who have code words for other people, and people in the U.S. who speak any language other then English. This also applies for Taiwanese students in the presence of their English teacher who doesn't know any Chinese. The difference is, recently I am able to understand a lot of what they are saying, and they don't know!!

"The History and Evolution of the Peace Sign"

I just found this video, thought you'd like to see it:

Baby, it's cold inside!

This month marks my completion of 2 years in Taiwan. I was going through my blog archives, starting from the beginning, and got a little nostalgic. In particular, I found my expectations of the weather prior to my arrival pretty interesting:

Forgive me...

for I have sinned. This post is to confess my disrespect towards Taiwanese culture and the Chinese-English language. It's shameful to say that there are too many instances to list, but nothing is more shameful than the reason for this is because I disrespect the Taiwanese for a living.

One of my 3 year old students: "Teacher John, my home has blue cock."

My response: "You can say: I have a blue clock at home."

In retrospect, I wish I had asked my student whether or not he believes his house can have possessions, asked him what he believed a "cock"is, and then respected his choice to call a mechanism used for keeping time a "cock."

4 Reasons Why You aren't an ESL Teacher

Here is the latest addition to the debate between a white middle class male English teacher, a 6 year old Taiwanese ESL student, and a white middle class female teacher (the comments keep getting deleted, but I received them in pieces, so I'm not sure if they are 100% accurate in terms of the intended order of paragraphs):

Tomato or Tomato?

(3 episodes)

Episode 1:

Step 1: Know the Rules, Step 2: Break 'em

A comment in response to this post

"You probably should have taken some classes in understanding different cultures before you went over there.

more supporting evidence

click here to see posts leading up to this

In Chinese-English intercultural communication, kinship terms often present problems because satisfactory equivalents are not always available... The Chinese practice is generally , but not always, to use 公，母 to show whether a creature is male or female. In English, more specific terms are often used, including terms for the young.

Step 1: Recognize the issue, Step 2: Make relevant arguments

"...words in both languages that appear to refer to the same object or concept on the surface, but actually refer to quite different things."

A comment on my most recent post was accidentally deleted, but I wouldn't want to deprive anyone that may be following this debate (click here to see all the posts leading up to this). I've recovered the comment, which is displayed here, and below that is my response.

I understand what you believe to be true comes from your understanding of New York and Taiwan culture because these are the only places you have been.

Step 1: Know the Rules, Step 2: Break 'em

A comment in response to this post:

"You probably should have taken some classes in understanding different cultures before you went over there.

There are plenty of "English-speakers" who use that exact terminology. Different cultures say different things- who are you to be the judge of what is correct or incorrect? Because it is in the dictionary??? If everyone spoke using words and meanings strictly from the dictionary, that would include some pretty boring conversations and no differences between cultures and areas. I am guessing you are looking for cookie-cutter speakers throughout the world?

Transliteration

Transliteration is how languages adopt words from other languages using their own characters. For example, Taiwan, Taipei, lo mein, won ton, and ramen are all transliterations from Asian languages.

In other words, nobody wanted to create a new English word for them, so we stole the words and used the ABCs to spell it. They do the same thing in Chinese.

Here's a fun Transliteration game:

Directly Translated 3

I have to keep stressing the fact that the direct translations I'm brining up aren't actually translated incorrectly. They do have a tendency to be used incorrectly, though, so there are plenty of instances where it will be incorrect. Like this example:

Just like Aunties and Uncles, any person that is maybe a little bit older than you can be called "older sister" or "older brother." This especially includes cousins. While there is a word for cousin, it is much more common to hear an older female cousin referred to as, "older sister," directly translated.

Once, back in the days of the Squirrel Class,

Directly Translated 2

Here's something interesting that my recent Chinese studies have led me to. Presented below is a list of 3 Chinese characters and their English meanings.

Watch carefully...

Directly Translated

I am a teacher of the English language. My job description is pretty clear: teach English. The way this differs from a translation website or a dictionary is that, although some things CAN be directly translated, it doesn't always sound right.

So my job is not only to teach English, but to make sure it's being used properly. Here's how things can get interesting:

White Noise

Someone once asked me why I like living in Taiwan. Of all the dozens of reasons I could have named, I responded, "Because it's quiet."

Even though the subway, the buses, the streets, the food courts, the restaurants, etc. are usually rammed with people, as a foreigner, I still find peace and quiet in all of these places. My brain hasn't been programmed (yet) to understand the Chinese language, therefore it doesn't ask my ears to do the useless task of trying to listen. After about a minute or 2

Strawberry Fields

As a rule of thumb, I'll eat just about anything that's pink. Candy, cake, bread, you name it. The chances are it's strawberry flavored.

Last year, the word got out that strawberries/strawberry flavored foods rank somewhere in my Top 1 Favorite Foods list, and my students brought me tons of strawberry food items for my birthday. If it was customary to give kindergarten students letter grades, of course they would have all gotten A's.

Last weekend

100 Years*

A bit of history to make up for the posting drought? Why not?

As witnessed by TONS of people (just ask Karen) on the streets in Taipei, there were some pretty impressive fireworks to celebrate the opening minute of 2011.

Worldwide, the eve of 2011 was just another night of partying in preparation for another year for failed resolutions.

For some, 2011 was more significant.

The Life

Here's a little video I made, mostly from a first person point of view. It's bits and pieces of a typical week day working in the salt mines. Enjoy!

Animals, mostly

Here are the answers! If you didn't get a chance to guess yet, click here first.

Direct Translation / English

"oak mouse" / squirrel