A few weeks ago, I watched outside my classroom as the landscapers were mowing the lawn. (I know, we must be pretty bored because we are watching people mow the lawn.) There was another reason why I was watching the lawn being mowed the other day. I sort of got a video.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Friday, May 29, 2009
I Will Beat You At Charades
Chinese is really hard. We have been working on it (intermittently) since we got here last August. I would estimate that we probably have the vocabulary of 3 year olds at this point.
We do have a few specialized areas where we are slightly more advanced... Ask Heather how to order any of a multitude of Taiwanese teas and she will accurately hook you up. Ask me what a particular item is on a Chinese menu and I'll be happy to tell you. (although, if the dish does not contain one of the 6 characters I recognize, my response will be fabricated, and you will most likely not get what you wanted.)
At the beginning of our stay here, trying to communicate was not only utterly fruitless, but also semi-terrifying. Picture this hypothetical scenario:
You realize that your hair is getting a bit shaggy (read: way overdue) and you ask for a hair salon recommendation from a friend. You get it, and head to the place. You park the car, take a deep breath and rehearse the phrase you think will request a haircut. As you get close to the shop, your heart begins to beat a bit faster. You become preoccupied with concern that you will say something utterly stupid and/or completely unintelligible and be laughed at. Again. You walk through the door and are greeted by the stylist. At this point your stage fright takes over and you completely forget the sentence you just rehearsed 400 times in your head. Thinking fast, you resort to the only language you know she'll understand - International Charades. You lift your hand up next to your head and flash the peace sign. Chop those fingers together - just like scissors. Make some sort of question mark sounding grunt. The stylist understands, smiles and waves you over to a chair. Success! Have a seat and await your fate. (If you can think of a good charade maneuver for "take a little off the top." please post a comment...)
OK, truth be told, this situation is not at all hypothetical. It happened to me. Actually it's happened a bunch of times. OK, more like every day. (Not the haircut specifically, but this sort of interaction.) Sometimes it's easy. (Really, what else would the hair stylist think a shaggy haired guy want - A perm? Well maybe, but that's another topic for another post...) Sometimes it's impossible. (What maneuvers could I possibly conjure up to ask for fuel injector cleaner?)
Charades, while effective, can occasionally make you look even dumber than a few mangled syllables of attempted Chinese. I recall traveling to the airport on my trip to Hong Kong. I stepped up to the counter to pay for my shuttle bus ride and the clerk asked me something. Thinking he wanted to know where I was going and having no clue how to say "airport", I motioned with my hand the path of a plane taking off (complete with sound effects). He then repeated his question which had originally been in English. "How many people?" "Uhhhh... sorry. One person." Yep, I definitely felt like an idiot.
So having had all this practice, I would consider myself a true professional when it comes to International Charades. We are returning to the U.S. in just over a month... I challenge you to a game of making people guess phrases by acting them out. Be prepared to loose. You won't even know what hit you.
We do have a few specialized areas where we are slightly more advanced... Ask Heather how to order any of a multitude of Taiwanese teas and she will accurately hook you up. Ask me what a particular item is on a Chinese menu and I'll be happy to tell you. (although, if the dish does not contain one of the 6 characters I recognize, my response will be fabricated, and you will most likely not get what you wanted.)
At the beginning of our stay here, trying to communicate was not only utterly fruitless, but also semi-terrifying. Picture this hypothetical scenario:
You realize that your hair is getting a bit shaggy (read: way overdue) and you ask for a hair salon recommendation from a friend. You get it, and head to the place. You park the car, take a deep breath and rehearse the phrase you think will request a haircut. As you get close to the shop, your heart begins to beat a bit faster. You become preoccupied with concern that you will say something utterly stupid and/or completely unintelligible and be laughed at. Again. You walk through the door and are greeted by the stylist. At this point your stage fright takes over and you completely forget the sentence you just rehearsed 400 times in your head. Thinking fast, you resort to the only language you know she'll understand - International Charades. You lift your hand up next to your head and flash the peace sign. Chop those fingers together - just like scissors. Make some sort of question mark sounding grunt. The stylist understands, smiles and waves you over to a chair. Success! Have a seat and await your fate. (If you can think of a good charade maneuver for "take a little off the top." please post a comment...)
OK, truth be told, this situation is not at all hypothetical. It happened to me. Actually it's happened a bunch of times. OK, more like every day. (Not the haircut specifically, but this sort of interaction.) Sometimes it's easy. (Really, what else would the hair stylist think a shaggy haired guy want - A perm? Well maybe, but that's another topic for another post...) Sometimes it's impossible. (What maneuvers could I possibly conjure up to ask for fuel injector cleaner?)
Charades, while effective, can occasionally make you look even dumber than a few mangled syllables of attempted Chinese. I recall traveling to the airport on my trip to Hong Kong. I stepped up to the counter to pay for my shuttle bus ride and the clerk asked me something. Thinking he wanted to know where I was going and having no clue how to say "airport", I motioned with my hand the path of a plane taking off (complete with sound effects). He then repeated his question which had originally been in English. "How many people?" "Uhhhh... sorry. One person." Yep, I definitely felt like an idiot.
So having had all this practice, I would consider myself a true professional when it comes to International Charades. We are returning to the U.S. in just over a month... I challenge you to a game of making people guess phrases by acting them out. Be prepared to loose. You won't even know what hit you.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Banquet
In my opinion, I believe that the banquet my school put on 2 weeks ago was way better than any other banquet I have ever attended. They actually had great entertainment which is a must (Our students presented!) and they also had great food! (Before I show you the pictures, many times in Taiwan, you see a mixture of styles in places considered fancy or posh. It makes for some amazing pictures.) Here are some pictures from our banquet:
Daphne works in our office and is amazing. My students actually loaned me the dress and the mask, meaning I didn't have to spend much money for the clothes. Very nice of them.
I would have put a great picture of both of us up, but this was one of the better ones...
Phil made his own mask.
Phil and me at the end. We had a great time, but are exhausted. And we have school tomorrow morning.
The entrance to the place. What you don't see is that the road in front of this can only fit 1 1/2 cars on it. The bus couldn't make it all the way.
The place was called the castle or something like that. Here are pictures of the prince and princess. Amazing!
The theme was masquerade and the sisters ended up making a lot of masques for everyone to wear, including our trusty leader.
Moriah and Joseph. She ended up making her dress. It looked amazing.
Some decorations on the landing up to the second floor. As I said, they mix styles here.
Where we ate looked similar to this.
Outside heading to the talent show!
Megan.
Daphne works in our office and is amazing. My students actually loaned me the dress and the mask, meaning I didn't have to spend much money for the clothes. Very nice of them.
I would have put a great picture of both of us up, but this was one of the better ones...
Phil made his own mask.
Phil and me at the end. We had a great time, but are exhausted. And we have school tomorrow morning.Monday, May 25, 2009
Video
When my parents were here, we went to Taroko Gorge, which has many cliffs and suspension bridges that are quite scary. We had to cross one and here is an amazing video from that experience. If you listen very closely at about 4 or 5 seconds in you can hear my mom screaming. Pretty amazing.
 |
| From VideosSpringBreak |
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Parents and Taiwan
My parents were able to visit me and here is proof that they actually came!
Outside the National Palace Museum. My mom got really good elbowing her way around to see things. She's pretty much Taiwanese.
At the temple for a dog.
I finally got a picture of this. My battery died the first time we came when I went to get a shot.
Another look at Yeliu.
Phil and I had not actually visited a Hot Springs until my parents came. Here is the picture of the bath in our room. It turns out that there actually is a cold for this bath, but we did not figure that out until the next morning. We filled the bath all the way and then realized that we were going to give ourselves third degree burns if we got into the water. We decided to wait about 1/2 hour. When that didn't work, we began adding cold water from the shower nearby. That took another 1/2 hour. By the time we actually got into the water, it was nice. We still felt like it was sitting in a bath at home with rusty nails.
I have a great video for this suspension bridge. As soon as I figure out how to post it, it will be up. Oh, this is at Taroko Gorge.
The parents.
We decided to drive over Hehuanshan to get to our school, which stands for Snow Mountain. The drive was incredible, but we will never do it again. We made my mom carsick by driving this road. Oh and the last hour was terrifying. You can see the road we just drove on in the distance:
This is what the last 1 hour looked like, except you can't see the massive drop off to the right and left:
A better view of the road. We don't want to find out if the guard rail will hold us. In fact, we had to back up at one point because in most parts the road is only 1 lane and a large truck was coming the other way. Oh and like driving in Taiwan, they do pass you if they can.
We were really sad when my parents left, but were excited when we could make:
And tonite, we get chili!
Outside the National Palace Museum. My mom got really good elbowing her way around to see things. She's pretty much Taiwanese.
This is either the national theater or the concert hall. One of our students will be playing there this coming Wednesday. We would go if Taipei wasn't 3 hours away and we didn't have classes early the next morning.
At the temple for a dog.
I finally got a picture of this. My battery died the first time we came when I went to get a shot.
Another look at Yeliu.
Phil and I had not actually visited a Hot Springs until my parents came. Here is the picture of the bath in our room. It turns out that there actually is a cold for this bath, but we did not figure that out until the next morning. We filled the bath all the way and then realized that we were going to give ourselves third degree burns if we got into the water. We decided to wait about 1/2 hour. When that didn't work, we began adding cold water from the shower nearby. That took another 1/2 hour. By the time we actually got into the water, it was nice. We still felt like it was sitting in a bath at home with rusty nails.
I have a great video for this suspension bridge. As soon as I figure out how to post it, it will be up. Oh, this is at Taroko Gorge.
The parents.
We decided to drive over Hehuanshan to get to our school, which stands for Snow Mountain. The drive was incredible, but we will never do it again. We made my mom carsick by driving this road. Oh and the last hour was terrifying. You can see the road we just drove on in the distance:
This is what the last 1 hour looked like, except you can't see the massive drop off to the right and left:
A better view of the road. We don't want to find out if the guard rail will hold us. In fact, we had to back up at one point because in most parts the road is only 1 lane and a large truck was coming the other way. Oh and like driving in Taiwan, they do pass you if they can.
The temple at Sun Moon Lake. We live 5 minutes from here.
We were really sad when my parents left, but were excited when we could make:
And tonite, we get chili!
Friday, May 8, 2009
Cruel Teacher
It turns out that one of my students is going to have a birthday today, Friday. It also turns out that I am giving him 2 quizzes today in the classes he takes from me. (Biology and Algebra 2) I almost felt bad, and then I remembered I had postponed the math quiz because he had been absent so many times and needed extra time to study. (Also unexcused absences) ah I love it when I have an aha moment.
We had a wonderful time showing my parents around the island and we will blog about it on a later post. (Phil has all the pictures)
We had a wonderful time showing my parents around the island and we will blog about it on a later post. (Phil has all the pictures)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
