Storms, viruses, and Taiwanese language

I've been back a few weeks now, and the weather is finally starting to get cooler. That means a bunch of low-pressure cold fronts (read: wind and rain) which, while giving a brief respite to the sweltering heat of the sun, also means that, well, it's getting cooler.

I moved out of Mr. Zhang's apartment and am now occupying a friend's house while he is out of the country. My friend, JR, also lent me his bicycle, and I've started to bike to school and back, which gives me some exercise. This has caused me to get sunburns (and then tans) on my arms and neck (a real farmer's tan), so on Monday I started applying suncream in those areas, as well as my face, before going to school.

As luck would have it, when I got outside there was no sun, only clouds, and to add insult to injury raindrops started coming down. After running back inside to get my rainjacket (for the bike) and umbrella (for walking around), I got on my bike and started pedaling on the side of the street.

I tried to hurry, but still be cautious of the cars and rain. When I got to the bridge I was especially careful, and biked on the sidewalk instead of the road. Still when I got on the other side of the bridge, I went back among the cars and endless scooters which zipped passed me.

When I got to school class had already started. My new class (the new semester started in September) consists of three Koreans, three Japanese, one other American, and one Indonesian. Anyway the teacher was warning us about H1N1, and if we had a fever we should immediately go to a doctor and have it checked out.

I don't know if it was because I was in such a rush to get to school, or if the teacher's words had some effect on me, but it was precisely at this moment that I started to feel queasy. I had difficulty concentrating for the rest of the class and wondered whether I should leave for fear of spreading whatever it was I had (God forbid H1N1).

Later, I went to the school medical center where my temperature and symptoms were checked. Apparently I had a flu, but it wasn't THE flu. Phew.

After I rushed to go to a Taiwanese language class. The auditorium, which held about 400 people, was almost full when I got there, but I spotted a seat next to two Japanese friends, Yusuke and Yoshi. Yoshi is half-Taiwanese, which was great cuz he would correct me on my pronunciation.

A little side note, if you think Chinese sounds hard, you should wrap your head around Taiwanese, a dialect which originates from the Fujianese province which faces Taiwan in mainland China. The Taiwanese dialect has eight tones (compared to Mandarin's four). Unlike Mandarin, those tones can change depending on where the word is in the sentence. Crazy!

In most of these courses, which are mandatory (more on that later), they don't bother too much about the details of the language, and instead just focus on learning everyday phrases (for example to say hello, instead of Ni Hao, you say Li Ho). To my ear it sounds a little like Vietnamese, though I haven't actually asked a Vietnamese person what they think it sounds like.

About the mandatory classes, it's part of the governments scheme to make students go to school more. For a person on a student visa, ten hours of class a week used to be sufficient, but then they said that wasn't enough, so they made it fifteen hours.

Since our school's regular course only has ten hours of class a week, they gave us cards which we have to stamp, and we could choose to go to the library, or watch a video, or go to one of these large language classes (like the Taiwanese language class described earlier).

But when I went to the library in early September, they told me part of my extra hours had to be done by taking the large language classes. I went to Jenny, the English-speaking girl who works at the MTC to ask her the reason behind the new rule.

"Because everyone was filling out their hours by going to the library, and a lot of people don't really study there, so..."

Which led me to another question: "But why do they have the fifteen-hour rule in the first place?"

"They thought student's weren't studying enough, and working illegally and stuff," she said, smiling.

Jenny continued: "Our school is the only school which has kept the two-hour a day class system, which is cheaper for students. So to compensate we have to create other ways to study."

I'm happy that my school is thinking of us, the little guys, who can't afford or don't necessarily want to go to three-hour intensive classes every day. It seems like the government is taking band-aid measures to try to force students to stop working illegally (which they won't, because there will always be a demand). And now they are trying to force us to go to the large language classes. Not that I mind learning a bit of Taiwanese, or anything ;)

HK Visa Run

Last weekend I went to Hong Kong on a visa run with Paris. I took the opportunity to stay and see some of the southern Chinese city. I found it to be a lively, modern, cosmopolitan metropolis, thriving and bustling with people from all over. Imagine London's chinatown (with double-decker buses and trams), with New York-style skyscrapers, with hot and sunny weather, and you have a pretty good idea of what it's like.

On a tram (or ding-ding) at night on one of the main thoroughfares, Des Voeux RoadIn the Lan Kwai Fong nightlife district

Dusk and nighttime views from 'the peak' (my camera got busted so the pictures are a bit fuzzy)

Summer Session- Back To School Blues

Well, after a one-month break from anything remotely resembling studying Chinese, I got back to studying Chinese on Wednesday morning. Early morning, I add. 8AM is a hard time to start class, particularly when you are accustomed to not being awake for at least another two hours.

Since there are not many people who arrive in the beginning of July, I was put in a class which started at the beginning of the regular quarter, in June. When I got there, short of breath from walking quickly to avoid being late, I was met by a tall blond foreigner.

"Are you here for the class with Yan laoshi?" I asked (and may I add that the teacher's name "Yan" is the first character for the word "strict").
"Yes," said the young man.

We entered the empty room and exchanged our attendance papers so we could check we were in the right place. According to the paper, we were. The bell rang. I found out he was a new student at Shida, unlike me who is a returning student. He is a Dutchman who is to start his doctoral studies at Taida in September.

To make a long story short, we went down to the administrative offices, only to find that the classroom had not changed. When we got back, we found the teacher and one student, and slowly students filed in late. I should have known better.

To tell you a bit about the class, there are three Indonesians, one Vietnamese, two Koreans, as well as me and the aforementioned Dutchman.

Anyway, after the initial shock (what? writing test the first day!?), I think I'm getting back into the swing of things. At the same time I'm in a kind of visa limbo as I messed up when I went to Japan and just got a landing visa. I'm also trying to figure out what kind of job I should get. Now that my scholarship is over, I have to find some way to sustain myself.