Tag: Lifeasaforeignerintaiwan

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5 Things I don\’t like about Taiwan(WHAT?!???!)

Living in a foreign country offers many unique and exciting opportunities. You get the chance to really get to know your new "home" a lot better than you would if you had just visited it for a week or two of travel. You will get the chance to see and do things that people who are merely visiting will never get the chance to do or see. You'll get to know and appreciate your host culture, discover new favorite foods, and have the best possible chance for succeeding in learning a foreign language. This sums up nicely my time spent in Taiwan.

 

It's not all sunshine and rainbows, however. As fun as it is living abroad, It can be equally frustrating.  As often as I spend time talking about all of the things that I love in Taiwan, today I will be sharing my top 5 "complaints" about what has become my "second home". Enjoy, and as always please share your experiences/opinions below!

 

1. Random old guys backing you into a wall and forcing you into endless conversations:

\"photoI love a good conversation as much as the next guy, but sometimes it's just not a good time to chat me up. But this happens pretty often. You know that feeling you get when you are reading a really good book, intently turning the pages to see what happens next? I love reading, and always brought a book on the train ride from Taoyuan county to Taipei for my weekly martial arts classes. It's a great way to kill the time you are otherwise wasting in transit. Can't tell you how many times I've had a well meaning elderly man sit next to me and interrupt me every few seconds, even after I tried as tactfully as possible to disengage myself from conversation. The results? Me still on the same page ten minute later! This used to drive me nuts.

 

2. People don't understand your Chinese, because you look funny:

\"photoI like to think that I don't have a huge ego problem, but I know that my Chinese is pretty darn good. So it always annoyed me when someone didn't understand my fluent Chinese, because they saw me and expected English to come out of my mouth. It also used to drive me nuts when I was with my wife and someone kept asking her questions about me, even after I displayed that I was more than capable of speaking for myself. I know it's not meant to be rude, but it kinda is!

 

 

3. The lack of concern that many people have for the environment:

\"photoOf course this is getting to be a problem everywhere these days, but I felt it was more so in Taiwan than it is back here in Texas. True, the rapid rate of Taiwan's industrialization has had some negative consequences for the environment, but that's not the whole story. People throw their trash all over the place: streets, bushes, gutters, rivers…no place is safe! I remember vividly one time while I was waiting for my bus, an old man walked by me and casually shoved an empty pack of cigarettes into a bush. Seriously, go hard is it to find a trash can?

 

4. The casual rudeness that people often display:

\"unnamed\"In the big, metropolitan city of a Taipei, people are conditioned to lookout for themselves, and to disregard others around them. When you're in a crowded street, or MRT  station in Taipei, you will get shove, pushed, stepped on, elbowed, and much more. Some of this is, of course, due to the dense population, unavoidable. What I don't like, is how the majority of people won't even give you a simple "excuse me" when they jab you in the kidney as they squeeze by.

 

 

5. The crazy traffic!:

\"photoThis one is pretty self explanatory. There are countless cars, and especially scooters in Taiwan, and only a limited amount of space. This leads to heavily congested traffic, a scarcity of parking spaces, an extremely high rate of deaths on the road(especially for those riding scooters) and generally chaotic streets everywhere. To top it off, people generally have very little regard for the laws of the road, , which makes it doubly dangerous, for drivers and pedestrians alike.

There it is. I'm glad I got that off of my chest. Now, don't take this post the wrong way. For everything on this list, there are at least a hundred things I have to say that are positive about Taiwan. I love Taiwan, and it really and truly is my "home away from home", but I'm here to give you the whole story, and sometimes the truth is ugly!

What has your experience in Taiwan been like? Please share below!

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5 Things I don\’t like about Taiwan(WHAT?!???!)

Living in a foreign country offers many unique and exciting opportunities. You get the chance to really get to know your new "home" a lot better than you would if you had just visited it for a week or two of travel. You will get the chance to see and do things that people who are merely visiting will never get the chance to do or see. You'll get to know and appreciate your host culture, discover new favorite foods, and have the best possible chance for succeeding in learning a foreign language. This sums up nicely my time spent in Taiwan.

 

It's not all sunshine and rainbows, however. As fun as it is living abroad, It can be equally frustrating.  As often as I spend time talking about all of the things that I love in Taiwan, today I will be sharing my top 5 "complaints" about what has become my "second home". Enjoy, and as always please share your experiences/opinions below!

 

1. Random old guys backing you into a wall and forcing you into endless conversations:

\"photoI love a good conversation as much as the next guy, but sometimes it's just not a good time to chat me up. But this happens pretty often. You know that feeling you get when you are reading a really good book, intently turning the pages to see what happens next? I love reading, and always brought a book on the train ride from Taoyuan county to Taipei for my weekly martial arts classes. It's a great way to kill the time you are otherwise wasting in transit. Can't tell you how many times I've had a well meaning elderly man sit next to me and interrupt me every few seconds, even after I tried as tactfully as possible to disengage myself from conversation. The results? Me still on the same page ten minute later! This used to drive me nuts.

 

2. People don't understand your Chinese, because you look funny:

\"photoI like to think that I don't have a huge ego problem, but I know that my Chinese is pretty darn good. So it always annoyed me when someone didn't understand my fluent Chinese, because they saw me and expected English to come out of my mouth. It also used to drive me nuts when I was with my wife and someone kept asking her questions about me, even after I displayed that I was more than capable of speaking for myself. I know it's not meant to be rude, but it kinda is!

 

 

3. The lack of concern that many people have for the environment:

\"photoOf course this is getting to be a problem everywhere these days, but I felt it was more so in Taiwan than it is back here in Texas. True, the rapid rate of Taiwan's industrialization has had some negative consequences for the environment, but that's not the whole story. People throw their trash all over the place: streets, bushes, gutters, rivers…no place is safe! I remember vividly one time while I was waiting for my bus, an old man walked by me and casually shoved an empty pack of cigarettes into a bush. Seriously, go hard is it to find a trash can?

 

4. The casual rudeness that people often display:

\"unnamed\"In the big, metropolitan city of a Taipei, people are conditioned to lookout for themselves, and to disregard others around them. When you're in a crowded street, or MRT  station in Taipei, you will get shove, pushed, stepped on, elbowed, and much more. Some of this is, of course, due to the dense population, unavoidable. What I don't like, is how the majority of people won't even give you a simple "excuse me" when they jab you in the kidney as they squeeze by.

 

 

5. The crazy traffic!:

\"photoThis one is pretty self explanatory. There are countless cars, and especially scooters in Taiwan, and only a limited amount of space. This leads to heavily congested traffic, a scarcity of parking spaces, an extremely high rate of deaths on the road(especially for those riding scooters) and generally chaotic streets everywhere. To top it off, people generally have very little regard for the laws of the road, , which makes it doubly dangerous, for drivers and pedestrians alike.

There it is. I'm glad I got that off of my chest. Now, don't take this post the wrong way. For everything on this list, there are at least a hundred things I have to say that are positive about Taiwan. I love Taiwan, and it really and truly is my "home away from home", but I'm here to give you the whole story, and sometimes the truth is ugly!

What has your experience in Taiwan been like? Please share below!

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Interview With a Chinese Learner: Ray Hecht

Hey everyone, how's it going? Today I'm coming at you with another interview. Today's victim is Chinese learner Ray Hecht.  He''s been living in Mainland China for years, and has a lot of interesting things to say on his blog about China, dating in China and learning Chinese. Plus he shares some pretty sweet art and poetry as well, so hop on over to his site and check out his writing! Being a fellow comic geek, I can relate to a lot of what he has to say!

Now on to the interview. 

\"螢幕快照Q: What Made you decide to learn Chinese?

I was first interested in Asian culture by way of Japanese manga and anime, being a long-time comic geek in my youthful days (and still a geek in my older days). As I got older I became more interested in film, and after watching many classic Kurosawa I came upon Cantonese films of Wong Kar-wai in my teenage years. Eventually this led to watching the film Farewell my Concubine, directed by Chen Kaige, which is one of my favorite movies of all time. In addition to watching the 90s films of Chinese 5th generation filmmaker Zhang Yimou, I became fascinated by China. However, I studied Japanese in college. Learning kanji did give me me a head start in learning hanzi, although the languages are quite different. I never did end up moving to Japan, just visiting a few times (learning some of the language did help). I later got an opporutnity to move to Shenzhen and I fully embraced it. Currently, Mandarin is the only other language besides English I speak with any fluency, though I always have more to learn. 

 

Q:How long have you been a student of Chinese, and how long did it take you to become conversational?

I've been studying for six years, and in the first year I learned 'survival Chinese.' I've been getting better at being more conversational in the last 3 years I suppose, but on having deep conversations I know I still have ways to go. The problem is that most conversations are the same: "Where are you from?", "Are you married?" "How many years have you been in China?" etc.

 

Q:What was your biggest challenge learning Chinese? And what came easiest to you?

My biggest challenge at first was definitely the tones. Then, the characters although I am always making progress even though it takes years. When it comes to characters, just be patient but make a little progress all the time. In speaking, the grammar of Chinese is easier and I was able to formulate simple sentences quite fast (even if not pronouncing it correctly). "I like…" "I'm from…" and that sort of thing. 

 

Q:What advice would you give to our readers who are just embarking on their journey with Chinese?

I suppose the best advice is to be fully immersive, go to China — or Taiwan, or Singapore — and start speaking. If you are in a big city in China, be careful not to be in the bubble that is the expat scene in which you rarely even speak Mandarin. Push yourself to practice those phrases you studied in real-life, it's the only way!

 

Q:Do you have a favorite Chinese phrase? If so, what is it and why?

Well, 多少錢 duoshaoqian ("How much money?") would be the phrase I say the most often, in going out shopping everyday. Some vocabulary words are fun, when Chinese can be so literal. Technological words such as 電腦 diannao (electric brain: computer) and 電影 dianying (electric shadow: movie) and many more. 

 

Q:What's your one biggest "hack" for learning Chinese?

One trick is to not stress about tones too much, and just try wait you're best until one day it becomes effortless. You can still communicate, don't be afraid to make mistakes. With pronunciation, one can imitate another more advanced learner of Mandarin instead of imitating native speakers. After all, any fluent learner was once a beginner and can offer great advice. 

 

Thanks for taking the time to share with us Ray! I hope everyone will learn from Ray's experiences, and move forward in their own studies. I especially agree with his point on getting out there and SPEAKING. So what are you still doing here? Get out there and practice your Chinese!

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10 tips to reverse engineering the Chinese language

I know what you're thinking, "how am I possibly going to learn Chinese to a proficient level, that stuff sounds so hard!" Well, that it is. If you go about thinking of it as something foreign and put it of reach. By placing your mastery of Chinese on the proverbial pedestal, you are guaranteeing yourself a long, arduous journey. So let's do it the smart(dare I say lazy?) way. Using the following tips, I have "mastered" the Chinese language (realistically, everyone will always have room to improve, so no matter how good you get, don't go and get a big head!)

Tip #1:

Make associations- When learning new phrases, it is often very easy to apply the structure learned to the rest of the language. Chinese grammar is very simple for the most part. For example, if you learn the phrase " 這是我的…" once you learn your pronouns, you should be able to switch the 我 out for 你, 他, 她, 他們, etc. Trust me, when you approach your learning with intuition you will make a load of progress in a relatively short time, so get cracking!

 

Tip #2:

Make the language relevant to you- What I mean by this is, instead of memorizing endless lists of vocabulary words to the point of insanity, learn what interests you. Whether it be sports, cars, movies, whatever, everyone has a hobby. Make that hobby work for you. If you are trying to learn how to talk with your Taiwanese friend that you shoot hoops with about what a big Jeremy Lin fan you are, chances are you'll be a lot more motivated and learn faster than you would just memorizing some moldy old wordbank(yuck!).

 

Tip #3:

Mimic your way to mastery- instead of over analyzing your own Chinese pronunciation, grammar, whatever, make it your goal to focus on really listening and copying a native speaker, through videos, mp3s, in person if you can or any combination of the above. Chances are, when you stop focussing on yourself you'll make a lot of progress. So in other words, monkey-see-monkey-do…err monkey-say? 

 

Tip #4:

Live the Language- By far, the best way I know to learn a language, and what in fact was a huge factor in my own success, is to actually live in a country where people speak it…I know, I'm blowing your mind now, right? Unfortunately, this is now going t be possible for everyone. Most people have jobs, families, pets, mortgages…you know, responsibilities. That's cool. It's part of life. Still, don't let that stop you, you can plan on vacationing in Taiwan or China to "test" your Chinese, or even as an excuse to pick a little up. Still, not everyone has the time or resources for trips around the globe. Don't fret, the answer to your dilemma just may lie down in Tip #5!

 

Tip #5:

Find a way- While it's true that not everyone has the means to make the "pilgrimage" to the Chinese speaking world, that doesn't mean that they can't bring the world of Chinese to them. It's the twenty-first century people! There's a new invention called the World Wide Web, or hadn't you heard? Chances are, if you're reading this, then you have =) Alright, sorry for being obnoxious, it's getting late and I apologize. But I digress. There are SOOOO many tools at your disposal available various places online. You've already found EazyChinese.com, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. One very useful website is italki.com. Italki is a networking site that allows users to connect with other users all over the world. Hop over there, create a profile and you can find a language exchange partner or a tutor. I'll be writing to you about more Chinese learning resources in the future, so make sure you take advantage of them!

 

Tip #6:

Get uncomfortable- Just like when you learned how to ride a bike, swim, or pretty much any other skill you may have picked up since being born into this wild world, you have to first suck at Chinese. Now don't freak out! I know we all have an ego, even if we'd like to believe that we don't, and we all hate losing face by allowing people see that we aren't good at something. But step back an look at the big picture for a minute: you don't expect to waltz into a jiu-jitsu class and start beating everyone on the first day, right? Do you see how ridiculous it is to expect otherwise? So now I want you to take that attitude and apply it towards learning Chinese. You'll stumble and fall at first, but all you have to do is get back up and back on that bike. The truth is you won't make much progress in Chinese until you learn to be uncomfortable with being uncomfortable. So step outta' your comfort zone already! 

 

Tip #7:

Dive in deeper- Chinese is a rich, beautiful language, and to truly understand it, one must understand Chinese people, as language and culture are closely intertwined. This can be witnessed in many Chinese phrases and idioms. For example, 吃 means eat and  飯 means rice, but Chinese will say 吃飯 (literally eat rice)to mean eat. This is because rice is a traditional staple of the Chinese diet. This is just one example, as this topic could easily fill a book on its own!

 

Tip #8:

The pen is mightier than the sword!- This one may seem a little counter-intuitive at first, but hear me out. A great way to improve your Chinese vocabulary is learning to read and write Chinese characters. Doing this serves two purposes. 1. You will have a deeper understanding of Chinese, and knowing the characters will give you insight into the true meanings of Chinese words, which will allow you to pick up vocabulary at an alarming rate. 2. Read books in Chinese(I'm a fan of comics my self!) to learn useful vocabulary and see how they are used in everyday spoken Chinese. I can't emphasize the importance of this enough, so go grab a Chinese book and download Pleco and get started!

 

Tip #9:

That voice in the back of my head- This is going to one across as cheesy, but it's simple and it works. If you are in a situation where you seldom have someone to speak in Chinese with, then you can carry on Chinese conversations in your head, or why not narrate your life in Chinese! Don't be surprise if you start dreaming in Chinese if you do this often enough!

 

Tip #10:

It's okay to be a couch potato- Watching movies and TV shows in Chinese is one of the bet ways to improve our listening and comprehension. Pick a good kungfu movie, like Ip Man, and watch it in Mandarin. But turn off the English subtitles! Granted, you aren't going o understand a whole lot at first, but give it time and you will. For an added challenge, turn on the Chinese subtitles and use them to practice your reading!

So there you have it, my top ten tips for hacking the Chinese language. Put one or a few of these tips into practice and your Chinese will start to improve dramatically. Make them ALL a part of your Chinese learning process and I guarantee results. Thanks again for stopping by, and make sure to subscribe to my mail list, and enjoy your next 7 days of free Chinese lessons! And feel free to update us on your progress or ask any questions you may have over here at EazyChinese.com. Talk to you soon, and good luck!

 

#Picture from: Google search

 

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Lesson 12: This is Mine!!!!

…Okay, fine. I'll share. Today I am introducing a few Mandarin Chinese phrases that will help you to make your Chinese more meaningful and complete. They will also help you with expresssing yourself.  And please, remember to share! 

Here they are:

 

1. 這個–這個是我的

zhè gè –zhè gè shì wǒ de

This– This is mine.

 

2. 那個–那個是姐姐的

nà gè –nà gè shì jiě jiě de

That– That is my big sister's.

 

3. 哪裡–我的錢包在哪裡？

nǎ lǐ –wǒ de qián bāo zài nǎ lǐ ？

Where?– Where's my wallet?

 

4. 那裏–你的書包在那裡

nà lǐ –nǐ de shū bāo zài nà lǐ

There– Your backpack is there.

 

So there you have it. Now you have added some powerful new phrases to your little black book of Chinese. I hope You enjoyed this lesson, and please share it with your friends and comment below! I'll see you guys in a few days with our next lesson.

 

P.S.

I've been working really hard on a new project that I am very excited about. I can't wait to share it with you! Stay tuned for more news on that over the next few weeks!