I know pet stores are bad and animals in cages are sad, but puppies with mohawks and cuddly widdle friends are very, very good.
Friday, July 6, 2007
(not quite) cat of the month
I make the rules and I can break them too
I know pet stores are bad and animals in cages are sad, but puppies with mohawks and cuddly widdle friends are very, very good.
I know pet stores are bad and animals in cages are sad, but puppies with mohawks and cuddly widdle friends are very, very good.
Thursday, July 5, 2007
[REVISION] SCHOOL: SOMETIMES RAD, SOMETIMES BAD
Monday through Thursday, class starts at 8:10am. During my first class we review 40 or so new character compounds, with my second class being dedicated to discussing the assigned section of reading containing all of the new vocabulary. This is all good and well, but 8am is a little early to be making sentences involving cross-cultural polytheism. My first teacher, furthermore, is very nice, but also comparatively inexperienced, lacking patience and seemingly incapable of slowing down her speech.
It seems like every class starts well and then descends into me grasping for words and my laoshi criticizing my pronunciation and THEN lecturing me on how I shouldn't feel upset or depressed because that hinders my learning. Okay, I KNOW THIS. Can we please just get back to practicing the vocabulary? You're not going to teach me any more life lessons to be learned from language study, because I WROTE the book on said subject - it's called, What I Learned From Getting Brutalized and Left for Dead by Mandarin and Going Back Every Day For More.
I'm a good student, a diligent student, a freaking masochist of a student, so instead of the lecture, just TELL ME WHAT TO DO. Furthermore, my pronunciation ISN'T THAT BAD. My teacher worked it out so I could have free access to an electronic teaching tool that the other levels use (apparently by 4th year you're just supposed to have all your tones down perfectly -- thanks again fellowship morons!) and it is pretty cool. You listen to a segment and then repeat it until you 'pass' by scoring 80 or above in pitch, timing, emphasis and pronunciation. You can practice as much as you want and the computer illustrates what you are doing wrong and matches it to images of the voice patterns of the native speaker. It's quite fun, not only because they make it a game, but because the technology makes something difficult very accessible and compelling. I've never been musical, and tones are seriously unfamiliar territory. When I started studying Chinese, less than two years ago, I didn't know what neutral pitch sounded like, didn't know how high was high and how low was low, and definitely didn't know how to go from high to low to rising to falling and back over them all again all in the course of a sentence. And SWEET JESUS I want good tones. The sound of Chinese used to make me a little crazy when trapped on buses or in lines, but now I love the musicality and I want so much to be able to imitate it perfectly. Seriously, I love tones. If I could eat them or marry them, I definitely would, though I should probably marry them first and then eat them.
But you know what I found out? My tones are FINE. I was scoring 100% on most of the tests (although I haven't gotten to the very long phrases yet). My pronunciation has a few problems, but I'm quite comfortable accepting that I will never sound exactly like a native speaker because xi- and zh- and cu- and lots of other sounds are really freaking difficult -- and those are just the closest approximations in Roman script. You know how sometime you see hsi- in old Chinese names and things? Well it is exactly the same sound as xi-, just in a different system, but guess what? The real sound doesn't sound exactly like EITHER ONE. ARGH.
So the problem is not that I can't make the sounds, the problem is that they just don't seem to stick to the phonetic sounds as I would like them to. Maybe I know the word for new is romanized as xin, but I have a really hard time remembering which of the five tones it is, let alone recognizing it (try your luck here). Oh yeah, and I also have to remember how to write it, in two different ways (Taiwan and the Mainland use different character sets). I really can't figure out why I seem to be the only one who has a problem with this. I just don't get how anyone manages to attach pitch to pronunciation, especially coming from a language where using a range of tones makes you a more EXPRESSIVE speaker, not a more nonsensical one.
All I can figure is that you just have to keep putting the hours in to listening and repeating and conversing and eventually they will stay attached. This seems to have worked for most of the words that I use frequently. [In using this program I have discovered that I am at 99% accuracy when saying the words 'goodbye' 'bad' and 'not very good'-- interpret this as you will].
Also, when I am relaxed, I can concentrate on my tones when I am speaking and they come out much better. This is the experience I have had with my other teacher, who is strict, but very experienced and wonderfully patient. I was very proud in class today to have successfully been able to discuss, with perfect grammar and not-bad tones, the economistic perspective that says that Asian religious values and ethics are in large part responsible for the Asian economic boom. With this teacher, I flourish. I just wish she was the first I saw every day, because the other always brings me down. She is always blathering on about how I shouldn't give up when I can't think of a word, but I should find a creative way around it. Fair enough, but sometimes there just isn't a way to say specific or particular if you can't use either of those words (try it in English - it's a pain in the ass) and sometimes I have forgotten ALL of the 85 ways to say 'create'. I have morning brain and I'm nervous. Can't we just move on and dispense with the patronizing?
And I am trying, really. Today, without knowing the Chinese word for potato, I was able to explain to the teacher how Americans referred to lazy slobs, except it came out initially as 'couch yam'. If that is the kind of creative way she is looking for, count me in.
Would anyone else be interested in starting another Derek Zoolander center, this one for Graduate Students Who Can't Speak Chinese Good but Are Otherwise Generally Intelligent?
I don't think my writing is quite enough on its own, especially when of the ranting variety, so here are some pictures for your viewing enjoyment. This is the lounge at school. The sign over the bulletin board reminds us we may only speak Taiwanese or Mandarin while in the building.
We all have our own little cubby with an assigned mug next to our mailbox.
My Chinese name is Wei 薇, a small rose-like flower which looks like this:
Unfortunately my surname (which comes first in Chinese) is misspelled here. It is supposed to be Qiao 喬, a type of tree, but the character here is Ji 濟, which means crowded. This can be none other than an attack on my person and my good name, and can only result in the wrath of my ancestors. Watch out, sloppy nametag-maker, whoever you are.
These are the water machines.They are all over the campus and the city and they are excellent devices! They provide drinkable water at three temperatures so I can make piping hot tea any time of the day or night. We each have our own locker here too and mine is jam-packed with tea (thanks to the excellent Tammi!) and related implements.
And here is some dragonfruit that I am eating:
Correction, ate. It was delicious.
It seems like every class starts well and then descends into me grasping for words and my laoshi criticizing my pronunciation and THEN lecturing me on how I shouldn't feel upset or depressed because that hinders my learning. Okay, I KNOW THIS. Can we please just get back to practicing the vocabulary? You're not going to teach me any more life lessons to be learned from language study, because I WROTE the book on said subject - it's called, What I Learned From Getting Brutalized and Left for Dead by Mandarin and Going Back Every Day For More.
I'm a good student, a diligent student, a freaking masochist of a student, so instead of the lecture, just TELL ME WHAT TO DO. Furthermore, my pronunciation ISN'T THAT BAD. My teacher worked it out so I could have free access to an electronic teaching tool that the other levels use (apparently by 4th year you're just supposed to have all your tones down perfectly -- thanks again fellowship morons!) and it is pretty cool. You listen to a segment and then repeat it until you 'pass' by scoring 80 or above in pitch, timing, emphasis and pronunciation. You can practice as much as you want and the computer illustrates what you are doing wrong and matches it to images of the voice patterns of the native speaker. It's quite fun, not only because they make it a game, but because the technology makes something difficult very accessible and compelling. I've never been musical, and tones are seriously unfamiliar territory. When I started studying Chinese, less than two years ago, I didn't know what neutral pitch sounded like, didn't know how high was high and how low was low, and definitely didn't know how to go from high to low to rising to falling and back over them all again all in the course of a sentence. And SWEET JESUS I want good tones. The sound of Chinese used to make me a little crazy when trapped on buses or in lines, but now I love the musicality and I want so much to be able to imitate it perfectly. Seriously, I love tones. If I could eat them or marry them, I definitely would, though I should probably marry them first and then eat them.
But you know what I found out? My tones are FINE. I was scoring 100% on most of the tests (although I haven't gotten to the very long phrases yet). My pronunciation has a few problems, but I'm quite comfortable accepting that I will never sound exactly like a native speaker because xi- and zh- and cu- and lots of other sounds are really freaking difficult -- and those are just the closest approximations in Roman script. You know how sometime you see hsi- in old Chinese names and things? Well it is exactly the same sound as xi-, just in a different system, but guess what? The real sound doesn't sound exactly like EITHER ONE. ARGH.
So the problem is not that I can't make the sounds, the problem is that they just don't seem to stick to the phonetic sounds as I would like them to. Maybe I know the word for new is romanized as xin, but I have a really hard time remembering which of the five tones it is, let alone recognizing it (try your luck here). Oh yeah, and I also have to remember how to write it, in two different ways (Taiwan and the Mainland use different character sets). I really can't figure out why I seem to be the only one who has a problem with this. I just don't get how anyone manages to attach pitch to pronunciation, especially coming from a language where using a range of tones makes you a more EXPRESSIVE speaker, not a more nonsensical one.
All I can figure is that you just have to keep putting the hours in to listening and repeating and conversing and eventually they will stay attached. This seems to have worked for most of the words that I use frequently. [In using this program I have discovered that I am at 99% accuracy when saying the words 'goodbye' 'bad' and 'not very good'-- interpret this as you will].
Also, when I am relaxed, I can concentrate on my tones when I am speaking and they come out much better. This is the experience I have had with my other teacher, who is strict, but very experienced and wonderfully patient. I was very proud in class today to have successfully been able to discuss, with perfect grammar and not-bad tones, the economistic perspective that says that Asian religious values and ethics are in large part responsible for the Asian economic boom. With this teacher, I flourish. I just wish she was the first I saw every day, because the other always brings me down. She is always blathering on about how I shouldn't give up when I can't think of a word, but I should find a creative way around it. Fair enough, but sometimes there just isn't a way to say specific or particular if you can't use either of those words (try it in English - it's a pain in the ass) and sometimes I have forgotten ALL of the 85 ways to say 'create'. I have morning brain and I'm nervous. Can't we just move on and dispense with the patronizing?
And I am trying, really. Today, without knowing the Chinese word for potato, I was able to explain to the teacher how Americans referred to lazy slobs, except it came out initially as 'couch yam'. If that is the kind of creative way she is looking for, count me in.
Would anyone else be interested in starting another Derek Zoolander center, this one for Graduate Students Who Can't Speak Chinese Good but Are Otherwise Generally Intelligent?
I don't think my writing is quite enough on its own, especially when of the ranting variety, so here are some pictures for your viewing enjoyment. This is the lounge at school. The sign over the bulletin board reminds us we may only speak Taiwanese or Mandarin while in the building.
We all have our own little cubby with an assigned mug next to our mailbox.
My Chinese name is Wei 薇, a small rose-like flower which looks like this:
Unfortunately my surname (which comes first in Chinese) is misspelled here. It is supposed to be Qiao 喬, a type of tree, but the character here is Ji 濟, which means crowded. This can be none other than an attack on my person and my good name, and can only result in the wrath of my ancestors. Watch out, sloppy nametag-maker, whoever you are.
These are the water machines.They are all over the campus and the city and they are excellent devices! They provide drinkable water at three temperatures so I can make piping hot tea any time of the day or night. We each have our own locker here too and mine is jam-packed with tea (thanks to the excellent Tammi!) and related implements.
And here is some dragonfruit that I am eating:
Correction, ate. It was delicious.
Sunday, July 1, 2007
LONGSHAN TEMPLE 龍山寺
After a particularly tough day in class last week I was glad that my friend Carrie and I had plans to go visit some temples. Because of the torrential rain, we ended up visiting only one, longshan, or 'dragon mountain' temple.
I'm not very comfortable taking pictures inside religious places, even if I am assured that it is perfectly acceptable, so I missed getting shots of the offering tables, but don't worry, the gods ate well that night.
I did, however, get lots of pictures of the dragons
There was tons of incense burning (given as offerings) and the smell was kind of woody and sweet and quite heady. If I were a god I would have been totally flattered.
Carrie led me around to the altars that were designated for particular prayers; one was for pregancy, one for exams, and so on. Really quite practical, though I could never sustain such a faith. After many unsuccessful 4th grade negotiations in which I promised that I would believe in god if my mom would pick me up from school within the next ten cars, I pretty much gave up.
The temple was very beautiful, and the atmosphere serene, but I'm just a little uncomfortable with the earnestness of worship, and felt especially so at the altar for those seeking spouses. I suppose it is less public than match.com, but I felt so awkward looking on as lonely men and women brought offerings and incense, bowed several times, and rubbed together little red pieces of wood used for divination. Carrie explained to me how you drop the pieces on the ground while asking a question and the way they land gives you your answer. There was also a tall barrel with about a hundred numbered sticks that corresponded to numbers on a big card-catalog like cabinet. After randomly choosing a stick, you could open the corresponding numbered drawer and find the answer to your question. Weberian means-end rationalization was never so well-accessorized.
Afterward the temple tour, Carrie and I met up with her brother and they both helped me to buy a new gadget. I wanted to be able to record my one-on-one classes both to practice correct pronunciation and to spare myself the distraction of taking notes, and so we went hunting for a good voice recorder. I got a 2GB one which can also play and record from the radio. Cool! And I didn't even have to pray for it.
I'm not very comfortable taking pictures inside religious places, even if I am assured that it is perfectly acceptable, so I missed getting shots of the offering tables, but don't worry, the gods ate well that night.
I did, however, get lots of pictures of the dragons
There was tons of incense burning (given as offerings) and the smell was kind of woody and sweet and quite heady. If I were a god I would have been totally flattered.
Carrie led me around to the altars that were designated for particular prayers; one was for pregancy, one for exams, and so on. Really quite practical, though I could never sustain such a faith. After many unsuccessful 4th grade negotiations in which I promised that I would believe in god if my mom would pick me up from school within the next ten cars, I pretty much gave up.
The temple was very beautiful, and the atmosphere serene, but I'm just a little uncomfortable with the earnestness of worship, and felt especially so at the altar for those seeking spouses. I suppose it is less public than match.com, but I felt so awkward looking on as lonely men and women brought offerings and incense, bowed several times, and rubbed together little red pieces of wood used for divination. Carrie explained to me how you drop the pieces on the ground while asking a question and the way they land gives you your answer. There was also a tall barrel with about a hundred numbered sticks that corresponded to numbers on a big card-catalog like cabinet. After randomly choosing a stick, you could open the corresponding numbered drawer and find the answer to your question. Weberian means-end rationalization was never so well-accessorized.
Afterward the temple tour, Carrie and I met up with her brother and they both helped me to buy a new gadget. I wanted to be able to record my one-on-one classes both to practice correct pronunciation and to spare myself the distraction of taking notes, and so we went hunting for a good voice recorder. I got a 2GB one which can also play and record from the radio. Cool! And I didn't even have to pray for it.
Saturday, June 30, 2007
買東西 (SHOPPING)
I'd say this pretty well expresses local sentiments (from a shop near campus)Between about 9am and 7pm, I can't stand walking outside for more than 10-15 minutes, so I end up ducking into 7-11s (often 2 per block here - Asia is the capital of convenience stores) or shops or department stores and strolling around inside until I cool off and can continue my journey. Now I enjoy material culture as much as any burgeoning anthropologist, but exposure to so much weird and wonderful stuff cannot but result in the occasional purchase. Besides, there have been some things that I have, to some degree, needed, to buy, such as:
SUNBRELLA:
Very pale skin is the ideal here, but the sun shines most days, so the ladies carry umbrellas as parasols. Some umbrellas are double purpose, but to really keep out the UV rays you need one that has an opaque, silver interior. My rain umbrella wasn't doing the trick and I wasn't going to get another, but then I used a friends' and enjoyed the portable shade and cooling. Here, I don't feel nearly as pretentious as when I tried the same technique in Bellingham once.
The ability to carry an umbrella while riding a bike -- yet another reason Asia is the future.
SHIRTS:
Perhaps I flatter myself in thinking that I am relatively sensitive to cultural difference, but there are always unspoken codes, if not rules, that are difficult to discover until you break them. Women's clothing standards are often good examples, and even if you know they exist, they can still be surprising to come up against (as when I was in a friend's shop in India and rolled up the cuff of my shalwar pants to put an anklet on and the shopkeeper and his friend got all uncomfortable and looked at me like I had just taken off my pants).
Taiwanese ladies wear some of the shortest skirts I have ever seen, and no one bats an eye, but despite the heat, there aren't too many tank tops around, and when I, who am different from most Taiwanese women in certain, ahem, ways, wear one, I feel like a goddamn harlot. So I bought some sleeved shirts and a few short jackets, and now my exposed collarbones will offend no one.
[note to mb: I sent you a postcard promising a moratorium on further acquisitions of princess sleeves. Disregard it. I broke it the next day.]
ABSURD TRANSLATIONS AND USAGES OF ENGLISH:
Last night I almost bought a shirt that read ALGEBRA in big letters on the top and then had a huge strawberry applique and underneath, the words: 'is for lourt' (I think they meant to say 'lovers', as Harajuku lovers and things similar are very popular lately). I've also passed on buying a tea tin printed with instructions on care for Chihuahuas and a bookmark that read "GIVE watch over an innocent". And that's just the stuff I didn't buy. I mean, my god, how could I possibly resist?
my friend Susan gave me this bookbag:
Classlcs are bulft upon the Plllars of Alnerican sports barltage -- how can you argue with that?
SCHOOL SUPPLIES:
Often, these purchases overlap with the above category, as with my school notebook:
the text reads: All our products are designed and produced exclusively for sensuous people
SHOES:
No, I didn't need any of these, but something strange happens to you when you go somewhere where all of your usual references for price and value are all mixed up. I don't know better how to explain it than to say that when I first got here I kind of short circuited when converting taibi to dollars and realizing that a bag of muesli cost as much as a pair of shoes and that therefore I should buy the shoes and not the muesli. What can I say - it made sense at the time.
As per Vanessa's request, pictures of shoes:
PRESENTS FOR FOLKS BACK HOME:
Get ready, they're coming to get you.
Friday, June 29, 2007
TAIPEI 101
With 101 floors and a height of 508 meters (or 1,667 feet) it's the tallest building in the world (for now).
Here are the views from the observation floor. [you can click for bigger but I'm warning you it looks a little surreal]
My new home is right about where the little white square is, just below the white dome that is NTU's gym.
Here, you can see some of the mountains that surround the city as well as the particulate matter that perpetually clouds the air. Just beyond these here hills is where they grow some of that tasty Taiwanese oolong tea.
Screens display all the elevator activity in the building. The fastest in the world, these elevators travel at 1010 meters/minute (no, I have no idea what those 'meter' things are either, but trust me, it's real fast). The trip up to the 89th floor took something like 39 seconds and made my ears pop from the pressure.
My friend Carrie, demonstrating her impressive height:
The base of the building is a six story mall filled with ridiculous amounts of luxury brand stores: Louis Vuitton, Vivienne Westwood, Gucci, Prada, and so on. The interior of the whole building was designed by a feng shui master. But I was happiest about the A/C.
At night, they light it up all pretty.
Here are the views from the observation floor. [you can click for bigger but I'm warning you it looks a little surreal]
My new home is right about where the little white square is, just below the white dome that is NTU's gym.
Here, you can see some of the mountains that surround the city as well as the particulate matter that perpetually clouds the air. Just beyond these here hills is where they grow some of that tasty Taiwanese oolong tea.
Screens display all the elevator activity in the building. The fastest in the world, these elevators travel at 1010 meters/minute (no, I have no idea what those 'meter' things are either, but trust me, it's real fast). The trip up to the 89th floor took something like 39 seconds and made my ears pop from the pressure.
My friend Carrie, demonstrating her impressive height:
The base of the building is a six story mall filled with ridiculous amounts of luxury brand stores: Louis Vuitton, Vivienne Westwood, Gucci, Prada, and so on. The interior of the whole building was designed by a feng shui master. But I was happiest about the A/C.
At night, they light it up all pretty.
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
CAUTION IN THE CAFETERIA
Yesterday they put liver in the tofu dish, today, I think it was just pork. Um, I think I'll just have rice and french fries thanks.
Sunday, June 24, 2007
GLUTTON FOR PUNISHMENT
My first week of school is over and I can already tell that it is going to be rad. The primary reason for this is that part of the deal I made here so that I could stay in level 4 and keep my fellowship was that I couldn't attend group classes. Oh darn! As most of you, especially you Bloomington folks (who have allowed me to drink your martinis and to weep on your shoulders and who have generally been very tolerant of all my pouting), I'm not really a big fan of the grinding humiliation of going to Chinese class. However, I love the language and find it very rewarding when my skills improve. So basically, having two hours a day of one-on-one time with Chinese teachers is the best possible thing. I couldn't have dreamt of a better outcome.
Unfortunately I am rather out of sorts as I still have much of the weekend ahead and all of my homework already done. Jeez, what gives laoshi? (teacher) aren't you supposed to be terrorizing me with the Chinese educational system? It's not so much that I want to spend all day cooped up in the library, but at least it is air-conditioned there. Every day the heat index is in the 90s (today it is 104) and it really makes exploring the city unappealing. Besides, I came to study and I want as many opportunities as possible to do so. Therefore, I make my own opportunities. I try to think in Chinese as much as possible. So when I find my mind wandering over a particular conversation or plans for the day, I try to translate whatever it is. All of my to-do lists are now written in Chinese. Also, when I get a song stuck in my head, for example Hall & Oates' "Out of Touch" (thanks a lot rydo), I try to translate the lyrics as best I can. Unfortunately I'm not very good at this, so I often end up with a rather unwieldy chorus (in the case of the former, it becomes bu baochi lianluo, or 'not able to maintain contact'), but at least I will surely never forget how to chide my Chinese-speaking friends for not staying in touch.
I do have a couple of Taiwanese friends here and they are a great help, even when they allow me to cheat a little too much with English. Yesterday I went to Taipei 101, the tallest building in the world, with my friend Carrie (an English alias, her real name is Bohshuan). I was very much looking forward to it, but didn't expect to enjoy it quite so much. The views were just spectacular, and I had forgotten what a heady feeling you can get from really extraordinary architecture. I took lots of pictures, but it will be a few days until I can post them.
Afterwards, we went to her friends' going-away party at a place I never could have imagined: a fancy (and rather expensive) bagel restaurant.
Unfortunately I am rather out of sorts as I still have much of the weekend ahead and all of my homework already done. Jeez, what gives laoshi? (teacher) aren't you supposed to be terrorizing me with the Chinese educational system? It's not so much that I want to spend all day cooped up in the library, but at least it is air-conditioned there. Every day the heat index is in the 90s (today it is 104) and it really makes exploring the city unappealing. Besides, I came to study and I want as many opportunities as possible to do so. Therefore, I make my own opportunities. I try to think in Chinese as much as possible. So when I find my mind wandering over a particular conversation or plans for the day, I try to translate whatever it is. All of my to-do lists are now written in Chinese. Also, when I get a song stuck in my head, for example Hall & Oates' "Out of Touch" (thanks a lot rydo), I try to translate the lyrics as best I can. Unfortunately I'm not very good at this, so I often end up with a rather unwieldy chorus (in the case of the former, it becomes bu baochi lianluo, or 'not able to maintain contact'), but at least I will surely never forget how to chide my Chinese-speaking friends for not staying in touch.
I do have a couple of Taiwanese friends here and they are a great help, even when they allow me to cheat a little too much with English. Yesterday I went to Taipei 101, the tallest building in the world, with my friend Carrie (an English alias, her real name is Bohshuan). I was very much looking forward to it, but didn't expect to enjoy it quite so much. The views were just spectacular, and I had forgotten what a heady feeling you can get from really extraordinary architecture. I took lots of pictures, but it will be a few days until I can post them.
Afterwards, we went to her friends' going-away party at a place I never could have imagined: a fancy (and rather expensive) bagel restaurant.
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