Ponderings about the English language

Sometimes I wonder who should be teaching who English?

Today on the train back from language school, there was a energetic little boy and his mother. The young boy must have been around 2 years old. This young boy was keen to go to the joining doors of the train carriage but his mother was trying to persuade him not to. When the boy's mother saw me, she told the young boy to practice his English on me. Now how much English do you think a two year boy would know? Well he spoke in very good English:

• Hello
• How are you?
• Kaohsiung Arena (that is the stop that I got off at)
• It was good to met you.
• Good bye

Not bad for any two year old let alone a Taiwanese boy who mother tongue would be Chinese. This got me thinking about the New Zealand accent and how the local New Zealanders spoke. It has been long known and I believe often reported that the Kiwi's are very lazy when speaking the Queen's English. The main distinction I noticed while living in New Zealand was that the vowels seemed to be softened or dropped.

I am sure when this little Taiwanese boy grows up and travels, he'll have a excellent command on the English language and teach some of the native speakers a thing or two on articulation. By the way, his mother spoke almost perfect English to me and said that she has a sister teaching Chinese in Texas USA. So I am sure that the English education and probable travel will await the little Taiwanese boy.

On a slightly different topic, the language schools in Taiwan will only accept English teachers from USA, Canada, England, Australia and New Zealand. I did ponder this for a few moments and come to the conclusion that out of all the countries in the world, I think these are the ones where English is the first and wholly spoken language. Europe has it own language and dialects. Central and South America are predominately Spanish. Africa I'm sure has its own language before English. And the last main continent (apart from Antarctica and Antarctic) is Asia with their own language being the mother tongue. Now I may be on a totally wrong track, but I think it is interesting though considering how many countries exist.

Anyway till next time, haveagoodone...

Nothing exciting this week...

I know that this is hard to believe, and I guess Taiwan is really like the rest of the world, but it seems that I have almost settled into normal day-to-day life. I certainly hope that life in Taiwan does not become -- routine...

Chinese language class became more interesting this week as we started on writing some of the characters and using sentence structure. Writing the characters is almost like drawing a picture. For example the Chinese characters for Australia are 澳洲. Now these may look complicated but there is actually a trick. Generally to write any Chinese character you need to start from the top left and work you way across and then down. Also the character can be broken down into sections. Just in case you are wondering what England and Scotland are, I have copied their names from the translation dictionary I found online.

England and America are two common countries that we used in our first week of character writing.

The other nationalities that I have in my class are Mexican, Japanese, Vietnamese French and a Canadian. But they are a little more complicated to write. The nationality in my class is a good mix of culture.

Anyway, after the first week of using Chinese characters, special phonetic characters (called Bo Po Mo Fo) and Pinyin I have managed to pass the first big test. From now on it is one book lesson per week with about 20 new characters and more complex sentence structures.

Onto another topic, the Friday night school group went ten pin bowling this week. I think the bowling lane we went to was used for in the World Games that was recently held in Kaohsiung. I haven't bowled for many years and I think my scores reflected that. The first game I scored about 103 and the second game I scored about 152.

AS I write this, the weekend is drawing to a close. The Doctor and I are about to brave the heat and venture to restaurant that the Doctor has found. I hope that the restaurant has pictures so I can see what I am about to order.

Till next time, haveagoodone...

Getting out and about...

Now that I have settled a bit more into Taiwan lifestyle, managing the heat and started Language School, another opportunity for me to see the sights has arisen. One of the office staff at the Language School has organised Friday night outings for those students that are interested. It is like a local's tour of the city.

The Friday night before last, our organised trip was to an island on the other side of Kaohsiung harbour. The island is called Cijin Island. On this island, we visited an old fort that I presumed was used during the wars and the old English Colony state house. We also had hoped to visit the lighthouse but unfortunately that was closed.

The photo to the right is looking from the old fort back over Cijin Island, Kaohsiung harbour and Kaohsiuhng city in the background.

All this was done on foot and by the end of the evening I was ready to go home and sleep. My poor feet...

Last weekend's trip was also out and about but not on foot. We hired bicycles. I haven't ridden a bicycle for years (or is it decades) but that was the least of my worries. In Australia, people drive/ride on the left side of the road. In Taiwan they ride on the right, and that is said very loosely as well. The bike trip started out well with us following a bike track, but quickly it turned to riding around the streets. I am really glad I had fellow students around me because I don't think I would have don't it by myself. The place we initially headed for was along the coast a bit and up small mountain. The place is known where you can watch the sunset. To the left is a photo that I took looking back where I had ridden. You may notice that the breakwaters stretching out into ocean is where we were the previous week when we walked up to the old fort. I am rather hot and sweaty in this photo as well as being quite worn out. But this was only the first stop.

After watching the sun go down on the horizon, we headed back into the city and found our way to Love River. I can tell you that Love River is much more beautiful at night time (and forgetting about the sewerage treatment plants along the river). The boats are going up and down the river, the bright lights and the big dragon has eyes that change colour.

Needless to say that the sun was not beating down on me either so it was much more enjoyable.


The benefits of riding as opposed to not walking was great on my feet, but not so on my gluteus maximus. After the night's ride I was sore for a few days.

However, Love River was not the last stop. Kaohsiung has a tourist night market called Liouhe night market. That was our next stop where we had a dinner. Sorry no photos there but next time I visit I promise I'll take some.

After dinner, it was time to take the bikes back ( I think six hours was enough in anyone's language) and head home.

I have to admit, having ridden a bike around Kaohsiung city, I did get to see a lot more than merely taking the train through the subway. I can get my bearings a lot better and get to see things that I would normally have missed. Although I am not sure if I would dare to ride a bike by myself. Maybe the Language School social organiser would consider another trip when the memories of six hours biking have faded.

Anyway, till next time, haveagoodone...

A place to dine; or maybe not...

Living in Taiwan has shown that a small island with 23 million people living on it, you have to be inventive if you want to get noticed. The Doctor and I on one of our walks have come across something that I have not seen in any other part of the world that I have visited.

This place that we came across (and it is very close to our apartment) takes an everyday event and has turned it into a themed restaurant. I show you the photos first and then I'll explain.



This picture on the left is the entrance to the restaurant and the picture on the right is the window display to entice the customers in.


As you may have guessed, this is the toilet restaurant. Everything in this restaurant is themed around the toilet.

I have found an article on the Internet that explains it further - Taiwan Modern Toilet Restaurant - and it even has some more photos of the food that is served up.

I think I'll wait for someone to visit me before I sample this cuisine. There's an invitation for you!!!

Till next time, haveagoodone...

After the first week

I have survived the first week of Chinese Language class, although not without its battle scars. One of the first objectives for us students is to learn the phonetics. This can be done via an alphabet called MPS (Mandarin Phonetic System) or the alternative called Pinyin. There is a picture later on to see what they look like, but needless to say, English sounds do not play any part in this.

When I first tried to learn Chinese many years ago, I followed the Pinyin phonetics thinking that they use the English alphabet. However they proved to be hazardous with lots of confusion. For example, the Pinyin "a" does not have the same English sound "aaaaaa" sound as used in apple. In Pinyin, the "a" sound is "rrrrr" as when you open you mouth and say "arrr" for the dentist. And this is just the start of the different sounds.

Well after tackling most of the sounds, the Chinese Language school teacher has decided that one fun (and this use this term loosely) activity to use would be tongue twisters. Now you remember the English tongue twisters like Peter Piper and She sells sea shells by the sea shore? The Chinese class has been presented two different tongue twisters .


The way that they write the characters and the phonetics are; (i) the written Chinese character, (ii) the MPS is to the right starting at the top and down, and (iii) the Pinyin written below the Chinese character. Each word will have a tone attached to it.

This is only a hint of what is to come. The challenge will remembering how to write the Chinese characters and it is very different to how English words are formed. Then there is the question of grammar as English is back to front with many other languages.

By the way, if you are interested to know what the tongue twisters mean, the one of the left is literally:

Mum rides a horse
Horse is slow
Mum curses horse

And the tongue twister on the right is:

Have fourty four stone lions
Also have fourty four stone persimmons
Want stone Lion eat persimmons
Stone Lion not want to eat persimmons
Remaining fourty four persimmons were left

My homework this weekend is to practice this so I can correctly say both these tongue twisters at a reasonable speed before Monday. I have a lot of practice to do...

Till next time, haveagoodone...

Back to the abc's.

After a five year break, I have finally returned to pick up my learning of the Chinese language. I can honestly tell you that the Chinese language has not gotten any easier. The advantage I do have is that I have completed the basic lessons a couple of times before so I can quickly soak up the content again. However I will start to get worried when the grammar and longer sentences start to be taught.

I am also proud to be the only Australian in my class. The other students are from France, Mexico, a Taiwanese born American, and four from Japan. One of the Japanese students doesn't speak English so I am not sure how well he will understand the lessons.

Now you may be wondering how the classes are conducted. To begin with, English is not meant to be spoken, although it is relied on to explain a concept in detail. The Chinese teacher's English is broken but fluent enough to understand her point. Essentially how the teacher is meant to teach in purely the Chinese language would be very difficult considering us students are there to learn Chinese; so life is a little confusing sometimes.

One funny example today, we had to practice using our tones and when we should change them. There were three sentences to practice with:

1. You are very good.
2. You are very lazy.
3. You are very early.

One guy that was practising change the Chinese word (by accident) from lazy to old. So the teacher was being told that she is very old. Although not taken seriously, it usually is funny when a language student mixes up their words. The house-mates that the Doctor and I had in Christchurch were very funny when they did that; and we all had a laugh about it too.

Anyway, speaking of practising, I had better get back to my homework. Heavens forbid that I don't do my homework and the teacher tells me off. However I may have the advantage of not knowing what she is saying and nicely smile back in total ignorance.

Till next time, haveagoodone...