Who needs to speak Chinese here???

This weekend just gone, the Doctor and I decided that we needed to buy a laser printer because our current ink jet printer was running out of ink too quickly. So as I am the more PC literate it was my job to go down to Computer Street and hunt down a bargain.

The first shop I went into had a few different mono laser printers (prints only black) around the NT$3,500 range. Then on the end of the isle I saw a colour laser printer for NT$3,590. After a bit of discussion with the salesman, it appeared to be a bargain but as it was the first one I looked at I decided to continue on and start comparing the prices.

The next shop I looked at had a similar colour laser printer but the price tag was almost double. Also in this particular shop the saleslady didn't speak much English but the conversation we did have was about (i) price is too cheap, and (ii) where did I see that price?

Off I went to the next shop and the saleslady did speak a bit more English. In fact between my extremely broken Chinese and her English, I was told that my Chinese was good enough to not use English. My problem is that the Chinese I feel confident using, I can speak very well; but anything else is really bad. But anyway, after a bit of discussion the original price I had for the colour was way too cheap and she quoted me a price approximately double being around NT$6,000.

After a few more shops, I had encountered the same thing. Colour laser printers are around NT$6,000 and anything cheaper may be a fake. So off I went back to the original shop to check it our further.

Oh the last shop, before I made may way back to the original (not the with the English speaking sales lady) that I visited, had made me a little suspicious. When I asked initially they told me a price, then when I showed them I had shopped around they had dropped it considerably. I think that being an obvious foreigner they increased the price a fair bit. But when challenged, they immediately dropped it. Being a foreigner does have its advantages, but in this case it wasn't.

Anyway, when I arriving back at the original shop, I looked at the price and it was NT$3,590. However, I checked the model number on the price tag and it was for the mono laser printer on the shelf below. Someone had probably knocked the special price tag off and put it on the wrong shelf. The price was too good to be true!!!

O'well, after a bit of discussion with the Doctor, we decided that we didn't really need a colour laser and would go for a mono laser printer. On Monday afternoon, we both headed back down to Computer Street and after quickly comparing prices along the way, we headed back to the lady who told me to use Chinese.

After a bit of haggling, we got the price for a NT$3,000 laser down to NT$2,550 including delivery on Tuesday. The agreed time would be around 1:00pm. This happened to be the time that the Doctor goes to his work.

On Tuesday around midday, I received a call with only Chinese spoken to me. I though the delivery was downstairs so off I went. No person there. Luckily I had the phone number of the sales lady who spoke English and enquired. I was told that the delivery would now take place at 5:00pm. OK no problem. Then during the cause of the afternoon, the delivery lady called me a couple of times with a message that I had no understanding of. I presume it was to tell me that delivery would be late. Anyway, the delivery lady arrives around 5:30pm - apparently after becoming lost.

Printer arrives and she offers to set it up - the delivery lady is also the printer engineer. I think OK because if it isn't working she can take it back with her knowing that it wasn't me that broke it. After printer has been unpacked and is ready to connect with my computer, the engineer lady wants to put a Windows driver CD into my computer. I don't use Windows so it will not be of any use. Trying to communicate this was funny, especially to see the look of astonishment on the engineer lady's face. After connecting the printer to my computer, my system found the printer straight away and I was able to print. The engineer lady still didn't believe me about printing and it took about 5 attempts to show her that the printer had printed my page without that Windows disc.

I couldn't let the engineer lady go without at least installing the Windows driver on one computer, and the Doctor does use Windows so I let her install the printer on his PC. Around that same time, the Doctor came home and the engineer lady was relieved to have someone to speak Chinese too.

In the end, the Doctor and I now have a brand new laser printer for about AU$100 where we can now print more than 10 pages without the ink running out.

I think from this experience I have learnt that speaking Chinese is not always necessary, but to find a bargain and have it delivered definitely does help.

Till next time, haveagoodone...

Last day...

Today was the last day of my first semester learning Chinese. It's hard to believe that three months have already passed and I have survived them. It was not without its challenges through. The teacher has given me (and my fellow students) tongue twisters, songs, and poems. A bit of a rough call considering we are just beginners I think...

The next week will be holidays for me and to reflect on what I have learned so far. I can tell you that I now know the following:

• I can count up to a really big number. One that has at least seven or eight zeros in it. This aspect was more difficult that what one might imagine. In English, you have counting units such as hundreds and thousands. However, the Chinese language has a counting unit for ten thousands (called wan). Therefore to say the figure of 100,000 in English is one hundred thousand. Whereas to say this figure in Chinese is ten wan because they use one wan that is ten thousand in English. Confused??? I luckily am not...
• I have a vocabulary of approximately 160 words ( I believe that there is approximately 60,000 to 80,000 words in the Chinese language) that can loosely be used together. At least I can greet people, say I hear but not understand, ask if they speak English, say what country I am from and some other basic phrases.
• Finally this is probably one of the most important things I have learned, to become extremely confused with their grammar rules (well I understand some of them).

I guess this is why I have been given a week off from school to process and make sure I understand for the next semester in a week's time. I do have a little bit of help as I have started doing language exchange with a local girl. She teaches English in primary school and is hoping to go to Australia to study for her Masters next year. The language exchange that takes place is me helping her write short essays and she helps me with anything Chinese that I am having trouble with.

To mark the last week of our semester, my teacher organised a trip for all of us to a local restaurant. Afterwards, the students who didn't go home, the teacher drove us around Kaohsiung and the bay area. On the way back from a coffee shop, we encountered another local in the hills. We luckily enough had some biscuits from our coffee break to feed the hungry little local. I am told that there are many monkeys in the mountains but I didn't see any of his/her friends.

Also for all my hard work over the last three months (well hard work is what I am telling people anyway) I have a certificate from the Language School that looks pretty impressive.

Anyway, back to the total immersion and hoping that the Chinese becomes a little less like Chinese and more like English...

Till next time, haveagoodone...

Computer repairers - do they really repair???

Just over a week ago, my notebook had to go to the repairers. I had a problem with my monitor flickering and I think it due to a bad connection. However, as my notebook was under warranty, I took it to the repairers.

Just a quick note before I continue on, this was the second time that I had taken my notebook back to the repairers for the same problem. Apparently the first time they just tightened up the offending part.

When I took my notebook in, there was a different person to accept it at the service desk. After my initial inquiry if she spoke English, it was established that all was understood about my problem. The kind lady promptly told me that the offending part would be replaced this time and it was the second time to play up.

With this news, I was a little concerned about loosing my hard disk and the data on it. But the lady assured me that my notebook would stay as is and only the offending part be replaced. Nothing would happen to my hard disk.

The service lady did mention that the technician would want to test my notebook and would need my passwords. Well I was prepared from last time and setup a special login for them and showed her how to do it and she noted it down.

Now I probably should mention a few things. I don't like Windows Vista and prefer to use Ubuntu. Windows is on my notebook but rarely used. As a security feature, I copied all my data to the Ubuntu system so that Windows could not view it. I am a highly suspicious person when it comes to my identify and possible theft.

Well after a few days, I got a call saying that my notebook is ready to be picked up. I travel down to the computer repairers in the heat of the afternoon. When I arrived I waited for about 15 minutes but do have a technology magazine to read - lots of pictures and not much reading. After being served, I test my computer to make sure all is working.

This is were the trouble begins. Just as soon as I turn my computer on I am given an error message and cannot proceed any further. I wait another fifteen minutes to be served again and told that the technician only touched the part in question for my monitor. After explaining that the computer was working properly when I lodged it earlier they gave me a blank look saying that they could not do anything about the system. One thing that the service guy (it was a different person that when I lodged my notebook initially) did do was to boot off a flash drive and at least I saw that my hard disk was still there and my disk setup appeared still in tacked.

So after arguing for a while wanting to know what they did to my computer, I reluctantly took it home hoping that I could fix my software system.

When I got home, I found that the problem was a bit more serious that I first thought. The service repairers had deleted my whole Ubuntu system including my sensitive data. How they did this I don't know because Windows does not recognise Ubuntu and generally cannot do anything to it. They must have special tools.

Well after reinstalling Ubuntu, I tried to get back into Windows and this was also corrupted. So, this was another system that needed to be totally reinstalled. By the way, I did have a copy of my sensitive data elsewhere on my portable drive so it was not a total loss. But still I had to reinstall Ubuntu, Windows Vista and all the other programs that I use.

Now here comes the ironic thing. When I lodged my notebook initially, the service lady was going to take my hard disk out and give it back to me. I said no because I didn't want anything to happen to it. I guess that this was a sign and I ignored it. If I had taken my hard disk, I would not have been in the situation of losing my systems.

So the moral of my story, if I need to lodge my computer for repairs, I am taking my hard disk with me and not leaving it at the repairers... Oh and watch for signs more carefully.

Till next time, haveagoodone...

Childhood songs...

The new lesson that I started in Chinese Language school was about reading, speaking and singing in French. Now this may seem confusing, learning about French in a Chinese Language class. However, the Chinese words I are learning are about reading and singing. French only happens to be the subject.

Now cast your mind back to early school days and think of a popular French song that you may have learned. From my fellow students I know it was taught in many parts of the world. I know from my early school days, they taught the French song Frere Jacques. I have added the link to Wikipedia because it provides different versions used throughout the world and their English meaning.

Needless to say that Taiwan has its own version, the version that I am learning in class. My teacher is a Youtube addict and regular plays this version of the song.

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After watching the clip, you have to admit that the kids are quite cute; but try watching it more than ten times (which I am sure that I would have done by the time that my teacher has finished).

While watching these girls perform, I wonder if they will be the new Spice Girls?

Anyway, till next time, haveagoodone while I try and get this song out of my head.

The end of another week...

Have you ever wondered if the weekend is for recovering from the week, of if the week is to recover from the weekend?

Last weekend, the Doctor and I travelled to Taipei. We started our weekend by catching the 6:36am High Speed Train on Friday morning from Kaohsiung station. After arriving in Taipei two hours later, we caught a bus for another two hour ride to JinShan (literally translated is Gold Mountain). This is where a friend of ours was staying with her parents before she moves back to New Zealand. We first became friends when her and her Kiwi boyfriend rented a room from us in Christchurch back in 2005.

After arriving in JinShan, we spent the afternoon at a Buddhist Monastery called Dhrama Drum Mountain. The tour guide, who happened to speak reasonable English, took us through numerous attractions. One of the attractions was large rock pool in the middle of a courtyard where the water was perfectly clear and still. This was meant to represent a clear and calm mind and the monks would use it for their meditation. Another attraction that we visited was the Lotus Bell. This reminded me of the Peace Bell that I saw in Hiroshima Japan. The Lotus Bell however has a subscription on it that the Doctor told me was a sutra.

After spending the afternoon wondering around the monastery, we eat our dinner with the monks in their eating hall. The food was very delicious although there was no speaking allowed as well as the men and women sat on separate sides of the room.

On Saturday, the Doctor and I made our way back to Taipei (another two hour bus ride) and arrived in Taipei just after lunch time. After having lunch and checking into our hotel, we made our way to the Presidential Building. This was where the start of a parade was that afternoon. The parade was similar to the one that is held in Sydney on the first weekend in March but not quite so big.

On the main stage where the parade participants gathered, they even had a mural with a great Australian (well Sydney) icon on it. I think that Taipei 101 building was also part of the mural. I am presuming that there is a connection here???

Anyway the parade started in the heat of the afternoon and weaved through the streets of Taipei central. The funny thing was that only half the road was closed off with buses, cars, motorcycles, scooters and pedestrians all sharing the other half of the road. And here I thought that the traffic was already chaotic....

If you are interested to look at the hundred odd photos that we took, the link is here ( Pride March Taipei 2009 ).

After the Parade finished late afternoon, the Doctor and I headed to the place where we use to live back in 2003/2004. The suburb was called TianMu (literally Mother Nature I think). We walk around and reminisced about the area including our old apartment building, the park we use to walk around and shopping districts nearby.

One funny thing that happened was there was a dog at the end of our lane way that always used to come to the Doctor. This time when we walked by, we started talking and noticed that the dog was still in the same apartment block, however when called the dog started to bark and had clearly forgotten about the Doctor. This photo was taken back in 2003 where the Doctor and Dodo the dog were friends.

To finish the evening off, we went to the old Hot Spring place, I know it as the Five Pools, that we use to frequently visit. The Five Pools had changed their layout and pool temperatures a bit but essentially it was still the same. I even had a some of the locals practice their English with me.

The next day (which was Sunday), we visited the old language schools that I had been too. The main one at Taiwan's Teacher's University was still exactly the same. Although being Sunday, we couldn't go in the building or anything so we admired it from the outside.

The afternoon was spent on the long six hour train ride back to Kaohsiung. We arrived back home around 8:00pm and I think this is why I needed the week to recover.

This weekend there is a food show in the new Arena just over the other side of the road so hopefully I should have some photos and stories about that. The other plan for this weekend is to attempt my homework. The language teacher has decided that we students need to practice our essay writing. The topic is our local convenient store or supermarket. This will be interesting because we have only learnt about 120 words and very simple sentence structures. The encouragement offered by the teacher is "just try"... One saving grace is that we have been given a lined piece of paper the size of A5 so I guess she is not expecting any multi paged accounts.

Till next time, haveagoodone...