April 2010
23 posts
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-5: When tradition trumps science
RECENTLY ACQUIRED FACTS RE: CAUSES AND REMEDIES OF PHYSICAL CONDITIONS, PRACTICED AND SUGGESTED BY TAIWANESE GRANDMOTHERS, YOUNG PEOPLE, DOCTORS, AND GENERALLY, MOST TAIWANESE PEOPLE.
1. Pregnant women must not consume soy sauce or chocolate, or their baby will have dark skin. This is suggested to expecting Caucasian couples, and practiced by Taiwanese mothers-to-be, who value whiter skin...
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-6: What does Taiwan have in common with...
These countries, and many more not mentioned here, have mandatory military service. I asked my Taiwanese friend James, a computer engineer specializing in sound chips, about his two years in the army. What did he do? Shot guns, ran around, he said. Was he stationed in any other countries? No, he said, just Taiwan.
In Taiwan, males age 18-36 must serve 16 months either in active duty or a...
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-7: Shopping can be awkward here
The women bowed as I walked forward—two on each side of the shiny tiled aisle, bowing in a staggered pattern, like a collective audience wave at a baseball game.
They dressed similar but better than flight attendants, I noticed: navy blue hats perched slightly to the side; white collared, fitted, striped shirts; navy blue ties; a navy blue knee-length pencil skirt; and classic black stockings...
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-8: Chinese astrology personality quiz
Find out your priorities, how you view life and love, and what type of people are in your life, with this quiz, another byproduct of teaching. (This is a great activity for older students and fun for adults, too!)
1. Arrange these animals from most (#1) to least (#5) preferred:
Cow/Tiger/Sheep/Horse/Monkey
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
2. Write one word to describe each of these—
Dog:
Cat:
Rat:...
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-10: TRIVIA QUIZ—Are you smarter than young...
I incorporate these, and more, bits of trivia into games for junior high and senior high school students, and if they understand the English words, they can correctly answer the majority. How about you?
POST YOUR ANSWERS IN A COMMENT AND I WILL SCORE THEM! GOOD LUCK!!
1. What is the greatest number of times a piece of dry paper can be folded in half?
2. Most lipstick contains what part of a...
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-11: Practical cultural etiquette tips for...
A year ago, I scoured Lonely Planet Taiwan, Rough Guide Taiwan, Culture Clash: Taiwan, and the grand interweb, searching for ways my Western habits might be offensive to the Taiwanese.
But, I found living here a far better tutor.
I’ve noticed certain traditions and gestures remain meaningful, remain adhered to, and I thought they’d be useful to share.
So, if traveling to Taiwan,...
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-13: Wang-mania, and other Taiwanese cultural...
In no particular order, bits of info I wish I’d known prior to teaching here, as they would have helped me connect with people faster, saved me from embarrassment and/or enriched my appreciation of Taiwan sooner.
1. Chien-Ming Wang: Taiwanese pitcher for the NY Yankees, and probably the sole reason the only baseball games sports channels feed here are Yankees games and reruns of past...
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-14: Immersion works—10 Chinese phrases I learned...
Living among Chinese-speaking Taiwanese for a year left me with these ten—and at least ten more—useful phrases, which I’m able to pronounce correctly and naturally after hearing them daily. Click on the links to hear audio, but I think my extremely accurate academic phonetics in quotes should suffice!
1. THANK YOU—“She A she A” 2. I LOVE YOU—”Woah eye knee” 3....
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-18: English names, by choice or charge
Photo by Beth Shea Palmer in Taoyuan, Taiwan
Andy is the charming boy deliberately commandeering this photo to draw attention, albeit negative, from his smart and sassy female classmates. To his right is Mandy, his arch-nemesis, perhaps only for the reason their names differ by one letter. To Mandy’s right is Fiona, who happened to arrive donning a pen-made mustache above her lip. I...
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-19: How to become an English teacher in Taiwan,...
How often do you encounter a “Simultaneously travel, immerse in a fantastically opposite culture, pay off debts and save money” how-to?
I work at Gloria English School. It’s in a southern Taipei suburb, and its not ideal (only 20 hours a week but over six days, free dorm-style living, no subway system, few western comforts) but I know what I’d do differently, so if...
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-20: What it means if men wear green hats, and...
If you write someone’s name in red ink, you wish death upon them—which is taken very seriously. My students and fellow teachers grab red markers and pens out of my hand before I write someone’s or my own name and offer their blue or black one instead.
If you hear whistling, it’s a ghost, so don’t turn around—Brendan takes advantage of this and often eerily whistles in...
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-21: Never wake a sleeping cabbie
A story of horror and of Taiwanese betel nut chewers
My story began at this Mintsu Loo taxi stand
Photo by Beth Shea Palmer in Jhongli, Taiwan
He embodied the tell-tale signs, eyes hard shut, face haggard, lips and teeth red, which I noticed as his ajar mouth loudly exhaled and inhaled—he was crashing from a betel nut high, in necessary sound sleep.
But I needed to be somewhere 10 minutes...
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-22: You are your own garbage man in Taiwan, with...
Fur Elise, blasted from blown speakers of Taiwanese garbage trucks, is your cue as a home or business owner to scurry to the street with the day’s trash and recycling in tow.
The trucks generally appear to be the same type used in America, but here, they travel slow enough for each resident to wind up and swiiiing their heavy bags into the gaping bin.
Taiwanese and expatriates alike...
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-23: Squatters soiled my mindtrick
I nearly had myself fooled.
At the close of our faux-American day— a VIP suite at the See You Hotel (only $100!) and porterhouses and Guinness drafts at a Chicago-style bar and grill, Dan Ryan’s—two inverted toilet seats reminded me I wasn’t in Kansas anymore.
Splattered with urine, they greeted me as I entered the Dan Ryan’s ladies room; I was amused but not surprised, and...
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-25: Top 5 smells—a sensory tour
I wish I could upload a scratch and sniff, adjectives will have to suffice.
From most pleasant to most likely to trigger a gag, a countdown of the prevalent odors one encounters on any given Taiwanese block.
5. Bakeries: Bun-filled windows at Danky Bakery and countless other loving-ovens, remnants of the Dutch influence, fill the air with rising sweet dough and fillings of chocolate and/or...
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-26: Brendan and I got couples' set tattoos! →
March 2010
8 posts
4 tags
-27: A bride of many colors
Photo by Beth Shea Palmer in Kenting, Taiwan
A Taiwanese bride climbs the hill to Elanubi Lighthouse in southern Taiwan—it’s time to vogue.
Culture dictates that brides and grooms hire a company to conduct a photo shoot at major scenic spots, complete with lights, sun-reflectors and costume changes! She’s gorgeous in green now, but later she’ll change into a purple gown, or...
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-28: It's good to be a kid in Taiwan
This baby Ferris wheel has been calling my name.
It’s facing giant restaurant windows lined with hot-pot diners keeping me from jumping on unnoticed—but—DAAAANG, the happy carnival song accompanied by slow circular movement up and around creates such a temptation, I work in vain on a valid excuse so to explain my near 6-foot frame perching on the tiny seat just once!
And so, their far...
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-29: Magical fruit! (No, not thaaat kind)
Photo by Beth Shea Palmer in Jhongli, Taiwan
Exotic fruit is sold at corner stalls like this one, a regular stop on my 20 minute walk home from the bus station.
The glitter eye-shadowed woman who owns this cart knows me now and always thinks I want strawberries and pineapple. But, over the year, my students have given me some of their fruit when they eat their snack at breaktime. So, my...
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-30: Smell that? It's your luck changing
It’s t minus 30 days till Brendan and I return to sweet home USA. To force myself to endure retrospection and appreciation I will post an anecdote per day and secretly hope my doing so will be rewarded with the feeling that time is passing quicker.
So, smell that? It might be your luck changing! If, you subscribe to Taiwanese culture, which views a squishy step in fresh dog poop to be a...
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“Coming Soon: 30 days, 30 Taiwan topics (One post daily to commemorate my last...”
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Wack-A-Mole, or if you're a crazy Taiwanese lady...
Want to play a fun game, kids? Here’s what you do: First, develop a mental illness, don a black dress and nothing else, no shoes, no sanity. OK? Great. Then, perch under a bridge on a curb and look harmless, all while eying a 2x4 laying near your feet. Now, the key to winning this activity is, out of the blue you must leap into the air like a female Tarzan and swing the plank over your head...
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Settling for an English-speaking doctor
Oh, Dr. Wu.
I said I would never go back to you after my first 3 frustrating visits, but alas, I know you speak English, however condescending your tone may be, so I returned.
True to form, you reprimanded me for buying OTC medicine, “Why didn’t you just come here? It would have cost the same! Next time you should just come here.” (“You’re an idiot for trying to...
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"Taiwan Air Pollution Hits Record High", reports... →
February 2010
1 post
“We’re watching a distinct culture fade from our window like shadows...”
– My thought, in Taiwan
January 2010
6 posts
4 tags
Abandon logic, then drive—the first lesson in...
Routinely, I pedal among illogical death-wishing here in Jhongli:
left turns from the right-hand lane (and vice versa); abrupt pulling over and/or u-turn sans blinker; families of 5 sardined onto a 150cc scooter, none wearing helmets; a cigarette-puffing man revving his scooter forward to cut off a bus barreling onward, never mind the 5 propane tanks he’s transporting.
But, now, 9 months...
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October 2009
1 post
August 2009
9 posts
“One button is a sign of modesty and civilization”
– said Brendan, in a butchered Victorian accent, after I tried to undo the remaining collar button of his polo shirt.
Overnight trip this weeked to Hualien with our... →
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Typhoon Day! No school! And, on Brendan's birthday... →
July 2009
2 posts
