We are going to move this weekend from our very humble studio flat into a much smarter 3 bed affair on the other side of town. Probably one of the most irritating things about living in the studio, is our little buzzing friends that arrive most evenings to terrorise us. Mosquitoes have a canny ability to just appear in our room (we have stuffed obvious cracks with little plastic bags) soon after it gets dark outside, but the most important thing is, they are smart. Yes, a mosquito can hide itself, waiting and waiting until the lights go out and just as you are about to nod off, the buzzing noise starts around your ear, as it senses for a place to land and get sucking.
There are two responses at this point, either hide under the cover and try to ignore them and go to sleep, or jump up, turn the light on and see if you can spot the little bastard.
It is not easy, I assure you, to see them when you are half a sleep and under the grey white light of a fluorescent bulb!
But, mosquitoes have a weakness, that is having out smarted you and managed to suck your blood, they get lazy. Surfeit on blood they seem to lose their previously mentioned ability to hide and just sit on the wall, apparently intoxicated, and an easy target for a quick whack with a heavy magazine. Blood spatters on our nice clean white walls, lay testament to the fact that mother nature has given the humble mosquito a design flaw.
Anyway, we have found a nice clean place to live now, and we are looking forward to leaving this room with its squashed mosquito carcasses decorating the walls. Life will hopefully take on a semblance of normality once we move, but I think we still have a way to go yet before it feels completely comfortable for us.
25 Jan 2007
16 Jan 2007
It has been a strange week...
Last weekend we went to visit a very famous temple near my wife's hometown with the intention of asking the "Gods" for a little assistance with finding work, which we did. Of course that was all a little new to me. I followed my wife around the crowded temple trying to breath through joss-stick smoke, praying to the various "Gods" for a little help.
Low and behold on Monday the "Gods" appeared to have been listening and I suddenly seemed to have some success with my job hunt. I struck up a great rapport with a manager from a rather well presented adult language centre in the better part of town, who insisted that I was perfect material for his school and that he could mould me into a perfect teacher to match his vision for the school. I should have known he was a "fruit cake" from that moment, but when you're feeling desperate your vision can be a little clouded.
On Wednesday I returned to school having prepared a couple of short teaching demos (bear in mind that I have not a jot of English teaching experience), but nevertheless he seemed suitably impressed and wanted to "train" me to be a teacher. He said that he thought that I was very creative and had a lot of potential, weird right?
On Thursday evening I returned to the school to take part in the "training", which was meant to consist of sitting in on a couple of lessons and then working with my new mentor on how to conduct a class. It is true that I did sit in on a couple of classes, but the mentoring was a little short of the mark in terms of being of any use whatsoever. It was training of the "erh, just do it like this and like that" school of thought, but anyway I was still feeling good about the whole thing. I was invited back for the next day to take part in a class with my mentor and then to put together another demo and have a go again.
So, I arrived there again on Friday with my wife who was there to offer support, as she has a lot of teaching experience.
Suddenly, the whole feeling about the situation had changed (I don't think that it was to do with my wife being there as they had met before), my mentor seemed tense and uneasy, but nevertheless invited me to prepare for another demo, although he "no longer had time" to let me help him with a class.
I prepared for the demo which took a little longer than it should have due to computer problems (I know that is not a good excuse). The demo was completed and certainly went a little better than the first two that I did, so I felt quite pleased about that.
There is one character, however, that I haven't mentioned in this little story yet, that is my mentor's manager, a local Taiwanese guy, who spoke pretty good English (all learnt from watching movies, he told me, yeah right!). I had a long chat with him outside after my Thursday evening "training" session, and I think that is when my fate was sealed. Although the guy was all smiles and chatty (imagine the Japanese soldier smiling as he slits your throat), I am now sure that I pissed him off somehow, and the word was passed to the mentor not to hire me.
Although I was allowed to go through the process on Friday, it was when I was told, just as I was leaving, that the mentor had gone home and that he would "call me later in the evening" that I knew things had gone horribly wrong somewhere. My wife had sensed it also. The call never came.
So here I am back at square one! I am not sure if I am going back to the temple again this weekend to pray for help as it didn't seem to work, or maybe the "Gods" are just pissed at me for not praying in the right way or something and wanted to teach me a lesson, who knows?
Anyway, I am going to try and chill out a little this weekend and make an attempt at feeling normal again, Taiwan style!
Low and behold on Monday the "Gods" appeared to have been listening and I suddenly seemed to have some success with my job hunt. I struck up a great rapport with a manager from a rather well presented adult language centre in the better part of town, who insisted that I was perfect material for his school and that he could mould me into a perfect teacher to match his vision for the school. I should have known he was a "fruit cake" from that moment, but when you're feeling desperate your vision can be a little clouded.
On Wednesday I returned to school having prepared a couple of short teaching demos (bear in mind that I have not a jot of English teaching experience), but nevertheless he seemed suitably impressed and wanted to "train" me to be a teacher. He said that he thought that I was very creative and had a lot of potential, weird right?
On Thursday evening I returned to the school to take part in the "training", which was meant to consist of sitting in on a couple of lessons and then working with my new mentor on how to conduct a class. It is true that I did sit in on a couple of classes, but the mentoring was a little short of the mark in terms of being of any use whatsoever. It was training of the "erh, just do it like this and like that" school of thought, but anyway I was still feeling good about the whole thing. I was invited back for the next day to take part in a class with my mentor and then to put together another demo and have a go again.
So, I arrived there again on Friday with my wife who was there to offer support, as she has a lot of teaching experience.
Suddenly, the whole feeling about the situation had changed (I don't think that it was to do with my wife being there as they had met before), my mentor seemed tense and uneasy, but nevertheless invited me to prepare for another demo, although he "no longer had time" to let me help him with a class.
I prepared for the demo which took a little longer than it should have due to computer problems (I know that is not a good excuse). The demo was completed and certainly went a little better than the first two that I did, so I felt quite pleased about that.
There is one character, however, that I haven't mentioned in this little story yet, that is my mentor's manager, a local Taiwanese guy, who spoke pretty good English (all learnt from watching movies, he told me, yeah right!). I had a long chat with him outside after my Thursday evening "training" session, and I think that is when my fate was sealed. Although the guy was all smiles and chatty (imagine the Japanese soldier smiling as he slits your throat), I am now sure that I pissed him off somehow, and the word was passed to the mentor not to hire me.
Although I was allowed to go through the process on Friday, it was when I was told, just as I was leaving, that the mentor had gone home and that he would "call me later in the evening" that I knew things had gone horribly wrong somewhere. My wife had sensed it also. The call never came.
So here I am back at square one! I am not sure if I am going back to the temple again this weekend to pray for help as it didn't seem to work, or maybe the "Gods" are just pissed at me for not praying in the right way or something and wanted to teach me a lesson, who knows?
Anyway, I am going to try and chill out a little this weekend and make an attempt at feeling normal again, Taiwan style!
12 Jan 2007
Gissa job mate!
Looking for work in Taiwan is perhaps not as easy as I thought. Being a man of more mature years (apparently 45 is really old these days!) it is not easy to be taken seriously in terms of finding work. This seems to be especially the case in Taiwan where basically men over 40 cannot find a job to do, unless they are exceptionally talented, or want to work as a security guard etc. It seems that the expectation is that by middle age an individual will be compelled to start their own business in some way shape or form.
Actually that is one of our objectives, that is to develop a business idea that we can take back to the UK, but in the meantime we both need to work and I am now worried that it will take some time to find a stable job, hrm!
The two main career choices for English speakers in Taiwan appear to be either an English Teacher for some kind of educational establishment, or a Technical Writer for some kind of IT company. A good English teaching job seems to pay more, but I am applying for both to see what comes my way.
Another important thing that is working against me is that I am not American, and Taiwanese love Americans, especially when it comes to learning English. I mean, to me I don't think it is a good idea to focus on any particular accent when learning a foreign language. For me it is most important to speak clearly and make yourself understood, my first Chinese language teacher gave me this advise when I first started out learning Mandarin. Imagine if I had focused on a heavy Beijing accent (the considered standard for Mandarin speakers), I would now sound very strange here in Taichung where Mandarin is heavily influenced by the accent of the local Taiwanese dialect.
Personally I think the focus the Taiwanese have on American English comes from a desire to have some of the USA's success rub off on those that learn it, and a slightly desperate desire to be perceived as being an integral part of the international community. Hrm, I am not sure that I agree with that approach to language learning, but then I would say that wouldn't I?
Actually that is one of our objectives, that is to develop a business idea that we can take back to the UK, but in the meantime we both need to work and I am now worried that it will take some time to find a stable job, hrm!
The two main career choices for English speakers in Taiwan appear to be either an English Teacher for some kind of educational establishment, or a Technical Writer for some kind of IT company. A good English teaching job seems to pay more, but I am applying for both to see what comes my way.
Another important thing that is working against me is that I am not American, and Taiwanese love Americans, especially when it comes to learning English. I mean, to me I don't think it is a good idea to focus on any particular accent when learning a foreign language. For me it is most important to speak clearly and make yourself understood, my first Chinese language teacher gave me this advise when I first started out learning Mandarin. Imagine if I had focused on a heavy Beijing accent (the considered standard for Mandarin speakers), I would now sound very strange here in Taichung where Mandarin is heavily influenced by the accent of the local Taiwanese dialect.
Personally I think the focus the Taiwanese have on American English comes from a desire to have some of the USA's success rub off on those that learn it, and a slightly desperate desire to be perceived as being an integral part of the international community. Hrm, I am not sure that I agree with that approach to language learning, but then I would say that wouldn't I?
3 Jan 2007
Taichung scooter city
Detroit is known as Motor City, Taichung could be known as Scooter City! If you are fan of scooters then this is the place for you! Taichung is the definitive scooter lovers paradise, complete with clouds of two stroke engine fumes and very few laws to control their usage.
True, I can understand why people like to ride scooters, because Taichung streets rarely have side walks and those that do exist have often been utilised as business space for road-side eateries, of which there is an unnecessary abundance I would suggest. Also, there is little place to park a car and a randomly designed and unlinked bus service with which to navigate around the city, makes life here without a scooter pretty inconvenient.
The modern scooter is a bug-eyed pest carrying all and sundry on their daily routines, from little old ladies to traffic wardens to entire families. The spread of this vermin across Taiwan has remained unchecked by the government and now there is pretty much a scooter for every person in Taiwan today, that is 23 million scooters, argh! Making the air in urban areas pretty much unbreathable without the aid of a mask, this is especially true at a main junction during rush hour-don't forget your respirator!
Take a look at this Flickr link and you'll see what I mean!
True, I can understand why people like to ride scooters, because Taichung streets rarely have side walks and those that do exist have often been utilised as business space for road-side eateries, of which there is an unnecessary abundance I would suggest. Also, there is little place to park a car and a randomly designed and unlinked bus service with which to navigate around the city, makes life here without a scooter pretty inconvenient.
The modern scooter is a bug-eyed pest carrying all and sundry on their daily routines, from little old ladies to traffic wardens to entire families. The spread of this vermin across Taiwan has remained unchecked by the government and now there is pretty much a scooter for every person in Taiwan today, that is 23 million scooters, argh! Making the air in urban areas pretty much unbreathable without the aid of a mask, this is especially true at a main junction during rush hour-don't forget your respirator!
Take a look at this Flickr link and you'll see what I mean!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
