中文 Songs and Movies ！

With the help of Ben, Brandon, Nora, and an assortment of friends from school, I made my last video for NSLI-Y giving advice for next year's American students in Taiwan on my scholarship.


Check it out on Youtube here.


It's unbelievable to believe that I will be home within the next three days. I'll post a few pictures when I get home, but this is my last blog post in Taiwan. I've had such a wonderful time here, especially the last few months, and it's pretty bittersweet to think that my adventure here is practically in the epilogue. When I say goodbye to a friend, it feels like it's going to be good bye forever.  I have my last two outfits laid out, so I can pack and weigh my luggage before Monday's 7:30 am flight to Hong Kong and then New York and layover and then home.

(Everything above, I wrote before I left Taiwan, but I didn't have time to finish before I jet-setted and landed back in Nashville, TN. Right now, I'm sitting at home in the US! I want to finish this blog entry, and then write a final one to wrap up how I came home from my year in Taiwan.)

In honor of my life that's awesome in Taiwan,  I decided to post some of our favorite KTV songs and Taiwanese movies that we've seen and sung over the year. If you're interested in Taiwan or learning Chinese, enjoy!

Movies

那些年，我們一起追的女孩 （You are the Apple of My Eye) - Literally, the Chinese means "Those years, the girl we chased together". I watched this with Jubbie and one of her friends shortly after coming to Taiwan, and it does a really nice job depicting Taiwanese life. This trailer also has English subtitles.

聽說（Hear Me) - This movie was a love story of two young people who use sign-language to communicate while falling in love. There's a twist a the end, and it's a bit hard as sometimes they'll only have subtitles in the sign-language parts (which is 比較難聽得懂）

愛你一萬年－Love You 10,000 Years- Another romance. This is about a Taiwanese guy and a Japanese girl who moves to Taiwan to study Chinese, and the two fall in love. Some parts are in Japanese, but it's mostly Chinese.

海洋天堂- Ocean's Heaven - This is a Chinese version of Forest Gump with an emphasis on the father-son connection.

臥虎藏龍- Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon- Kung fu movie that was pretty big in the US a few years back. The martial arts/fighting scenes are sick.

海角7號- Cape No. 7- A Japanese girl falls in love with a Taiwanese boy while putting together a band for a competition at 墾丁, but there's also a subplot using letters from a past Japanese-Taiwanese couple during the time when Taiwan was under Japanese colonization. Also has some Japanese during the movie.

不能說的秘密- Secret - Two Taiwanese musicians fall in love. What's the problem? The girl is from 20 years in the past. There's a sweet piano battle at one point in the film.

一頁台北 （Au Revoir Taipei)- A Taiwanese boy dreams of moving to France to find love; however, in the course of the film, he's able to find his own adventure and romance in Taipei. It's cute! I watched it over winter break, and it was a good way to spend some time while I was sick.

飲食男女-Eat Drink Man Woman- I watched this movie before I came to Taiwan last summer. It's about a father and his three daughters living together. There's quite a bit of cooking, and this trailer is completely in English (though the movie is in Chinese).

痞子英雄 Black and White- A Taiwanese cop movie based on a TV show with the same name. It's really funny, especially the scenes where foreigners do martial arts and speak English (with french accents). Nora and I saw it together in theaters, and I bought a season of the TV show as well.

These are all movies that I watched within the last year. I'd highly recommend checking out movies if you're interested in learning Chinese, as it's much more interesting than sitting with a text book, and it can really improve your listening comprehension. At first, use English subtitles, but eventually I think it's better to use Chinese one, even if that means you might not understand everything.  


賽德克·巴萊-Seediq Bale, Warriors of the Rainbow- I went to a concert with the music from Seediq Bale, but  I never saw the film. I heard it's awesome, and it's about Taiwan's aboriginal people and how they fought against the Japanese occupation of Taiwan during their colonization period. There are two parts and lots of blood and epic battles. Lot's of good movies (especially romances), so check it out! 



MUSIC!!! KTV Songs田馥甄 - 魔鬼中的天使- The Devil in the Angel- Ben sang this when we were at KTV. 
霍元甲- Fearless- This song is by Jay Chou ( 周杰倫). I love the Beijing Opera combined with rap;  I have a Taiwanese friend who can sing this really well. 
韋禮安-還是會 (Still Will)- I really love this song. It's lyrics talk about how a girl hasn't given the singer a lot of time to be together. The last part of the music video is cute. 

南拳媽媽-家- Home- About family, it's nice. 

黃小琥-沒那麼簡單- It's not that easy- This song talks about how it's not easy to love someone. The first comment on youtube says  "期中考...沒那麼簡單......crod1997 2 months ago 125  
"Midterm exams...it's not that easy"

雨天－ Rainy Day- My tutors helped me translate the lyrics to this song first semester. 

陳柏霖-我不會喜歡你 I can't like you- Though the music sounds depressing, the hidden meaning here is that I can't like you, but I can love you. 

周杰倫 - 黑色幽默 Black Humor- Another song by Jay Chou. 

Soler-陌生人 Stranger- This song is fast paced, a bit rock-ish. It talks about how a girl doesn't understand him and how they're becoming strangers (你看不到，你聽不到！） 我也很喜歡這首歌！

MP魔幻力量 [ 不按牌理出牌 ] I love this song, but I have no idea what it's about. 

首播=羅志祥 Show [有我在 Count on Me ] The men in this music video aren't unattractive. There are some lyrics in English as well as Chinese.

五月天 -離開地球表面 by Mayday- 五月天 （or Mayday) is a really famous band, and this song is really catchy. 

中國話 Chinese  This song is by S.H.E., a Taiwanese girl band that's really famous and has been around for a while. It's a rap that talks about how the world is learning Chinese and it's pretty catchy. 

李佳薇 煎熬(Jess Lee - Suffering) - This music video is really 噁心. The girl in it is suffering because 
of a failed relationship, and the music video is super nasty. 

Sorry if parts of this blog post are in capital letters. I don't know how to change it. 


I'm now back in the US, and I'll write a final blog post wrapping up the last of my time in 台灣 this 週末。 For now, enjoy 我的中文建議！

DRAGON BOATING

This weekend, the international students at Wenzao are competing in a Dragon Boat competition.

Check out this article and link to an awesome video about our team here!


(I'm at the back of the boat.)

NSLI-Y Closing Ceremony

This week, we had a closing ceremony at Wenzao with a representative from the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT, the same as the embassy) and all of our Chinese teachers from the year.

Each of the NSLI-Y Taiwan students gave a speech in Chinese and English about our experience living here for the year. There was also a reporter who wrote about us and is now on Wenzao's website: Click here to read! Here's my Chinese part below with an English translation.  

大家好！我叫敖媚聲，我來自美國，現在我住在台灣！去年五月的時候， 我從高中畢業，我在高中學了四年中文，雖然我已經學過中文， 但是從去年八月來台灣 的時候，我發現我還有很多話不知道怎麼說，到今年六月為止，我已經住在台灣已經差不多十個月了，而現在我快要回家了，我覺得我的中文進步很多了。今天我要告訴大家　＂謝謝＂。我在台灣認識了很多朋友。

Hi Everyone! I’m McKenzie. I’m from Nashville, but I live in Taiwan now! Last year in May, I graduated from high school. I studied Chinese for four years, but when I arrived in Taiwan, I realized I hadn’t learned much. Since last August, I’ve been living in Taiwan for about 10 months, and soon I’ll go home. I think my Chinese has improved a lot, so I want to tell everyone thank you! I’ve made a lot of friends here.

首先要先謝謝我的寄宿家庭，我很高興能住在她們的家。雖然她們只是兩個很平凡的人，但她們卻過的非常的快樂。他們常常說好多笑話給我聽，而且既漂亮又聰明，最重要的是他們幫助我很多。我有很多美好的回憶，比如和Jubbie一起去韓國，或是和Ya-Shu Mommy 一邊看“愛上巧克力”一邊吃水果。這些都是我在台灣很難忘的回憶。離開台灣後，我真的會想妳們。

First, I want to thank my host family. I am so happy that I got to live with them this year. There is so much joy in my “small, but lovely family” as Jubbie put it in an email she sent while I was still in the US. I have so many good memories, from traveling with Jubbie to watching Taiwanese dramas and eating fruit with Ya-Shu Mommy. I will miss you both.

我也要謝謝文藻。在高雄，我也有著許多非常好的台灣朋友。 因為文藻有很多的外國學生， 所以我也認識了韓國人，西班牙人，墨西哥人，德國人，印尼人，日本人和法國人。歐洲人真的很愛抽煙！我們都來台灣學中文，也常常練習中文。 我也在文藻上很多西班牙文課。 因為我在美國學過西班牙文所以我在文藻上西文課的時候也可以認識其他台灣學生。在健身室也可以認識台灣朋友。文藻好棒！

I also want to thank Wenzao. I’ve made so many good Taiwanese friends here, and because Wenzao has a vibrant foreign community that studies Chinese, I’ve also made friends from Spain, Mexico, Indonesia, Korea, Japan, and France. I’ve also had the opportunity to take Spanish classes with Taiwanese students that also enriched my Taiwanese life. So did meeting boys at the gym. Thank you Wenzao!

Nora and I with a group of Taiwanese friends. We ate lunch with them regularly, and they helped us a lot with our Chinese!

Potluck at one of my classmate's house

我想對美國政府，美國的納稅人，AIT, NSLIY, 跟iEARN 說聲“謝謝” . 謝謝你們給我這個機會。我很喜歡在高雄的生活，也很喜歡在台北，墾丁，和花蓮的旅行。我希望回家以後能還記得台灣跟中文。雖然中文很難學，但是學中文的人會有更多的機會。 中國和美國是兩個富強的國家，所以謝謝你們幫我這個美國學生來台灣學中文。

I also want thank the American government and taxpayers, AIT, NSLI-Y, and IEARN. Thank you for giving me this opportunity. I’ve enjoyed my life in Kaohsiung and the trips to Taipei, Kending, and Hualian. When I go back, I hope I still remember the Chinese I’ve learned. Although it’s a difficult language, it’s an important one, especially for Americans to start learning. Thank you for helping me come to Taiwan to study Chinese.

我也要謝謝Abby.

Thanks for everything Abby!

Abby and her four kids

最後我要謝謝Ben, Brandon, 和 Nora。從認識到現在，我們都在一起。Ben,還記得我們的第一個學期中文課嗎？Brandon, 我們“represent the South“ 然後也一起練習西文。我特別要謝Nora. 你是我最好的朋友。 和你們在一起我有很多美好的回憶.

Finally, I want to thank Ben, Brandon, and Nora. We’ve been together through it all. Ben, I won’t forget our first semester of Chinese. Brandon, thanks for the Spanish practice and being Southern with me. Nora, I especially want to thank you; you are my best friend. Thanks for the memories y’all.

Love these people.

我很感激所有我在台灣遇到並幫助過我的人，感謝你們為我做的一切，我會永遠記得你們的，謝謝台灣！

I’m so grateful for all of my experiences in Taiwan. Thank you for everything. I’ll always remember my year here. Thank you Taiwan!

It's crazy to say, but we're just about at the two week countdown. Today was graduation for Wenzao's seniors, and it's starting to sink in that our year abroad will soon come to an end.  

The Final Product of our Taiwanese Wedding Shoot

We got the final product of our wedding shoot! Enjoy our beautiful (and slightly ridiculous) pictures.  The women at the store was still convinced we're all couples getting ready for holy matrimony when Abby went to pick up our albums. 

 Brandon=So Sexy (好色色！）

Ben is super cute (可愛！）

 My host mom said "哈哈哈 煝聲很典雅" （Haha...McKenzie looks elegant!)

 Nora's gorgeous!

 We decided this picture is our best group shot. We look like the cover of a Korean drama. Ben decided he's the emotional one with issues; Nora and I are in some sort of love triangle; Brandon is probably a player. We all got this picture in a frame, and I gave mine to my host family to remember me after I go. It's crazy to say, but this is my last month in Taiwan!

 Brandon and I behind the iconic Kaohsiung 85 building.

 The only picture Abby was in! She doesn't love attention as much as the divas that are her four teenagers in Taiwan. 

 Nora and I looking beautiful! 

Our group in front of Lotus Lake. (Can you find the tiger and the dragon in this picture?)

Ben and Nora decked in traditional wedding garb.

好看嗎？

Ben looking good!

Brandon looking regal! 

Nora's 漂亮！ The photographer has been calling Abby asking for Nora's cell phone number, so she can come back and model for her. When Abby asked if the photographer wanted anyone else to come back she said no, just Nora (cause she's GORGEOUS!!!). 

 In a park outside the temple. 

Brandon and I decided this looked like the cover of something Latin American. 

我愛台灣！！！！

Hope you like these photos as much as we do!