Sunday, November 13, 2011

Taiwanese Friend On Us

Nora, Me, Diego, Diego's Mom at his Spanish Graduation Play

The friends I've made so far make Taiwanese life infinitely richer. Within our Chinese center classes, our NSLIY group has met a variety of world travelers that draw from Germany, Spain, Japan, Korea, France, China, Belgium, Mexico, Canada, and Australia (and I'm sure I've forgotten some). In the last few weeks, our small, but lovely, NSLIY group (Ben, Brandon, Nora, Me) has become even closer, as we build history together here in Taiwan. Outside our Chinese classes, there are hundreds of Taiwanese students, and we're lucky to be living with our host siblings. I don't mean to brag, but I'm pretty certain I got the best host family. Ya Shu Mammy is wonderful. Jubbie is awesome.

To give another perspective on my Taiwanese life, I asked our friend, Diego/Daniel/王冠予, (phonetically, Wang Guan Yu), to write his perspective on his new American friends. Enjoy:


American Hot Friends  (How I Met White People)
         I'm writing this because there's a hot american girl who wants me to dedicate a blog post for her and contribute something to her fancy taiwanese life record. I didn't even know that i am having some white people as my friend 'cause i usually get super nervous when white people are around me, and my english knowledge can go away in no time. Okay, this is how it all started, ladies and gentlemen.

My name is Daniel Wang and I'm a 19-year-old taiwanese boy who's been studying in Wenzao for five years. One day i was doing my part time job at wenzao like a postman delivering mails and other stuffs between different offices and that's when i saw the white people group.

Okay, it wasn't actually the first time i saw them. I saw them on the wenzao website 'cause they were like super big to us so that went on the front page and had a story for them. They were dressing in wenzao junior uniforms which is so not cool, i later on told them never to wear them again in their life.

So i knew nora one day when i was taking my regular bus to work, on which she takes it everyday for her chinese class. first of all i don't see americans everyday in my life so i soon spotted her and recognized that she was the girl in the frontpage. I mean, this is like the first time i see a girl can grow up so tall and so White! Thats so cool! We became friends soon and i knew Ben, Mack and jubbie, who's mack's host sister.

Speaking of so getting american friends, there are so many fun things to say. first of all there are…

         1. American don't really hold chopsticks well and like falling everything from the bowl.
         2. It's so easy to recognize them. Their skin tone are so white!
         3. They speak English! I mean really saying English!
         4. When they are trying to do fake chinese by doing some stupid voices, it's really funny.
       5. Never talk to them before you are really sure of what you are saying. They laugh at your   accent so much that i couldn't even resist myself from laughing. But why, my accent is hot.

Okay, and this is seriously now. I’ve been watching American films since I was little, and they teach me a lot of things when I didn’t even know that they were bad.

Since I have these American friends, I sometimes say “Damn”, “pussy” and something’s really bad while I don’t even know it. So one day when I was out with these American friends in a department store near to our school. We were having chicken and (that’s when I found out how true is my impression to Americans) cause I don’t speak English a lot till I met them, so I usually have to think before I speak. Suddenly they started to laugh when I say “TAKE IT” while I was serving a chicken skin to McKenzie. I was seriously asking her to take that skin but in fact I was saying something with sexual implication. It was so creepy.

Oh yeah and speaking about “eat out” I didn’t even know that It was bad. I thought I meant something like someone eats a lot and eat the whole house or something, like an adjective to describe a fat guy who eats a lot, and it turns out that it’s totally not. You guys know the meaning.
        
The other thing that i found interesting is that They Learn Chinese. The first time i learned that they are learning calligraphy, Chinese chess and other things scares me.  I mean, personally I hated writing with Chinese Pens (what they usually call brush, which i prefer saying Pens) when i was little cause it makes me so messy every time i try it. And it's even funnier to see foreigners writing Chinese characters with creepy hand positions. (I saw a foreign guy writing it before it was so funny to see lol)

I still don't know why they laugh at my accent so much though.

Okay, so in sum, It's been really funny to have American friends 'cause i used to get so nervous having white people around me, but they are pretty cool.  I’ll have more introductions to the intruders at Wenzao so keep following McKenzie’s blog. Bye now!

最後, 美國人真的好白啊!


Diego and I on the train


   

Thursday, November 3, 2011

VIDEO MONTAGE

VIDEO MONTAGE OF TAIWAN


This was my homework for this week's blog post. I hope you enjoy it!!!!

Saturday, October 29, 2011

OFFICIAL Group Blog and Reminiscent Pics

Here's a link to our official group blog:

Group Blog


我們愛台灣!


We rotate blog responsibility, so there'll be a post on a weekly basis!


As I've been here, I've started taking pictures of things that remind me of home. Yesterday was awesome. Yesterday, I went to Costco. Even in Taiwan, there are still a ton of free samples at Costco. I bought a 3 lb bag of almonds, and there were so many foods that reminded me of home. 






me and mango juice


NUTS

Other Things That Remind Me of Home
Mrs. Dalloway 



Friday's in Chinese Class....星期五, 星期五 got to get down on 星期五
Model UN! Maybe USN can fly out for this conference ...














































Sonnet From Sophomore English (I memorized this for Mr. Neely in 10th Grade.)


So delicious 

 海綿寶寶




This week, I gave a presentation on how Americans celebrate Halloween to an English class at Wenzao. On Friday, I dressed up as a giant carved pumpkin (jack o'lantern) and gave out chocolate to random members of my student body. It was pretty fun to yell WANSHENGJIEKUAILE! and then Happy Halloween! and ask if people wanted chocolate. After the initial shock, most people said yes. A lot of people's impression of America comes through McDonald's and Hollywood, so it's fun to promote US culture. 

Jubbie and I ate at MOS burger (Wiki Deets), a Japanese chain restaurant, while I sported stars & stripes.   


Thursday, October 20, 2011

你好朋友們!

I've now been in Taiwan for two months, and these last few weeks at Wenzao have been really great. Jubbie and I celebrated Taiwan’s National Holiday (10/10) with her extended family at a seafood restaurant. The seafood here is super fresh; we’re in a huge Taiwanese port city.


 Food from 10/10 & Jubbie's cousin

Living in Kaohsiung makes me practice listening a lot. Even though I love to talk in English, I can’t communicate in the same way in Chinese, so I’m getting used to doing more listening. Letting other people make decisions for me sometime leads to pretty awesome experiences. This week, I ate lunch with Ben, Nora, two Korean girls, one Japanese guy, and my Korean guy classmate from my chess class. The Korean guy doesn’t speak much Chinese or English, but he’s really good at chess. Within our group, we could speak Japanese, Korean, English, and some Chinese, but there was a mutual language that everyone could understand.
Language skills were distributed as such:
Nora: English
Ben: English, pretty good Chinese-definitely the best of our group
Me: English, ok Chinese-can communicate some
Japanese classmate: Japanese, Korean (lived there for a year), pretty good Chinese
Korean guy: Korean (he’s really, really good at Chinese chess, but in class no one can talk to him because he doesn’t speak English or Chinese.)
Korean girl: Korean, pretty good Chinese-has been here a semester
Ester (other Korean girl): English, Korean (fluent in both, lived in Australia and US, also on the bellydancing team (WHICH BY THE WAY DID I MENTION NORA AND I MADE THE TEAM!?!??!?!?!)

It was so cool. Ester order us a bunch of Korean food; I tried my best to pronounce Korean dish names. If I want to talk to the Korean guy, my question went through Ester.

IEARN took us on another field trip this weekend! It was like being on a fourth grade field trip in a very pleasant way. We painted paper umbrellas and made clay pots in a pottery place in Meinong, and then visited a library where an American was reading little kids English stories (we may volunteer there next semester). Enjoy the snapshots!

Jubbie and her clay pot

Brandon and I represent the South.
Story Time (in english)

Nora's artistic. 

Jane (Taiwanese IEARN lady) watches over Ben.

Koi food machine



It was one of the best field trips so far.

Also, thank you to everyone who has sent mail recently!!! 謝謝 Chris, Gary, Melora, Carie Lee, and Kathy! Today, I got a package from home that really made my day. Special thanks to Christie for a super thoughtful package. Happy Halloween!!! Jubbie was really excited to get an authentic Halloween pumpkin, because she had only studied about it in school.




Wednesday, October 12, 2011

外國人's Field Trip

On October 8th and 9th, the Office of International Programs arranged a field trip for 35 foreign students at Wenzao! We traveled to the Bantaoyao Crafts studio, Singang Incense Artistic Culture Garden, Tao-Mi Paper Dome, Gwanhsing Paper Factory, and Sun Moon Lake. Crowds were out because Monday is Taiwan's National Day (10/10!). 10/10 is the equivalent of America's 4th of July. This year is particularly cool, because it's Taiwan's 100th anniversary of nationhood!!! 

Enjoy the weekend's snapshots. 








We made paper and printed on it. Guess who it is!

Nora the Explorer
Ben and I up in the air     



The NSLI-Y Crew



Sunday, October 9, 2011

Excerpt from my NSLI-Y homework

Every day, I take a train for 20 minutes, and then a bus for another 15 to get to Wenzao with my host sister, Jubbie. The streets are filled with bikes, motorcycles, and cars, and there’s more fluidity between where people live (lots of apartments, we live on the 16th floor of our building) and where people do their work/ buy their food and clothes. The shopping here is much cheaper than the United States; my host sister and I bought matching dresses for 12 dollars.



All of the NSLI-Y students take Chinese class for two hours a day at Wenzao. Though I studied Chinese for four years in high school, my class here is particularly conducive Chinese, because we hail from multiple nations. In my class, there are four American students, two Japanese students, one Mexican student, and one French student. Because not everyone speaks English, we use Chinese to communicate with each other and sharpen our language skills.

In the background, Ben and I are embracing. We’re celebrating Teacher Appreciation Day (September 28) with chocolate cake.
 


PS
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