New friends introduction
Hello to new friends.
I'm an English teacher, living in Taiwan.
I spend a good amount of time learning Chinese. I also do hash house harriers, rushing through the jungle following flour laid by a "hare" (the person who developed the trail).
Hash house harriers is a great way to see Taiwanese countryside, meet some of the Taiwanese people and properly get to know their culture and the way they live and socialise, as well as for me a wonderful place to practice my Chinese.
I'm at the point though where I think I'm going to expand my activities - to things which are more "me". Hash house harriers is all about exercise, challenge (Which I do like) and alcohol... lots of alcohol. I'd say, I don't mind drinking every so often, but not to the extent these guys do it. It's also very un-politically correct, and while I'm not a fan of things being too politically correct, I do get a bit pissed off by the poor humour directed at the "lesbians of the hash" for example.
So, where next... I'm really interested in biology and nature, as well as sustainable living. I've been told to find a group in that sort of area, I'm looking at very Taiwanese. Most of the expats (apparently) have come to drink, socialise, maybe explore, and many settle because it is an easy life. You don't get many ex pats involved in environmental things etc. This surprised me actually - so anyway, It's further incentive to get better at my Chinese so I can join this sort of group. When I was in the UK I did a lot of circus skills: juggling, hooping, tightrope walking etc etc. I'm really keen to find groups who are creative with this sort of thing again. I will be moving to Taipei from Jhubei (a very new, fairly "dead" in the way of culture/history etc) town in September, so hopefully I'll be able to do more of this stuff there.
I've been making a lot of Taiwanese friends while I've been here, as well as ex pat friends of course. It has been fascinating and eye-opening to see their ways of looking at things. I think they are taught at school of a black and white nature of things; the best students get all the right answers, and it grades down from there. As a result, I'm often told I'm using the wrong way to do things. One time I had a type of orange. I like to eat my oranges by cutting them in half, and eating it like that. My 60 year old friend who had given me the orange said "oh, you don't know how to cut oranges, let me show you". Then he proceeded to cut another one into quarters. There, this is much better. It took a little time to explain to him, that I had my way of cutting an orange, and he had his :P The fact he accepted this I think shows he has quite a liberated spirit I think, so I'm quite impressed by him (he's about 60 years old).
Taiwanese (and Chinese and probably Asian to a large extent) culture requires people optimally to maintain a cheerful and happy demeanour, even when things are bad. They don't reveal their true emotions to people, in some cases even to their good friends. This is very different to the way I am. If I have problems, I express it, and a good friend will usually notice and help me. Not here though - I think these sorts of things are normally only dealt with in the family - which of course I don't have here. My friend has told me if I express anger or displeasure, it will be seen as rude, and as such I have to smile and agree. I think I really have changed in the way I behave - and this is mostly a good thing, however, I think my individual mind and honesty of emotions is one of my strong points (as long as I maintain tact and compassion for others) so I think I now need to re-connect with my own way of doing things.
As well as some of the more fundamental parts of the culture, I've also been learning how to write Chinese characters (I've been learning the "english way" though. Taiwanese way is to keep copying a character until you've got it right. I on the other hand have been translating chinese into english, then trying to memorise the characters, then try to write it out. I find doing this in public places is a great way to get the right sorts of people come and chat to me too (I got my current language exchange this way) People seem to be fascinated by a western person learning their language, and are always keen to ask me how long I've been doing it, where I'm from etc. They're always full of phrase "你很厲害“ Literally "you're very powerful" but it actually means you've done very well. A friend of mine told me that it's actually when they stop saying these things that you really know you're doing well - Maybe because your chinese is good enough they actually want to talk to you and forget to phrase you as much - I don't know (do you have any ideas?) I have noticed people have stopped phrasing me so much, and just talk to me, ask me questions, and I was feeling a little discouraged by this but remembering my friends words, maybe I should see it as a positive sign :P
I have a good friend, Perisang (She is a Taiwanese aborigine, her parents live down south in the mountains and still live in the traditional aboriginal way, growing crops and maintaining the woodland. She said she will hopefully take me down there one day to help out, and hopefully learn a thing or two about traditional agriculture!) Anyway, she gave me a 書法 (Chinese calligraphy) set, so I've had a little go at that (it's bloody hard, and another Taiwanese friend of mine said that I might have to learn how to do it with my right hand because the dynamics change if you use your left!).
And, That's about all I can thing of. If you have any questions, please do ask, I love questions about any aspect of my life, so don't be afraid to be nosy! This of course extends to my established LJ friends as well as current ones.
I'm an English teacher, living in Taiwan.
I spend a good amount of time learning Chinese. I also do hash house harriers, rushing through the jungle following flour laid by a "hare" (the person who developed the trail).
Hash house harriers is a great way to see Taiwanese countryside, meet some of the Taiwanese people and properly get to know their culture and the way they live and socialise, as well as for me a wonderful place to practice my Chinese.
I'm at the point though where I think I'm going to expand my activities - to things which are more "me". Hash house harriers is all about exercise, challenge (Which I do like) and alcohol... lots of alcohol. I'd say, I don't mind drinking every so often, but not to the extent these guys do it. It's also very un-politically correct, and while I'm not a fan of things being too politically correct, I do get a bit pissed off by the poor humour directed at the "lesbians of the hash" for example.
So, where next... I'm really interested in biology and nature, as well as sustainable living. I've been told to find a group in that sort of area, I'm looking at very Taiwanese. Most of the expats (apparently) have come to drink, socialise, maybe explore, and many settle because it is an easy life. You don't get many ex pats involved in environmental things etc. This surprised me actually - so anyway, It's further incentive to get better at my Chinese so I can join this sort of group. When I was in the UK I did a lot of circus skills: juggling, hooping, tightrope walking etc etc. I'm really keen to find groups who are creative with this sort of thing again. I will be moving to Taipei from Jhubei (a very new, fairly "dead" in the way of culture/history etc) town in September, so hopefully I'll be able to do more of this stuff there.
I've been making a lot of Taiwanese friends while I've been here, as well as ex pat friends of course. It has been fascinating and eye-opening to see their ways of looking at things. I think they are taught at school of a black and white nature of things; the best students get all the right answers, and it grades down from there. As a result, I'm often told I'm using the wrong way to do things. One time I had a type of orange. I like to eat my oranges by cutting them in half, and eating it like that. My 60 year old friend who had given me the orange said "oh, you don't know how to cut oranges, let me show you". Then he proceeded to cut another one into quarters. There, this is much better. It took a little time to explain to him, that I had my way of cutting an orange, and he had his :P The fact he accepted this I think shows he has quite a liberated spirit I think, so I'm quite impressed by him (he's about 60 years old).
Taiwanese (and Chinese and probably Asian to a large extent) culture requires people optimally to maintain a cheerful and happy demeanour, even when things are bad. They don't reveal their true emotions to people, in some cases even to their good friends. This is very different to the way I am. If I have problems, I express it, and a good friend will usually notice and help me. Not here though - I think these sorts of things are normally only dealt with in the family - which of course I don't have here. My friend has told me if I express anger or displeasure, it will be seen as rude, and as such I have to smile and agree. I think I really have changed in the way I behave - and this is mostly a good thing, however, I think my individual mind and honesty of emotions is one of my strong points (as long as I maintain tact and compassion for others) so I think I now need to re-connect with my own way of doing things.
As well as some of the more fundamental parts of the culture, I've also been learning how to write Chinese characters (I've been learning the "english way" though. Taiwanese way is to keep copying a character until you've got it right. I on the other hand have been translating chinese into english, then trying to memorise the characters, then try to write it out. I find doing this in public places is a great way to get the right sorts of people come and chat to me too (I got my current language exchange this way) People seem to be fascinated by a western person learning their language, and are always keen to ask me how long I've been doing it, where I'm from etc. They're always full of phrase "你很厲害“ Literally "you're very powerful" but it actually means you've done very well. A friend of mine told me that it's actually when they stop saying these things that you really know you're doing well - Maybe because your chinese is good enough they actually want to talk to you and forget to phrase you as much - I don't know (do you have any ideas?) I have noticed people have stopped phrasing me so much, and just talk to me, ask me questions, and I was feeling a little discouraged by this but remembering my friends words, maybe I should see it as a positive sign :P
I have a good friend, Perisang (She is a Taiwanese aborigine, her parents live down south in the mountains and still live in the traditional aboriginal way, growing crops and maintaining the woodland. She said she will hopefully take me down there one day to help out, and hopefully learn a thing or two about traditional agriculture!) Anyway, she gave me a 書法 (Chinese calligraphy) set, so I've had a little go at that (it's bloody hard, and another Taiwanese friend of mine said that I might have to learn how to do it with my right hand because the dynamics change if you use your left!).
And, That's about all I can thing of. If you have any questions, please do ask, I love questions about any aspect of my life, so don't be afraid to be nosy! This of course extends to my established LJ friends as well as current ones.