Challenges in Chinese

Before we begin, click here to see my 2nd Month in Taiwan video!

Hello again!

The last two weeks have been jam-packed, literally. Since Taiwan celebrated its birthday with a holiday this Thursday, in order to have a four-day weekend, everyone had to go to work or school last Saturday. It was clear nobody wanted to be there. Two of my teachers fell asleep in class, along with many of the students. In one class, the students were worried the teacher might be sick, so they took his temperature and made him drink water (they literally held the water bottle up to his mouth). I don’t think I will ever get used to just how casual the relationship between students and teachers is in Taiwan. It’s also very rare to see an older teacher – my exchange student friends and I have talked about why this may be, and concluded that maybe here teaching is seen as an entry level job – a stepping stone towards your career, rather than the career itself.

              On Sunday, my family and I climbed another mountain with my third host family and my counsellor Tom. This time, we took plenty of pictures and plenty of breaks – so much so that it seemed like actually hiking was just a side benefit of taking photos. I love hiking and I like taking pictures too, though, so no complaints here!

              When we reached the peak, we were surrounded by strangers who wanted to take pictures with us (with me. They wanted to take pictures with me). They conveniently had a Taiwanese flag, though, and I had a Canadian one, so the pictures turned out quite well.

              Later, a big, bright orange bug with spots on it landed on Tom (my counsellor). Rather than brushing it off, he transferred the bug onto me so they could take pictures of me with it!!

              After the hike, we went to a Hot Springs Hotel to eat lunch and celebrate my mom’s birthday. After lunch, I got to try out the hot springs!! They gave me a key and sent me up to the sixth floor, where there was mystical music playing and rooms numbered like you would see in a hotel. I found my room, entered, and set the key on the table. The tub (it is called a hot spring bathtub or pool?) was deep, so deep I could sit cross-legged and have water up to my ears. There was an open window next to the tub, with a view overlooking the mountains. I relaxed in the hot spring until my fingers shriveled up into raisins.

              As I was leaving, I noticed a little slot on the wall to put the key. Curious, I put the key in the slot, and suddenly all the lights in the room turned up in unison, and a loud airy sound hummed from the tub. I looked back into the empty tub, at the things that looked like hot-tub jets. I hadn’t bothered to wonder what they did. Now I guess I’ll never know.

              Even though I don’t think I used the hot spring quite right, it was quite a relaxing experience and I would definitely recommend it if you happen to be in Taiwan. Maybe do some research on it before you go.

              On another note, my Mandarin is coming along well. So well that, after six weeks in Taiwan, I’m proud to announce I am a fluent speaker of Chinglish!!!

              Usually Chinglish is more English than Chinese, though, so I guess I speak Enginese (English-influenced Chinese).

              When I can’t understand in Mandarin, often people will try to speak English – however, oftentimes their level of English is about the same as my Mandarin. So them speaking English isn’t all that helpful, because what they can say in English is what I can understand in Mandarin. Oftentimes, my host mom will speak entirely in Mandarin except for a few words – and usually these are words like “sometimes”, “maybe”, or “okay”. My exchange student friends have said their parents do this too – and when we don’t understand what they say in Chinese, they’ll say one word in English. Imagine someone asking you a question and you only catch one word of it, and then when you ask them to repeat the question they just say “run”. Do they want to go for a run? Do they want you to run away from something? Who knows?

As an exchange student you have to be ready for anything, because even if they tell you the plan for the day you can never be 100% sure.

              When meeting new people, more often than not, they’ll ask me for my name, in Mandarin. Then they’ll ask where I’m from, how old I am, and how long I’ll be in Taiwan. In Mandarin. And then they switch to English and ask, “Can you speak Chinese?”. After I answered all their questions in Mandarin.

I think Taiwanese people automatically associate foreigners with English, so much so that they assume foreigners can’t speak Chinese even if said foreigner speaks Chinese to them. Even if I just say “thank you” in Chinese, they always seem very surprised. This is quite a different mentality than in North America, where, since English is the common language, if you don’t speak it, there is no other universal language to switch to.

Nevertheless, it’s still entertaining to see how long I can maintain a conversation in Chinese before they ask me if I can speak Chinese.

              Though my Chinglish is quite good, my Chinese has a long way to go. When speaking or listening to adults, I find I can usually understand at least 50% of the conversation, but when I try to talk to my classmates at school, that percentage drops to about 10. In France, though I thought I knew a decent amount of French, in the first week I couldn’t understand anything my classmates said because they spoke so fast. I think teenagers speaking fast and slurring their words is universal.

As my Mandarin improves, I stumble into fewer language barriers (still quite a lot, but less than before!). However, I encounter more and more cultural misunderstandings. As an example of both, at the last Rotary meeting I attended, Alex the Club President introduced me to a guest. He told the guest I do I many things, like play saxophone and piano (dàn gāngqín), but I thought he said I do many things in Taiwan, like climbing mountains (páshān) (and you’re just going to have to believe me when I say that “páshān” and “dàn gāng” rhymed enough for me to make that mistake). So I replied enthusiastically, “Yes! I can do many things!”. When the guest started talking to me about piano, I realized my mistake and worried I made an arrogant first impression.

However, when I explained what happened to my host mom later, she didn’t react – and I realized there was a cultural misunderstanding rather than a language one. I explained why my response would be rude in Canada, and she told me that in Taiwan, it is brave to show off your talents.

I’ve noticed this before – at school, every Tuesday afternoon there is a class called “Talent”, where students sing or dance for each other. Once a classmate asked me if I could sing, and I said yes even though I don’t sing well, and they said, “Okay. Sing us a song.” Right there in the middle of class!! In previous posts I mentioned the exchange student singing competition and the dance performance too.

              At school, I joined dance club. Unlike in Canada, here you can only join one club, since they all meet during school and at the same time. After hearing Ina talk so highly of her dance club, I decided to join the one at my school – and so far sticking with it may be one of the most challenging things yet.

              Taiwanese people love “sexy dances” that use every part of your body in every single way possible. The dance we’re learning right now is definitely not for beginners, which is what I am, but I’m slowly getting better, and I have plenty of time to perfect it before the performance in November!! (Perform a sexy dance on a stage. In front of people. That’s something I never thought I’d do, and definitely something I never thought I’d look forward to).

              On Thursday we celebrated the Republic of China’s birthday – but not Taiwan’s birthday. Whenever I said, “Happy Birthday Taiwan!!”, they would correct me. I don’t know too much about it, but I think here people consider the island of Taiwan and the Republic of China two different things, which makes sense, as Taiwan has history from before the ROC.

              We watched the fireworks in Kaohsiung on TV that night, since we are visiting my host grandparents in Changhua right now. They played the same classical music that my Canadian school plays in the morning – a piece with an increasingly speedy tempo – to encourage kids to get to class. It was entertaining to watch fireworks to that music, but at the same time I felt like I should be rushing to get somewhere.

              We went out for dinner, too, to a Japanese style hotpot restaurant with complimentary bottomless icecream. I think that restaurant might be my favourite place in Taiwan – second only to the Mochi Museum. I tried the caramel, chocolate, mango, mochi, blueberry, and strawberry flavored ice cream. Most of them were around a 7/10, but a little bit of mochi and mango in one bite was a solid 9.

We watched the fireworks in Kaohsiung on TV that night, in Changhua with my host grandparents. They played the same classical music that my Canadian school plays in the morning – a piece with an increasingly speedy tempo – to encourage kids to get to class. It was entertaining to watch fireworks to that music, but at the same time I felt like I should be rushing to get somewhere.

              See you guys next week, and thank you all for all your support!!

Serena

P.S. Another Mishap with Mandarin I forgot to mention – my classmates went to a hairstyling competition in Taoyuan, and when they got back, I meant to ask them if it went well. Instead the following exchange took place:

Me: You guys went to Taoyuan today!

Them: ….Yes.

Me: Good.

And as in English, a rising tone indicates a question, but in Chinese it just means the word, I didn’t even say “Good?”. It was just, “Good.”

But for every challenge I encounter with Chinese, I learn more Chinese! So all is well.