As my schedule here gets busier and busier, and the workload increases, my posting frequency is likely to decrease. Here's an update on what's been going on for the last few weeks or so.
I have just about finalized my Taiwanese schedule. It goes roughly like this:
Classes at the university - Research Methods, Communication Theories, Cross Culture Communication. The first two are mandatory for my program, last one I had a choice over. Each class lasts 3 hours, once a week. These take up my mornings of Tuesday - Thursday. There is a reading of approximately 50 pages of textbooks / journals a week for each class (100 - 150 altogether), plus additional assignments, which also take up quite a lot of time, at least until i get used to the scientific language and refresh my statistics knowledge.
Chinese classes - take up my afternoons of Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. At the moment, I'm taking 6 hours weekly of Chinese at the language center here, 2 hours one-on-one tutoring (these teachers are volunteers and the tutoring is free), and will likely also add Czech-Chinese language exchange with my Taiwanese friend Cecilia, who is very interested in everything Czech and is planning to go study there in a few years. Speaking of the official Chinese courses, the class has changed a bit. Now, there is a girl from Denmark (family is Chinese), girl from Italy (family is Chinese), girl from Canada (family is from Hong Kong), teacher (from Taiwan) and me.
Student clubs - I signed up for Billiard, Judo, Kickboxing and Guitar club. I do not yet own a guitar and am undecided about Billiard (might just go play unofficially with friends), but still, these take up 4 evenings a week. I never did any of those things before and am quite curious how will I handle Chinese as the teaching language. I joined softball and rugby in Hong Kong and as far as Cantonese goes, I only picked up how to say "first base", "second base", "third base". Don't remember the home plate.
I also try to go running / swimming / to the gym every once in a while, plus the weekly "4 free beers" Czechoslovakian meeting on Wednesdays (been slacking off on that one lately.. something must be wrong with me..?!)
Weekends are dedicated to studying, exploring, sports, sleeping and the occasional party. They always go by very fast.
After a little over a month in Taiwan, it is also time to review my progress in Chinese, even if this self-assessment is very difficult. The transition to traditional character has been smooth, better than expected. I picked up some of the common phrases people use and use them myself, occasionally. Others usually understand me quite well. As for my understanding, it depends on the topic. My language classes are great, but lot of the vocabulary I learn there is difficult to use in normal conversation. For example: Desert, agricultural product, coal mine, high speed railway, canyon. However, just several days ago, I spent a whole evening with a Taiwanese friend, and during the 4 hours of talking, we said no more than 5 English words. Sure it was awkward or slightly frustrating at times, but it worked. I also met some Korean tourists - the fact they didn't speak English didn't bother me, but when I learned that they don't know Chinese either, I gave up attempting to have a conversation with them.
Nevertheless, I try to speak Chinese at every opportunity I have, and often time (the sports clubs especially) have no other choice. Icarry around flashcards with vocabulary to learn on the bus. I listen to Taiwanese radio to be exposed to the language. (although this is a problem. All the radios I found so far only play the local pop, which is very difficult for me to listen to. The songs are all overly sweet, 我愛你，我想你, I love you and I want you. If anyone knows a radio station with some spoken word in Chinese and tolerable music, which I can listen to online, please let me know).
The other day, I went to a bookstore. Bookstores in Taipei are great. Huge, spacious and a great place to spend time in.. As long as you don't mind the fact that almost everything is in Chinese. Many people just go to a bookshop, pick up a book or a magazine, sit down and read it all afternoon.. Then they leave without buying anything. Nobody seems to be bothered and surprisingly, nobody sleeps in the bookshops (unlike the libraries). So I also went there, to search for books in Chinese that I could read. I picked up Trainspotting, The Lord of the Flies, some Oscar Wilde.. nothing seemed to work.. until I found the children's section and the fairy tale books. 小紅帽 - Little Red Riding Hood, Three Little Piglets, 丑鴨子 - The Ugly Duckling.. The moment I learned how to say / read the 大野狼, "Big bad Wolf", I understood everything perfectly. Sure, the 5 year old children around were giving me strange looks and had a good laught at the 奇怪的外國人, weird foreigner, reading the same books as they did, but it was great nevertheless.
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