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One thing you must absolutely get used to when living in Taiwan is the bewildering amount of stray cats and dogs. It’s rather heartbreaking, really, and the Taiwanese government doesn’t seem in the least bit interested in doing anything about it. As far as I know, all Humane Society/Animal Protection organizations have been started Continue reading Where the Wild Things are My students are pretty creative sometimes. I was teaching a Language and Culture course recently. After going over the chapter on Nonverbal Communication, I gave my students several questions as homework. One of them was to interpret several situations according to their culture. The question was, “How would you interpret a young man dressing Continue reading Awesome student response of the day I finally broke the 1000 mark on my Hanzi Flashcards on Friday. Feels good, yet I’ve got a long way to go. I officially started studying Hanzi on Feb. 9 of this year, armed only with Anki, pen and paper, and a book. I learned approximately 300 Hanzi by simple rote memorization (I also Continue reading Hanzi Milestone: 1000 It’s early December, which means Taiwan is frozen over. All the Taiwanese people have donned their thick winter jackets to protect themselves from the cold. There is already ice on the ground and forecasts call for more snow. No, actually, I’m just kidding. One of my absolutely favorite things about Taiwan is the weather. Continue reading Harsh winter One of the greatest and most underrated joys of learning a new language is have small victories. All too often, big victories are emphasized – especially here in Taiwan and especially when learning English is the topic. However, I find so much more satisfaction in small victories. Learning new 漢字 and recognizing them on Continue reading Small victories Last weekend, Mrs. Expatriate and I decided to take a trip to the Gukeng Coffee Festival. It’s a small gathering of people selling coffee, food, handicrafts, and other such things. The weather was absolutely gorgeous and there were quite a few people out and about. If you get a chance, I recommend you go. Continue reading The Gukeng Coffee Festival Catherine over at shu flies had a great post a while back about one of her blogging pet peeves – people who generalize and stereotype about every Taiwanese person based on the actions of a few. This also happens to be one of my pet peeves and something that I, being a foreigner, have to deal with every now and then. That is to say, as a foreigner, it’s easy for me to see a Taiwanese person or a group of Taiwanese people do something and create a stereotype about all Taiwanese people. It’s something that I have to watch myself for. However, I have an answer. In Taiwan, it is common to eat sweet foods on and after your wedding day. It is thought that eating sweet food will help the newlywed couple have a baby boy. The reason is a Taiwanese proverb: 吃甜甜，生兒子。 (chī tiántián, shēng érzì) It doesn’t sound as good in Mandarin, but it rhymes in Taiwanese Continue reading Someone wants us to have kids Been a while. I’ve been busy. However, I did find time to turn Miss Expatriate into Mrs. Expatriate and thought I would write about the process of doing so here. Like most things involving government in Taiwan, getting married is a very simple process that is muddled in bureaucracy. The process of getting married Continue reading Getting married in Taiwan |
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