First week of classes completed...wow

Wow is right. Well after one week it has been a very interesting 7 days in Taiwan. It is taking some getting used to the weather. I only brought three short sleeve shirts thinking it would be cool here but it is Halloween today and it is currently 90° with 59% humidity. I'm starting to take back my opinions that global warming is a bunch of crap. It's supposed to be "cooler" here this time of the year. I'm looking forward to that so I don't have to have a fan blowing on me 90% of the time. Oh yeah no air conditioning in this apartment. Great apartment...but no AC....good times.


Current conditions in Taipai, Taiwan as of 2:00 pm CST
Partly Cloudy
Temperature: 90°
Humidity: 59%
Feels Like: 97°
High: 85° Low: 74°

The first week of classes has been great. I have an excellent teacher and the the other five students in class are all learning very quickly, so that is good motivation for me. I'm probably the slowest learner in class (probably because I'm the oldest...well then again I'm also not the sharpest tool in the shed) but I make up for it practicing at home. The first week is getting familiar with the tones, pinyin and the MPS characters. The MPS is a real challenge for me, but after this weekend I should know it pretty well and it shouldn't impede my learning.

I'm not exactly sure how quickly I'll be able to learn things in three months. I can already understand things and hear things better in one week, but my spoken Chinese still is pretty awful. If I speak vvveeerrryyy ssslllooowwwlllyyy I can do it well, but that is embarrassing and no one wants to hear that either. So I'm just trying to practice and get the fundamentals as close to 100% and the rest will come int time (I hope). I was able to buy bakery goods and exchange the digital clock no problem speaking Chinese with the clerk, but my so so experineces at 7-11 and McDonalds have grounded any ego build up that I'm as good as I think I am at Chinese.

Today is Halloween and it is pretty cool to see a lot of tiny kids running around dressed up like princesses and Transformers. Halloween isn't a huge holiday here in Taiwan, but it is something that the kids are enjoying.

Also this Halloween is our 10 year wedding anniversary. It hasn't been the easiest 10 years, but someone making it married in Vegas ("Oh congratulations this is both of your first marriages!" was what the Vegas court official told us when we got the papers) for 10 years is like someone being married 25 years in other places around the world. No huge plans tonight, just go out to a nice dinner, have some drinks and relax.

It's been an interesting week. A lot of hard work (around 6 hours of studying Chinese a day for me) but I'm really treasuring this opportunity to travel, learn another language and culture and still not completely disrupt my other life I left behind in Los Angeles. I'm trying to play and practice guitar when I get the chance, and am actually getting my chops back. I haven't had good "chops" on the guitar in about 10 years, so I'm enjoying the challenge of getting better at the guitar and composing.

Stage 1 of my Tour de Taiwan is completed. I'll recover and review this weekend and start Stage 2 on Monday.

Jim

Slowly adjusting

Jet lag is still kicking my ass, but I'm slowly adjusting. I guess it doesn't make it to hard to get up for my 8:00am class when I have jet lag and the old people in the park outside start doing their exercises and chanting at 5:30am.

I switched to an earlier class and this teacher is much better. Much more methodical and also used to teach Chinese in the USA. There are three people from Spain in this class, one girl from Vietnam and one Chinese American from Los Angeles. I'm much happier in this class and think that I'll be able to learn more easily in this new environment.

After class today I bought some goods at a drug store. I got home and tried out the digital clock I bought and unfortunately not all of the LED's light up correctly. Do they not test these things? Well after seeing how things are built in China, I'm actually not too surprised. My big test for tomorrow will be trying to take this clock back and exchange it for another one speaking Chinese. I think I know most of the words, but my guess is that my grammar is going to be pretty horrific. Should be another step up on my learning curve. I've bought passport photos, bread, food and other stuff not using really any English. It helps that the cash register shows the price, but I can understand the numbers and prices now.

I'm also watching a lot of children's TV and it is actually very interesting. I always liked Sesame Street when I was a kid. I guess I've never really grown up because I'm enjoying the Taiwanese children's TV shows and cartoons. I can only understand a few phrases and read a few Chinese characters, but every day I watch I'm hearing and understanding more and more things. My personal favorite channel is MOMO. I'm not sure what the name of this show is, but it is one of my favorites:

Who said learning can't be fun?

Jim

Class is in session

Today was the first class and it was pretty interesting. I was the only American, there were two Japanese, one Korean, one Canadian, one person from Spain and one person from Thailand. Most people spoke English so that made some things easier. The teacher was late about 30 minutes so we had a chance to talk to each other. A wide range of ages in the class from 20's-40's so I didn't feel too out of place.

The teacher finally came and we started with the 4 tones and some MPS (Mandarin Phonetic Symbols). I have never heard or seen the MPS so I was definitely the slowest person in class learning to associate an arbitrary picture to a phonetic sound. I'm learning the Pinyin pronunciations on my own, but this was much tougher. Here is a sound, now remember it and apply it to this picture. I'm sure it is going to be the same with the Chinese characters for the words, but Pinyin (pseudo-English letters) seems much easier to at least "explain" to you how the sound should be pronounced. I guess I just need to spend some extra time learning these and hopefully things come together faster down the road.

The biggest benefit is that taking this class is forcing me to speak Chinese. I'm hearing more and more things from conversations and TV here so I know my comprehension is improving but I don't like going out and trying to speak it with my Chinese friends. I'm learning a lot on my own, but this class is going to help with the stuff I can't do own my own, like get feedback from others about my mistakes in tones and pronunciations.

One class down, 54 to go.

Jim

The eagle has landed

It's Saturday morning here in my new home...not too bad.

Charlene moved into this new one bedroom apartment this past week. She was previously living in a studio apartment that leaked water everytime it rained. Here is some video footage from the old apartment during the Typhoon when I was here last month:

The new apartment is larger and is a one bedroom. There is a large bedroom and living room area with a small porch. There is also a small kitchen and bathroom. There are nice hardwood floors and an overall nice feng shui (wind water - learned that from my Fluenz Mandarin DVD).

I don't have to worry about an alarm clock. This one bedroom apartment that Charlene and I are living in is on the ground floor and literally...and I mean LITERALLY right across from a park. There is a sidewalk outside our porch where I can stick my hand through the bars and touch people if I so desire (I don't). Well at least it's a park and not something too crazy. There are a large number of elderly people who get up in the morning and excercise there, it kind of reminds of of Night of the Living Dead, but with old people instead of zombies. It is kind of loud and noisy, but I don't speak Mandarin too well so I'll know I'm improving when the conversations outside start to get on my nerves.

The plan for today is to go outside explore the area and maybe buy some food and take the subway. Later this afternoon after Charlene gets back from teaching an art class in Hsin Ju, we will go to the computer mall. Basically anything you could ever imagine pertaining to computers, MP3 players, cell phones, etc can be found there at great prices. I need a web cam and router so we can both use the internet at the same time.

Classes start on Monday, so I have 2 days to "relax". My classes will be from 1:00-3:00pm everyday and 1:00-5:00pm on Thursday and Friday. I have the textbooks and the language doesn't look too bad (thanks to practicing my Mandarin Fluenz DVD), but the written characters are going to kick my ass.

I was actually quite proud on the flight over when I got up and asked the stewardess "Duibuqi, nimen you pi jiu ma?" She showed me a Heineken and Kirin Ichiban beer, I gladly took both (I think she only wanted to know which one I would like). I said "Xie xie" and walked proudly back to my seat.

Baby steps, but progress none the less.

Jim

And away we go...

I just had my last meal in the USA...Carl's Jr's Western Bacon Cheeseburger and Chili Cheese Fries. I won't be eating anything like this for a while I think, so I have to indulge myself before my 14 hour flight.


Everything is packed up and I'm going to call a taxi to take me to LAX. My flight leaves in 4 hours from Los Angeles to Taipei, Taiwan and I'm starting to think "what in the hell am I doing???".


I've been working almost 9 years at Line 6 as an electrical engineer and just needed some kind of break after spending a tough three weeks in China delivering a new product to market. Line 6 was cool enough to give me three months off. So instead of becoming a couch potato, I'm flying to Taiwan to attend Chinese Cultural Univeristy for 11 weeks taking a 14 hour a week course in how to read, write and speak Mandarin Chinese.

I'm also planning on writing some new music to record a new cd. All I'm planning on doing for 3 months is music and learning Chinese. We'll see how productive I can be. I'm pretty proficient when I set my mind to do something.

I'll be staying with my wife who has been living in Taipei on and off the past 4 years. We celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary this Halloween. This should be an interesting way to celebrate making it into double digits in our marriage.

Not much time to post, but I wanted to post something before I left. No idea wtf is going to happen over the next 3 months, but it certainly won't be boring. My next post will be from Taiwan.

Zaijian!

Jim