I've been getting some requests to post photos of Taipei, Taiwan or one small part of it. So, I thought I would put them here. (not to overly side track my thread on submarine warfare)
We are staying a few blocks from NTU (National Taiwan University). This is Taiwan's top school and like all university in Asia you gain admittance by scoring at the top of national entrance exams. My wife attended here and we met on the campus about 30 years ago.
We are staying in a building for visiting falculty of NTU which is part of a much larger dormitory complex. A good friend here is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering, and all our friends are NTU alumni. Also, almost all are overseas Chinese from either Hong Kong or Macau who decided to settle in Taiwan or later come back like my wife.
So, of course, the room looks a bit like a dorm room. But it is priced very reasonable at $1,000 USD/month.
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Why a shot of Starbucks on the corner? Well, when I lived and worked in NYC there was a time when on any corner of Manhattan you stood, you could see 2 or 3 Starbucks. Unlike the USA where Starbucks over extended a few years back, in Taipei they are everywhere and thriving.
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As I mentioned, I am a vegetarian these days and vegetarian eateries are all over. Here are shots of two within a couple of blocks from here.
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Roosevelt Road a major street which borders NTU.
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But all around here a little back alleys with food stalls. These streets are packed in the evenings.
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The Taiwanese love bread shops and bakeries. Scores of every type of bun imagineable.
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Another shot from above Roosevelt Road.
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And now for a brief stroll on the campus of NTU. Car traffic is largely prohibited. So, it is very quiet and peaceful with lots of walking or bicycling students.
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Back across Roosevelt Road again to the neighborhood fresh food market.
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That is outstanding, MarkShot! I really like your photos. Part of the reason I love history is because I love people. Those are some great shots!
Nice pics, Markshot; thanks for putting them up! But now I'm hungry from looking at all that food... ;)
Thanks for posting those photos, Mark. They are probably the closest I will ever get to visiting Taiwan.
Thanks for taking the time and effort to post these shots.
This is really nice.
Will you, at some time, make some comments about the feelings and attitudes towards the mainland? Some reports, like in Strategypage, indicate there are deep divisions in the populace as to attitudes toward mergin with the Chinese government, presumably like Hong Kong's relationship?
I've only recently started following the local news over the last couple of days.
From what I know, there are two major parties here. The KMT which is the legacy party of the Nationalists that retreated here in 1949, and DPP which became the opposition party when democracy finally came to Taiwan. I am not sure when that happened, but when I was here in the 1980s, it was dictatorship by the KMT. However, it was nothing like Latin America ... it was mainly through the educational system and control of key institutions of power.
The DPP was in power a few years back. The KMT has always insisted that Taiwan is a province of China and the CCP in the PRC stole the country. But in that one sense, the KMT and CCP agree that Taiwan is Chinese territory (the CCP position being that it is a renegade province; South Carolina, if you will).
The DPP's position had been that Taiwan is a sovereign country that Taiwanese is an ethnicity that is not Chinese. That really p*ss*s off the CCP. They have always said that they would invade if Taiwan ever declares independence.
The DPP was in power a few years back. They began to institute the Taiwanization of Taiwan short of provoking invasion. Replacing the use of Mandarin with the Taiwanese dialect.
The rule of the DPP was a disaster and the former president was found guilty of all types of corruption and is serving a life sentence.
The KMT is currently in power. However, due to a poor economy which won't turn around, their approval rating is quite low. In the meantime, the DPP has mellowed quite a bit. Still they just decided the other day to table any discussion of the relationship of the ROC and PRC, because it is too contentious.
In the meantime, ROC and PRC are steadily drawn together as time passes:
* The return of Hong Kong and Macau to the PRC turned out to be good for both territories and wasn't the totalitarian bloodbath residents feared. Both former colonies maintain a great deal of autonomy.
* The generation of hard old men of both the KMT and CCP are passing on.
* The PRC has opened itself and is only communist in name only. In many ways, the PRC is a rampant and ruthless form of capitalism which would put the USA to shame, but would be more familiar to Americans of the 1850s-1930s.
* There are strong economic between the ROC and PRC. Most of Apple's products are produced by Foxconn in the PRC. But Foxconn is an ROC owned and managed company.
* With China's reemergence on the World stage, people in the ROC are proud to be Chinese even if they don't want to join the PRC. In the recent dispute with Japan over whether some islands belong to China or Japan, it has been the Taiwanese who were most aggressive in provoking confrontation with Japan.
Yesterday's paper had another article of how mainland brides will have their wait period for ID cards further reduced. It was originally 8 years, then 6 years, and now 4 years.
So, I hope that gives you a sense of things. We wouldn't have come here to live if we didn't believe that Taiwan and Taiwan vis-a-vis the mainland is not politically stable.
Beautiful images of a land far away from me. Like Greybriar said it's the closest I'll probably get to visiting Taiwan. I appreciate your political and economic background of the country as well. Very good to hear that day to day life in Taiwan is stable and from the look of the images you provided, safe and happy.
Cool photos.
What I was referring to with DPP rule being a disaster. Nixon got pardoned. But here they sent him to jail.
http://www.taiwannews.com.tw/etn/news_content.php?id=2062202
Will you get a chance to visit any rural areas? Looking at a map many mountains in that part of the country?
Also would be interested to see a few photos of Taipei port. Or any beaches on the west side of the island.
30 years ago I had a motorcycle. I used to love sightseeing in the mountains. There were great and tall mountain tops to visit with exciting and treacherous roads for motorcycles. My favorites were Five Finger Mountain and Seven Star Mountain. Crossing the hump of Seven Star Mountain one could go from my village Nei Hu (well known for it's lake North East of Taipei) down to the costal plain on the other side of the Northern tip of Taiwan where Tamsui River meets the sea. All beautiful scenery. No more motorcycles for me, but if we don't get a car, then we'll probably rent a car from time to time.
With regards to request, I am not sure if you are trying to be funny or not. It is akin to asking if I will take some scenic snapshots of nuclear powerplants in the USA for you.
In the past, many coastal areas had signs posted saying "No Photos". When I lived here last, Taiwan was under martial law and technically still at war with the PRC. Particularly, in the evenings, all infrastructure like bridges were guarded by armed troops.
Although it wasn't publicized, there are large military installations in the mountains. Although I rarely spotted pillboxes, you knew were getting close when dinky asphalt roads would turn into heavy concrete. (Peasants rarely needed anything beyond a dirt trail to bring their goods down to market.)
did anything 'halloweeny' happen over there Markshot.
And thanks for the pics, its always interesting to get little snapshots of peoples lives who are faraway - good luck out there
From what I've gathered off of Bizzare Foods on the disovery channel, or something like that, is that asian food markets can be down right freaky regarding the stuff they sell to eat.
I didn't really pay attention to the holiday here, but I did notice one elementary school with an English "trick or treat" sign in the window the other day. Certainly, if it is celebrated here, it is not the huge commercial holiday that it is in the USA.
The biggest holiday of the year in all Chinese societies is the Lunar New Year. Everything shuts down for a week or more.
In the past, my neighbors were kind enough to remind me:
買東西吃
meaning stock up on foodstuffs, since there would be no markets or food stalls open for a week.
It's general acknowledged among the Chinese that they are will eat many type of foods with most saying that the Cantonese will eat everything! Before becoming a vegetarian, I wouldn't eat intestines, tripe, chicken or duck feet, pigs blood, tripe, fish eyes, etc ... Now, I just won't eat the local favorite "stinky tofu".
Yeah I draw the line at feet. And eyes. Unless I was really hungery and stranded in the wilderness and I'd just caught a fish. I'd eat the whole damn thing scales, eyes and tail.
Was told that the people of Shanghai will eat everything on four legs.
Except a table.
Well, I haven't had much time for gaming.
We just signed a three year lease on new apartment (three bedroom, two baths, terrace, and parking). We now have a new home.
I just cannot help being struck by how nice and friendly the people are here. As it was 30 years ago, it really is something for someone who partially grew up in NYC and lived in worked in NYC.
Everywhere you encounter people who go out of their way to help you. Now, in the past, I might have said that it is because I am a foreigner. But I've generally been traveling around with my wife (who is Chinese and speaks Mandarin) and her friend from Hong Kong who has lived here 30 years. So, people are just generally quite helpful if you ask for something. Also, the friendliness you encounter from people you have business interactions with is often sincere as opposed to the phony chit chat put on for customers elsewhere.
As years ago, everyone is highly complementary even if your Mandarin is poor. Mine is still quite poor, since my mind is stuck in Cantonese. Almost two weeks here, I've spoken 90% Cantonese, but heard maybe 25% Mandarin; as my wife and all her friends are Cantonese. On the other hand, we've made our first Taiwanese friend, a former classmate from NTU.
Getting back to niceness and culture. We had our lease negotiation and signing. Things are much more done on trust here. Yes, there was a lease contract, but there was absolutely no background checks at all. Everything was just a process of meeting and seeing how people felt about each other. So, I am sitting in this meeting. On one hand, the landlord is being so nice and I understand this is the Taiwanese culture. On the other hand, my American culture is looking for the "fine print gotcha clause" that will screw the tenant, because it is all about winners and losers. It's going to take me a while to adjust to people here. In the sense, that I need to accept it as being sincere and not be suspicious.
Well, the landlord is someone whose family has owned the land upon which the new building resides for 60 years. He and his brothers are not interested in selling units as you don't sell off your family inheritance. I learned some Taiwanese from him today. First, because it cannot hurt to know a little. Second, I've always found showing an interest in peoples' language and culture is the best way to make a good impression. Sadly, I only remember one of three things he taught me, mainly because it is very similar to how it is said in Cantonese.
We were in desperate need of a printer. We have a laptop and iPad with us, but were emailing stuff to my wife's friend to print. So, we bought a $30 USD color ink jet (HP D1560). Dirt cheap, but I know the cartridges are where the money is made, but this is only a stop gap printer. Well, I learned an important new word in Mandarin:
Air blaster (for cleaning computers, I need for the laptop heat exchanger):
高壓空氣罐
This is basically how I learned my Chinese 30 years ago. The necessities of life. When you need something it easy to learn how to say something and remember it. In fact, neither my wife or friend knew this word before out shopping trip. So, each day I learn something. The biggest problem will be keeping Cantonese and Mandarin straight, since my wife and friend are already complaining that I am starting to mix the two like some confused child. :)
For those of you who are looking for more practical Chinese fitting into your daily life, the last character reoccurs in the following in the second position:
一罐啤酒
meaning a can of beer. So, you can see how specialized characters can be directly applied to your daily alcohol consumption! :)
Thanks for sharing MarkShot. I've always been intrigued by Taiwan, particularly the aborigines( is it ok to refer to them as that?) and the evergreen trees in the mountainous forests. Just my eccentricities and facination of two of my loves, anthropology and forestry. My wife's cousin's husband is in the US foriegn service and they were assigned to Taiwan earlier this year and were very excited to go as the cousin spent time there before and loved the place and people.
That food looks so wholesome and delicious.
Sparhawk
Sparhawk,
I'll make this brief as we are in "shop until you drop mode" as we try to start a new life from scratch and move out of the hotel to our apartment before the next billing cycle.
The people who refer to themselves as Taiwanese here are not aboriginals.
台灣人 - Taiwanese
Are those people who ancestors came here from Fu Chien province across the Strait in the last 300 years. They are culturally very similar to the Fukinese and their dialect is pretty much identical.
大陆人 - Mainlanders
Are those people who flee the Communists to Taiwan in 1949. They tend to natively speak Mandarin.
山地人 - Aboriginals
Are those people (not racially Han {Chinese} who ancestors have lived here for thousands of years.) Literally, meaning in Chinese "Mountain People". There aren't that many of them, and they are generally looked down upon in this society. Their situation is not dissimilar to Native Americans.
I hope that helps.
Love the photographs. Thanks for sharing. :)
Quote from: MarkShot on November 07, 2012, 11:13:38 AM
Sparhawk,
I'll make this brief as we are in "shop until you drop mode" as we try to start a new life from scratch and move out of the hotel to our apartment before the next billing cycle.
The people who refer to themselves as Taiwanese here are not aboriginals.
台灣人 - Taiwanese
Are those people who ancestors came here from Fu Chien province across the Strait in the last 300 years. They are culturally very similar to the Fukinese and their dialect is pretty much identical.
大陆人 - Mainlanders
Are those people who flee the Communists to Taiwan in 1949. They tend to natively speak Mandarin.
山地人 - Aboriginals
Are those people (not racially Han {Chinese} who ancestors have lived here for thousands of years.) Literally, meaning in Chinese "Mountain People". There aren't that many of them, and they are generally looked down upon in this society. Their situation is not dissimilar to Native Americans.
I hope that helps.
I understand the simple characters because I lived in Japan, but especially the middle ones are unknown to me. I, for one, would be interested in learning what each of the characters means and how it comes together.
Because aside from SDR, Shad, you, and perhaps one or two other guys who escape memory at present, I doubt anyone knows what
山 or
人 mean.
Explaining each character, its meaning, and how it produces a word would be even more helpful to those who've never seen a real Chinese word before.
That is some great looking food. :-*
The city is drab to my eye. Its very difficult to make a densely populated city an attractive place to be.
Well, as I am self taught (an not school taught), I am perhaps not the best person to teach the history behind Chinese characters. Of course, some common ones. I know. Initial Chinese characters as pictographs looked like the thing they describe.
人 - Meaning a person/people looks like someone walking.
山 - Meaning mountain, we see the peeks of three mountains.
中國 - The word for China literally meaning the "middle kingdom". The first character depicts and archery stand with and arrow hitting the middle. The second character for country ... the box shows a walled city and inside the walls we see what looks like weapon. This character is very common for countries.
美國 - The USA literally meaning "beautiful country".
金山 - Old Cantonese slang for the USA. Literally meaning the "golden mountain", and thus they came to build the railroads.
And here is one you should easily know LB, but I won't tell you, 日本.
So, simply combining what we know:
美國人 - An American/Americans
中國人 - A Chinese/Chinese
日本人 - What's that LB?
Quote from: MarkShot on November 07, 2012, 06:43:49 PM
And here is one you should easily know LB, but I won't tell you, 日本.
Was there a very large battleship named after it?
Not sure ... but I will LB practice his knowledge from his time in Japan. :)
I got this. One is Ni Hon, or Nippon - Japan, the other is a Japanese person. :)
It's been 20 years now since I was in Japan, I was there as an English teacher and never learned much Japanese - they always wanted to practice English.
But toss some more my way. Simple stuff I'll know: high, bridge, exit, etc. The names of some cities in the Kanto Plain.
Quote from: LongBlade on November 07, 2012, 07:18:26 PM
I got this. One is Ni Hon, or Nippon - Japan, the other is a Japanese person. :)
It's been 20 years now since I was in Japan, I was there as an English teacher and never learned much Japanese - they always wanted to practice English.
But toss some more my way. Simple stuff I'll know: high, bridge, exit, etc. The names of some cities in the Kanto Plain.
SDR is the man you want to play with. He's pretty fluent in Japanese :)
Alright ...
高
Well, I don't know Japanese, but since Kanji uses Chinese characters, you can of course read a lot of it.
出口 - Another one for you.
I told ya, I know those :)
High and exit. Taka and deru.
LB,
alright ...
飯店
銀行
Remember that I am writing Chinese so there is no guarantee that these words carry over exactly to Japanese.
是什麼意思？
Quote from: MarkShot on November 08, 2012, 07:37:15 AM
LB,
alright ...
飯店
銀行
Remember that I am writing Chinese so there is no guarantee that these words carry over exactly to Japanese.
是什麼意思？
Sorry, if I ever knew those characters they are long forgotten.
The first is restaurant. The second is a bank.
And the question asks what does it mean.
However, remember even though Kanji shares Chinese characters, I am writing Chinese and not Japanese, 日本話。
Quote from: MarkShot on November 08, 2012, 09:26:15 AM
The first is restaurant. The second is a bank.
And the question asks what does it mean.
However, remember even though Kanji shares Chinese characters, I am writing Chinese and not Japanese, 日本話。
Ah. I see the character for gold in there (銀), so I'm assuming that one is bank.
Yes, gold is
金
Quote from: MarkShot on November 08, 2012, 10:16:16 AM
Yes, gold is
金
I think of Chinese to Japanese as Latin is to French. Related, romance languages, but still quite different in many respects. Understanding one will help with understanding the other, but they aren't the same.
Well, if you ask my wife, China gave rise to many other Asian cultures beyond its current borders.
Its all menu to me! ;)
Quote from: MarkShot on November 07, 2012, 07:24:12 PM
出口 - Another one for you.
Hey, I get the character for "high" here. You said that one character was mountain. So two characters
出, is like two mountains or very high. Cool!
出
Sorry, that's the character for "leaving" when combined with the square box, it means EXIT.
The character for tall, high, extreme is ...
高
I've actually spent very little time on my active Chinese study, since I have been so busy getting the new apartment ready to move in. On the other hand, I am getting a lot of passive Chinese study. About 80% Cantonese and 20% Mandarin.
Also, I intend to learn just enough basic Taiwanese as to make a good impressions on people.
The people here beside really warming to you if you speak Chinese (and even though they don't know Cantonese, they are very impressed to see you carry on a running conversation in it) ... tend to believe you are very intelligent if you speak one or more dialect of Chinese. They equate language talent, which I have, with intelligence. Personally, I don't. I equate it with being able to paint or play music. It's a special ability or gift, but not an indication of general problem solving intelligence.
But when it comes to learning Chinese characters, I sure wish I had a photographic memory.
Quote from: MarkShot on November 08, 2012, 07:56:03 PM
出
Sorry, that's the character for "leaving" when combined with the square box, it means EXIT.
The character for tall, high, extreme is ...
高
Well that sucks, I thought I had figured it out! :(
Quote from: son_of_montfort on November 08, 2012, 08:40:58 PM
Quote from: MarkShot on November 08, 2012, 07:56:03 PM
出
Sorry, that's the character for "leaving" when combined with the square box, it means EXIT.
The character for tall, high, extreme is ...
高
Well that sucks, I thought I had figured it out! :(
It's just practice. And it's easier if you live there and see it all the time.
SoM,
But you do have the basic idea. Chinese characters are created by brush strokes. All but the most basic characters have what are call radicals. The are effectively what might normally be whole simple characters that can stand on their own. A character may 2-5 radicals. Generally, the radicals contribute something to the meaning. So, characters with similar radicals will tend to have related meanings. (we are talking in a very broad sense; not like parts of speech in English)
Also, the radical may be included as phonetic component and not contribute meaning, but suggest something about the pronunciation. But this is very dicey, since the characters have a very long history. We are talking thousands of years. (pronunciation changes over time) However, my wife tell you that classical Chinese poetry reads better in Cantonese than it does Mandarin as the Cantonese dialect is closer in pronunciation to ancient Chinese. (She got her undergrad degree in Chinese literature from NTU here. But in some way it is closer to a Masters, since they don't have liberal arts education here. You spend 4 years studying your major more or less exclusively. When it comes to basic science, she is totally ignorant.)
Some words like for "white" or "water" or "rice" can be a single character. However, most words are 2-3 characters long. Linguistic analysis has shown Chinese to be an information dense language. Meaning that for the same amount of data (think like computer bits), Chinese conveys quite a bit more information than English.
Lastly, I should that Chinese is a syntax oriented language. Everything depends on word placement. There are no conjugations, masculine/feminine, tense construction, possessive, subject/object changes etc ... It's all the sequence of words. I can explain this more later as I am quite busy right now. Well, just a little, but we'll do it using English.
Only one word for "I", "me", "mine" ...
I give book you. (subject)
You give book I. (object)
I book. (possessive)
I now come. (present tense)
I tomorrow come. (future tense)
{Like many syntactic languages tense is implicit if the time frame is already known.}
I hope that helps with some basic understanding of Chinese.
Aside from the economy and an overheated real estate market, this is the main concern here. I am still waiting for Herman to write a Harpoon scenario where the Marines are sent in to evacuate me. :)
Quote
The Mainland Affairs Council yesterday reiterated President Ma Ying-jeou's (馬英九) "three noes" policy — no unification, no independence and no use of force — in response to China's call for both sides of the Taiwan Strait to negotiate and sign a peace agreement.
Speaking at the opening of the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) 18th National Congress in Beijing yesterday, Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) also warned Taiwan against any moves toward independence and said that China would stick to the principle of "peaceful unification" with Taiwan under the "one country, two systems" model.
"We resolutely oppose any separatist attempt for Taiwan independence. The Chinese people will never allow anyone or any force to separate Taiwan from the motherland by any means," he said.
"We will agree to interact with, conduct dialogue with and cooperate with any political parties in Taiwan, as long as they do not advocate Taiwan independence and as long as they identify with the 'one China' principle," Hu said, adding that peaceful and stable development across the Taiwan Strait is a must if China is to achieve peaceful unification with Taiwan.
Quote from: MarkShot on November 09, 2012, 09:09:46 AM
Aside from the economy and an overheated real estate market, this is the main concern here. I am still waiting for Herman to write a Harpoon scenario where the Marines are sent in to evacuate me. :)
Quote
The Mainland Affairs Council yesterday reiterated President Ma Ying-jeou's (馬英九) "three noes" policy — no unification, no independence and no use of force — in response to China's call for both sides of the Taiwan Strait to negotiate and sign a peace agreement.
Speaking at the opening of the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) 18th National Congress in Beijing yesterday, Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) also warned Taiwan against any moves toward independence and said that China would stick to the principle of "peaceful unification" with Taiwan under the "one country, two systems" model.
"We resolutely oppose any separatist attempt for Taiwan independence. The Chinese people will never allow anyone or any force to separate Taiwan from the motherland by any means," he said.
"We will agree to interact with, conduct dialogue with and cooperate with any political parties in Taiwan, as long as they do not advocate Taiwan independence and as long as they identify with the 'one China' principle," Hu said, adding that peaceful and stable development across the Taiwan Strait is a must if China is to achieve peaceful unification with Taiwan.
Good point. I remember chatting with a guy from Taiwan 10+ years ago and being surprised when he told me most Taiwanese expected to be at war with China in their lifetime. Do you think that attitude has changed?
Personally, I think the likelihood of anything serious beyond rhetoric is less now than any point in the past.
Earlier in this thread, I discussed some of my impressions of the "two Chinas" situation and why I believe this.
Also, if you read that statement carefully, you will see that there is a warning to the USA to not involve itself in China's internal affairs meaning Taiwan and Tibet.
Caught that in regards to Taiwan. Did not extrapolate that to Tibet.
From today's news:
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Although head of the Tibetan government-in-exile Lobsang Sangay repeatedly said that his administration would not challenge China's sovereignty over Tibet amid a rising number of self-immolations by Tibetans, Tibetan Youth Congress (TYC) secretary-general Tenzin Norsang reaffirmed the group's stance that only independence would be a solution to the issue.
Since 2009, as many as 70 Tibetans have set themselves aflame — one in exile and 69 living on the Tibetan Plateau — to protest against the Chinese occupation of Tibet and calling for independence, religious freedom and the return of the Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama. The latest of these cases took place on Thursday as the 18th Chinese Communist Party Congress opened in Beijing.
"I would like to say that no matter how mighty you [China] are, you are powerless, you are powerless to stop the Tibetans' struggle for freedom and you are powerless to stop the self-immolations for the cause of Tibetan independence," Tenzin Norsang told a news conference in Taipei yesterday.
BTW, Google was just banned (disabled) by the Great Firewall as the People's Congress meets in the PRC to decide the country's future and new leadership.
True Tibetan independence is day by day becoming less feasible despite political and cultural issues. The PRC has effectively been altering the society (or colonizing) Tibet. There are now probably more Han Chinese living in Tibet than ethnic Tibetans.
Although China has national minorities, 90% or more of the population is of the Han race.
For the PRC, Tibet is considered to be Chinese territory, and the Tibetans an ethnic minority.
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Is the USA living up to some lofty principles with regards to Taiwan and Tibet or is it just Geo-Politics? What would most Americans think of the PRC taking an international position on independence for Puerto Rico or citizenship for the 20 million Mexican nationals residing in the USA (as large parts of the West were acquired by questionable politics/war).
Politics looks very different from here ...
I'm eagerly awaiting your trip to the fish market so I can see some aquarium fish pictures! ;D
This afternoon's trip is to Chung Hwa Telecom to discuss: landline, broadband, mobile, and cable TV. I've been preparing the notes this morning, since my wife will conduct the meeting, but she knows nothing about technology.
Sounds like you'll have an interesting afternoon. Let us know how that goes.
Not much to tell. We spent two hours at the store; mainly to understand all the options as we are new here.
We'll have landline and broadband installed Wednesday morning. 20Mbps service. They do have 100Mbps, but the apartment is too far from the node.
Cell/Mobile - we are going to wait until the iPhone5 is released here before ordering.
Cable TV - we'll be going with a different provider. But we don't a TV at the moment, and as long as we broadband we can use US based services as I subscribed to a VPN service which makes it look like we are actually in the USA. So, we can do Netflix and VUDU initially.
Project for today is learning how to write my own name freehand and not using a PC or iPad:
梁馬克
This will be useful in all types of situations. My wife showed me a very good site the other day that has a JAVA applet that shows the brush stroke sequences to write any character.
I just came back to the hotel from shopping; burned out. My wife and her friend are still at it. Today's trip was for major appliances like washer/dryer, refrigerator, ...
It brings back memories of what shopping in the USA was like 20 years ago. If I was in the USA, I would do this all online. Go to manufacturer sites, get reviews, and search for best retail and online price. Or you go into a store scan the item's bar code with your phone, and instantly know all the best local and online pricing.
Here in Taipei, you go from one speciality shop to the next. In some cases, it is somewhat easier than it was in the USA as there is a computer/electronics district, furniture district, ... Still it is a lot more tiring than the USA.
Also, unlike the USA, in most Chinese societies nothing is a fixed price despite the tags or size of the store. So, every purchase whether big or small involves haggling. So, if you buy more than one item, you should get a combined discount. Or they tell you they will give the employee discount. Or some other discount. They emphasize how good it is by asking you not to repeat what they have done for you to anyone else, since they would get in trouble if more customers came in asking for the same pricing. Of course, this is insane, since it is repeated over and over again, but that's how it is done.
I definitely need more practice at this. 30 years ago part of the problem was that they would let a foreigner walk out rather than drop the price, because they believe you have the money. So, 30 years ago, I had a local friend buy a motorcycle for me. These days, they are much more used to foreigners here. So, you can bargain if you know the dance.
My mother-in-law in Macau (not Taiwan) is a really good bargainer. I've gone shopping with her numerous times to the local market. She buys vegetables at the same street stalls everyday for 40+ years. So, customer and vendor know each other well. Still she picks up a bundle of some vegetable and comments on how wilted it looks and not being worth the money. And over a bundle of spinach, she and the merchant will do the dance ... everyday.
Another frustration ... I am used to buying stuff in the USA where a manual can have 5 different languages (however, usually not Chinese). Here I buy stuff and there is just Chinese.
I am pre-charging a set of Panasonic phones we bought. The manual is only in Chinese. A product search does not find the same model sold in the USA or HK where English spoken. Of course, it might be sold under a different model number.
In any case, I know NiCD batteries need 7-8 hour charge before first use. I tried to play around with the Chinese menu structure to switch to English, but I was having trouble navigating. I can recognize the words for:
語言 - language
and
英文 - English
but after pressing a lot of buttons, I didn't see either. Oh, well ... (We did have the salesman show us in the store that it can be switched to English.)
These days I am doing a lot of email with my wife's friends in Chinese (and me also writing English).
I just learned a great slang expression in Cantonese:
雞同鴨講 - literally "chicken with duck talk" ... a chicken talking to a duck
But basically saying "what we have here is a failure to communicate" if any of you remember the movie with Paul Newman, "Cool Hand Luke".
I am definitely going to remember this one as I know it will come in handy down the line! :)
You should put it in your sig!
Well, today, I got to find out how things work in one of Taiwan's largest hospitals when you are own. I basically had a consultation with my new family doctor. I was looking for a doctor who is comfortable with English and would follow my situation if I was to be hospitalized (which for me the chances are high). However, I did find out that unlike the USA, even if your family doctor has admitting priviledges, he/she is often not consulted by whatever specialist checked you in. Still if I feel there is an issue or communication problem, I can ask my family doctor to intercede.
My wife originally accompanied me, but the doctor was running late. She, herself, was also there to meet her new retinal specialist. So, all of a sudden, I am on my own needing perscriptions from the hospital pharmacy, pay my bill, blood work, vacination, a follow up appointment, and a cardiology referal. All these things happen different places and require first getting a number and following a procedure. So, I thought I would be pretty much screwed.
But instead, I got my very own personal nurse. She literally walked me through most of this going to different places in the hospital. Once again, the level of assistance and help of the Taiwanese to strangers is beyond description.
Even though, I still have a long way to go on my Mandarin, I feel reasonably secure here if left on my own. Also, I find that like 30 years ago, I pick up much faster when my wife is not around. I learned to say today, "I suffer from heart disease. I am on blood thinner. So, I am an easy bleeder." Very useful stuff when you are in a hospital.
I, also, found out from the doctor that blood thinner therapy is fairly rare in Taiwan. Genetically, Chinese are much more prone to strokes from hemorrhage than from clots as compared to those of European ancestry.