Chinglish, Part 3 - Back by Popular Demand!

Well, I’m sitting in my favourite café listening to Christmas music (yes, it’s June, but I don’t think this particular café cares) and I’ve got a list of Chinglish phrases in front of me. I’ve kept a running list for a few months at work hoping to capture the top ones… let me know what you think!

• Teacher, today is you? translation: “Teacher, are you teaching us today?” This is said by my favourite student, Baku. I teach his class 4 days a week and he still has yet to figure out that Thursday is the day that “is not me.” So I get to answer this particular question everyday when I get to work. I haven’t bothered correcting him because it’s too cute… I guess that makes me a bad English teacher! Haha

• “9, how many?” translation: “What day in September?” Another Baku-ism. He doesn’t like to refer to days of the week and months of the year by their English names, instead he uses numbers (the Chinese language uses numbers to refer to days and months so this isn‘t that strange). I was telling them that I was going to be flying to Australia in September (back when I was leaving in Sept and not Aug) and he wanted to know exactly when. It took a bit of thinking on my part to figure out what he meant by this question.

• “Teacher, they always that one.” translation: haha, I have no idea! This phrase is particularly funny because my one class will always say “that one” when they don’t know the English word for something (which also seems to come directly from Chinese as far as I can tell). I think that other students were picking on Betty and she was trying to tell me “Teacher, they are always picking on me,” but that’s just my best guess.

• “___________ don’t have come.” translation: So and so isn’t coming to class today.” Simple enough to understand.

• “Teacher, so ouch!” translation: “My knee, eye, mosquito bite, cut, head, etc…. hurts!!” This is said in a very whiney voice by my 8 year old class. The nice thing about being a foreign teacher is that I can just say “awww,” kiss the boo-boo and send them out of class to have a Chinese teacher take care of the rest! (it’s not that I’m lazy… it’s that I can’t communicate with the kids as well as the Chinese teachers and with the younger kids especially important conversations are usually over-run with frustration on both ends)

• “So not easy!” translation: “This work is hard!” or “I don’t want to do this work!” Again, said in a whiney voice, but this time I have less sympathy for them!

• Lastly, a cute story goes along with this one: When my younger class is doing writing activities in their workbooks I always walk around with an eraser and erase any work that is messy so they can write it again (mean, I know, but they are soooo lazy with their English writing). I erased some of Edward’s work and said, “Edward, that doesn’t look like a capital ‘W’…” Frustrated, he responded with, “No teacher, that’s because your eyes is so broken.”

That might be all the Chinglish I have for you! But I will probably post one or two more blogs before I depart from Taiwan en-route to Melbourne, Australia! My blog name is going to have to change and I’m taking suggestions!! I was thinking along the lines of… “Laura in the wonderful land of OZ” but please tell me what you think!

a short update

After much deliberation and weighing of circumstances, I have finalized my next destination. Once I saw the teaching schedule for August, I realized that I wouldn't be making enough to stay here for my final month. Because of summer vacation and the economic crises (which has also hit Taiwan) I only had 10 hours of teaching scheduled each week! This reality means I would have less money to fly around and backpack as I had originally planned. So I have opted to save my backpacking through South East Asia dream for a little later and fly straight to Australia.

So the final decision is: I am flying out of Taiwan on August 5 en route to Melbourne! I'm in the process of getting a 1 year Working Holiday Visa which will allow me to stay in the country for a year and take on casual jobs as I go. I'm not sure how long I'll stay, but I'm happy to have the option to stay for a while.

That's about it! Nothing is new lately. I'm just working away and now planning for my departure from Taiwan. Though I love it here, I'm really excited to live in an English-speaking country again! The glass wall that seems to be between me and everyone else will vanish once I get to Australia! Yay! more friends!!

how I spent the Dragon Boat Festival

Last weekend was significant for a couple of reasons: 1) It was the Dragon Boat Festival in Taiwan so we got a 4-day weekend! 2) Friday was my 23rd birthday! Mike and I decided to use the four days to take a scooter road-trip down the East coast of the island. Rather than write all about the weekend, I'll just show it to you!

But first, here's two of my favourite students (Baku and Helen) posing with a card their class made me! (notice all the dinosaurs! one kid said, "don't worry teacher, they are GIRL dinosaurs!")

Mike and I drove our scooters first to a place called Daxi and spent the night on the ocean listening to the waves! The following day we drove to a place called Yilan where we learned there isn't much to do. We walked through a market and made quite an impression on all the vendors (my blonde hair is a magnet for attention in small towns). After I took this picture, the butcher yelled to his friends in Chinese, "I'm going to be on the internet!" (and he is...)





After Yilan, we drove all day through the East Coast mountains. Driving through the mountains is really something else. Everywhere I looked, I saw mountains. The roads were curvy and we had to stop many times so that we could really take in the beauty around us. It was raining for part of the journey... rain isn't very enjoyable on a scooter. But nothing makes me laugh more than how ridiculous I look in my Taiwanese rain-gear (perhaps the greatest indicator of how Chinese I'm becoming!)











Here is one of the fantastic views that we pulled over for. It's really quite something to ride through this scenery!







We spent the next night in Hualien City in one of the worst hostels I've ever stayed in! The bathroom floor was flooded with 2 inches of water all night, our "room" was a basement (with no door) that had zero ventilation and 4 people sleeping in it and to make matters worse (this one's my fault) I lost my earplugs and there were 2 loud snorers in the room! ah! I did manage to sleep a bit though and woke up to my birthday! We spent the morning at Liyu Lake eating Taiwanese food and watching dragon boat races! We were quite far away from the action as you can tell by this photo!

In the afternoon, Mike and I got back on the bikes and drove to Taroko National Park where we spent hours driving through Taroko Gorge. Taroko means, "magnificent and beautiful" and that's exactly what it is! As we wove through the marble walls and tunnels (the gorge contains an abundant supply of marble and even jade) I was in awe. I couldn't believe how much beauty there was to see! While so much of this island has been tainted by humans, the gorge remains almost entirely untouched. It was so refreshing to explore this part of Taiwan!

The following day, we took a train back to the city (and shipped the bikes back too). It was sad to leave the beauty behind me, but I know there will be plenty more in my future! My time in Taiwan is coming to an end. I will be leaving on September 1st and flying to Hong Kong for a 10-day Vipassana meditation retreat. After that, I plan to explore some of South East Asia before I fly to Australia to meet up with my little brother Derek who has been there since Dec '08. I'm not too sure what I'll do in Australia yet, but that just makes things more exciting now doesn't it!?