Stephen Drew is coming to Taiwan

Good news blogging world.  Stephen Drew has decided to spend some of his hard earned student loan and come out to Taiwan for 2 weeks.  I am really excited about this.  We are going to try and travel as much of the island as we possibly can in 2 weeks and I am really looking forward to seeing the islands, the south of the country, Taroko Gorge and the Alishan Mountains.  I have been wanting to see these places since I arrived in Taiwan.

As soon as Stephen told me that he was coming to Taiwan, I went to work the next day and popped in my holiday request.  I think it is totally possible that we could see everything worth seeing in 2 weeks, this island is not so big.  I do believe we will need to plan it well and sometimes we might have to take the fast train depending on what we need to see.

I have been thinking about the vegetarian thing too since he told me he would be coming.  I'm not sure what type of veggie he is, I don't know if he eats eggs, but I know he eats fish so I think surely he must eat eggs too, or is that just stupidity.  I really don't know any great details about vegetarians and what different types there are.

I have been wondering what will happen in the bian dang places, will they offer him another veggie or will I end up eating his and my meat.  (That sounded very wrong to say it like that!)  Anyway it would be an added bonus of getting 2 bits of meat instead of 1.  (that sounds wrong too)

Another thing I was thinking about is what the hell do veggies eat at a bbq.  I know the obvious answer is vegetables but that doesn't seem to fill me with much love because bbq's are all about the god damn meat.  Anyway I am sure he will fill me in on what he will eat and what in won't in due time.

This is too get the Mar Ke household excited.

Taiwan Lottery

Every 2 months there is a lottery drawn in Taiwan.  The numbers they draw are linked to numbers on the receipts of every purchase you make here.  When the numbers are drawn you then check the end numbers to see if you have a winning receipt.  So technically it means your receipts don't only show you what you have bought, they double up as lottery tickets!!

There have been times when I have came close to winning a lot of money, but I have only managed to win 400nt dollars up to now.  This works out at around 9 quid back home I think.  I think even though sometimes it is quite tedious to go through and check all the receipts you may as well do it.  The reason I think you should do it is because it is a little bit like free money if you win.  The stuff you bought you were going to buy anyway so whats the point in not checking, although sometimes I do put them in the kids charity boxes, which I think could be a mistake on my part because as I am only winning 200 NT dollars a time, someone somewhere else is winning 2 million dollars on my receipt ha!

I hope I take on a winning streak, and I hope I can win a bit more than 200NT dollars.  At least 1000 would be nice, a couple of 1000's would be good.  That way it will seem like I am gradually building my way up to the 2 million receipt.  It is a bit like the lottery back home though without actually having to pay for your ticket, because the odds of winning the big one must be so slim as you have to match all the numbers on the receipt.

My receipts I sorted and counted.

Last Train Home (documentary about going home for Chinese New Year in China)

I just watched this documentary about people migrating back home for Chinese New Year with their families.  It was really so touching, and very sad.  It really makes you think how shitty the world is, when people can't even afford to go to school if they stay with their kids, and if they leave there kids to send them to school their kids end up hating them because they don't think they care about them.


The story basically follows one families struggle to get home for the new year, and follows the relationships between parents and children.  It shows closely how the relationships can become strained, basically because there are no prospects or chance of work in their small village and they don't have enough money to eat more than 1 meal a day and send their kids to school.


The story is just somewhat dropped a bit at the end which was a bit dissapointing but at the same time it really did show some insight to what life is like for poor people in small Chinese towns and how the kids drop out of school when they are 15 to go and work in factories for shitty money.                                                                                                                            


Just think all the money spent on wars and shit like that could make everyone in the world probably have a happy life.  I know which I would choose if I was in charge, seriously you should watch this if any of you have the time.  It really shows the chaos of trying to get home for the New Year too, and shows what the real like is for the lower class society of China, and people who work in the countryside.  Its a shame they can't spread the wealth better!


I highly recommend people to watch this, even if it just to get an insight what life is like for people who have nothing.  Even though they had nothing they still tried as best they could for their kids and to better there lives. To the detriment of their relationship with their kids and there health.


I liked this documentary a lot, and I didn't really want it to end.  The documentary itself was a very raw piece of work and its appeal is that it didn't judge either view of who is right and who is wrong, it left that for the viewer to decide.


This is the documentary:


http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1512201/

The story of my mams Pineapple cakes and a day out on the Maokong Gondola.

So I had bought my mam and my nana some pineapple cakes for their birthdays and mothers day gifts.  What I didn't realise is that the post offices here are shut on public holidays, I just assumed they would be open because most things don't really close here often.  So I waited until today to post them.  I trundled along to the post office right here in Xiemen, and walked up the girl behind the desk.  Handed over my package, told they were to go to ying guo.  She asked me what is inside them, and I told her with all my honesty...."pineapple cakes."


What a mistake that turned out to be!  She got out her little book of forbidden items, searched for ying guo (means England by the way) and told me....."no can send!"  This threw my plan into some disarray as I was now with a box of pineapple cakes and a bag of Chinese books.....I was originally off to study Chinese with my friend.  So I came up with a cunning plan, I would go to another post office and tell them it is gifts!  This would work for sure, as a gift can be anything.


The next problem that came up was where exactly was the next post office?  I didn't have a clue, I had been to one a few times with Jen but I couldn't remember where it was for the life of me.  So I gave her a bell to ask her where the other post offices were and she told me "there is one next to Carrefour remember?"  Obviously I couldn't find it even after I remembered which one it was, so I was madly walking down the street thinking bollocks man I should of met Anders ages ago!!!


I didn't really have any clue so I asked a few people if they knew where the nearest post offices are.  Well I clearly decided to ask the right person, not only did he wap out his iphone and look for all the post offices near by, but when he found them he told me to get on the back of his scooter and he was going to take me to the post office.  So off we went, and the scooter is bombing along the road.  It was really nice to take me, and every time someone gives me a lift on their scooter I really love it.  The feeling of bombing around the city on a scooter is much better than being in a car.

Scooter Man, helped me out a lot that day.

So back to the part were we are flying along the road hunting down the post office.  Then when I get their random guy who took me there asked where I had to be next, when I told him he said he would take me back to the specific place I needed.  Then he insisted after I told him I could connect to the blue line from where I was, he basically told me that would take too long.  So he said he would just wait outside of the post office.  If I had any problems inside he also said I had to give him a shout and he would come inside to help me sort it out, if my basic Chinese skills wouldn't do the job.  


When I got inside the post office it seemed that something was going down, it wasn't a robbery or anything like back home but the machine that printed out the receipts was broken.  So this poor guy was standing outside while the woman behind the counter just kept telling me to wait.  On top of this, Anders was waiting for me at Zhongxiao Fuxing MRT to, and I was at a post office in Xiaonanman waiting for 2 old ladies to fix the receipt machine.  By the time the receipt machine was fixed I was already around 1 and a half hours late to meet Anders, also the guy had been stood outside for nearly 30 minutes.  He didn't seem to mind though, when I looked at him out the window in the post office to check to see if he was getting pissed off or annoyed with waiting, he was just milling about smoking.  Was a stroke of luck he offered to take me because if he did not I would of been much later to meet Anders and it means our day would of been delayed more than it already was.


Its amazing how you can be going along on the MRT and it is just City clustered together everywhere and then all of a sudden it is green and you are in the countryside.  There is no gradual build up like back home where they have small towns and then you can tell your getting to the countryside.  It is just City, City, City, then countryside.  I like it though, and its good being able to take the MRT to some where where there is nice scenery and really fresh smelling air.


I arrived at Zhongxiao Fuxing and at first I couldn't see Anders but he was stood down by the front of the MRT, we then took the MRT to Taipei Zoo station so that we could take the Maokong Gondola to the top.  At first we were going to que for the gondola with glass all the way around even where you stand but they told us that the waiting time was 30 minutes so we decided just take the normal gondola.  The views from inside the Gondola are totally stunning, and I love it going up there.  It feels so refreshing and you can really smell the fresh compared to the difference in the city.  Going over the top of all that scenery and how high up you feel, its just totally free feeling and relaxing I think. 

View from inside the Maokong Gondola.

Anders and his new travel partner.

Half way up I asked Anders if he fancied getting off at the Temple Station because the other time I went to the Maokong area I only went to the top.  He agreed that we should have a look at the temple.  So we get off, and start milling around taking pictures of the little pond thing, with the Chinese building in the middle.  We discussed which way we thought the temple must be.  We both knew it would not be far from the gondola station because Taiwanese people like things like this to be really convenient. 


As it turns out we didn't manage to find the temple we were looking for, and I told Anders it really must be the one over the gorge type thing.  So we walked around as it really was not so far.  The walk around was really nice but it was hard work in the heat, and the humidity even going further up mountains, there is still a load of heat, and it feels like your clothes are getting completely stuck to you.  We decided to piss about taking photos around there anyway, as there was still nice things to see even if we didn't manage to find the temple.

Near the temple stop of the gondola.

Anders looking for the temple.

There is still no sign of any temple, not in these bushes!

We can't find no temple, lets just play in the park.

Half way around the mountain we had some sort of semi drama.  The reason for this was an angry stray dog.  (In Taiwan there are quite a few stray dogs but there all quite tame that I have seen and normally just let you walk past, plus Taiwanese people are really quite used to them.)  So this little hard case was really angry, and he seemed like he was trying to tell us, "this is my patch of land boys, don't mess with me!"

Their are dogs down that road...........so you go first!

No dogs will mess with me, i'm harder than Bjorn Borg

Me and Anders were deciding whether or not we should attempt to walk past him or not, Anders kept telling me "i'm not letting my day be dictated by stray dogs" to which I would reply "ok you check if he is going to attack us, you can go first," then all of a sudden some random guy came down the hill and just walked past the dog.  It seemed he was all fart and no shit!  So we started to walk towards it, like it was not there and as we got closer it started getting angry again, like a mean bad ass bastard.  I told Anders I was wondering if he just likes the taste of weiguo rou!!! (foreign meat).  Once we got near the dog we asked the guy if he would bite us.  The guy told us no, but i'm not so certain about that to be honest, because I think if we got close enough he would of bit us.  


I agree with Anders too when he said that Taiwanese people must think we are a bunch of pussies for not wanting to walk past the stray dogs, but where were from we don't really have to deal with the stray dogs so it is something completely new to deal with for me.  Still the Taiwanese must think it is really funny if they see foreigners standing discussing whether to walk past a barking dog or not!


So after our little drama we were back on our merry way of looking for the temple.  When we got so far we realised that the temple must of been behind us, and we may as well head for the next temple that was ahead of us instead of turning back.  It was a really beautiful walk, the scenery up in the mountains is totally amazing, its such a contrast especially when you have only traveled about 1 hour out of Taipei City and then your into such beautiful countryside like this.  

I don't see no temples over the end.....nice scenery though!

When we arrived at the temple, Anders was more excited at getting his photo taken with the stupid looking cat statue!  I couldn't believe it in a way, we had walked so far up this road and mountain and he wants his photo taken with a cat statue and not the temple its self.  The temple looked really impressive from outside, but once you got inside it was like they had not completed it yet, or ran out of money or something because inside seemed really bare.  There was only the bottom floor open to visitors and it only had a couple of Buddhas inside, although there was a handful of people inside praying.

Praying inside the temple.

I took a few shots from outside and it looked really impressive.  The outside was amazing compared to inside totally.  I loved it just a shame there was nothing inside to make it stand out from other more impressive temples here in Taiwan.

Outside the Temple

After that we kept walking along the road to see what we could find, then we realised if we kept walking along this road it would take us all the way to where we were headed and we wouldn't need to walk back to take the gondola again up the mountain.  We just kept walking and walking and all of a sudden there was more people and you could see we were near the top.

Bridge, look just go this way to the top hurrah!

Local rice farmer

Looks Like a caterpillar 

Sign, with christmas lights wrapped around electric wires!

Once we got to the top we had a quick look round, then we decided to walk up further to see how far we could get, well let me tell you now.  We didn't get much further at all because I seen some women playing badminton and I really wanted a go.  I don't know why I find badminton so much fun, maybe its because its easy when there is no rules and it just seems fun trying to keep the shuttlecock up (no snidey comments about shuttlecock)  and asked if I could have a go.  They said yes, because most people here are polite and then I tried to play, I think i'm quite good at badminton but the wind was really blowing into my direction so no amount of force was taking that shuttlecock back to the other side.  Was fun all the same.

Random people at the top of the gondola, I bet they didn't walk there!!!

Playing badminton 

After that we decided to go inside and get some drinks, it seemed like we both felt completely exhausted and we ordered some food.  None of us really had any idea what we ordered which makes me realise more than anything that I still need to try much harder to learn Chinese because it is ok in Taipei to not speak any Chinese, because you can find a lot of people here who can speak English, but outside of Taipei its a no no.  You need some kind of Chinese totally.


The view from the tea place was awesome, really nice looking over Taipei, could see Taipei 101 and the big temple that me and Anders some how managed to not find even though it looked like it would be easier to walk into it than miss it!! We didn't get tea though, we got some beers and cracked them open looking at the cracking view.


It started to get bloody cold though, i'm sure if I ever go back to Newcastle now like I am certainly going to freeze.  Some of the temperatures now that I feel the cold is crazy compared to when I felt cold back home, I know I am going to feel it a lot when I go home for a visit.  So we went inside, and ate our food inside instead of outside.


It seemed the people in the tea restaurant really wanted to speak to the foreign people a lot especially the grandmother.  She seemed to want to practice her English, and we had a long conversation in broken English and broken Chinese which seemed to work for both all of us concerned.  It seemed like they never wanted to let us leave though, and kept asking us new questions and new questions all the time which was nice, and a different atmosphere to Taipei City.  Taipei City is good but everyone has to keep their face, and keep looking cool so a lot of the times it feels like people are scared of making mistakes when you try to speak to them, where as in more remote areas people really enjoy speaking to you which is fun, and means I can try and practice my Chinese more.


So we paid for our food and drinks, which I thought was a little overpriced, however we were in a bit of place were they can charge a little more because they know you have no where else to go.  It was 400 and something between the 2 of us, for 3 beers and 2 dishes of food. 


Then we took the gondola back down to Taipei zoo station, and headed on our merry way home.


When I was sat home pissing about on the internet, I got a message from my friend saying that he wants to come here and visit me, and see some place new he has never been to.  So eventually he liked what he saw and booked up to come here, which was a good ending to an eventful day.  I have just popped in my holiday request at work, so I should get it hopefully because I have told them with enough notice.


Tomorrow I will try and get my tax forms from the old job which I am sure will be a nightmare, if you want to know why read the blog about my old job.  (There could be a new blog about trying to get my tax forms.)

Look were going the right way man, the sign says so!

Hanging up clothes and lack of space in apartments in Taipei.

This is where I hang my clothes when its raining.

So since moving into my apartment in Taipei I have really noticed how little storage space we have.  I assume it is the same for most people living in Taipei and I really struggle with where to store things.  As you can see from where I hang my clothes when it is raining outside.

So when it is pissing it down outside I cannot hang my clothes up on the roof, so they end up hanging all over my stairs with the fan belting away on them to try and create a wind effect.  This works but it is still not as good as them drying naturally on the roof because sometimes they can kind of stink and I have to wash them again, but when they dry on the roof they smell nice and fresh.

In our room, we bought these things a bit like hooks, and you can just stick them to the wall.  They were good for ages but every now and then they just fall off for no reason.  We have tried to put more storage space in there Jen got loads of places to put books and things from her friend Joy.  I need to try and find something that we can put all our stuff into, in the room and make it look a lot nicer because at the moment there is too much stuff and not enough places to put it.  We have 1 wardrobe for the 2 of us and sometimes it cant take the weight of the clothes and falls apart.

The kitchen is tiny too, and only has 1 tiny cupboard to keep you food inside, the other cupboards have cleaning stuff in, and toilet papers and bin bags.  We have one dryer for the dishes that we store our plates in. This is tiny and I think if I get any more plates, glasses or cups there is going to be no room for them either, and if you liked to do any kind of food shopping you would be well and truly screwed in this apartment so its a good job we don't do so much food shopping otherwise there would be no where to put it.

I think it is really difficult to store everything here in your apartment and thats something I am really going to look for when I am finding a new apartment here in Taipei.  I imagine apartments with loads of storage space would either be really expensive, or outside of Taipei City, and instead in Taipei County meaning you would have to commute every day to get to the City.  Anyway that decision on where to live next will be coming up soon because I think I only have around 5 months left on my contract.

Looking for and finding a new job.

As you are all aware I lost my job at Happy Marian (or Sad Marian) as I used to call it.  I was very happy about this because they were horrible and lied all the time anyway.  They went back on a lot of things we agreed on when I signed the contract.  

Top picture, me as dressed as a ghost with the kids at the first school I worked at before they sacked me, bottom picture one of my kids who was amazing at English dressed as Buzz Lightyear.

This threw my life here into a bit of uncertainty and chaos.  The reason it threw everything into chaos is because I need a job to stay in Taiwan, the job is like your sponsor for the visa.  Which means no job, no sponsor and no visa.  I asked what will happen to my status now in Taiwan to the correct and official people, and they told me when your employer contacts us and cancels your ARC we will call you, then I think you have around 7 days to leave Taiwan, I don't remember the correct number.  I was not aware when or if the immigration agency would call me to tell me that my visa would be taken away, that means I would have to leave Taiwan again and I didn't want that to happen because I was unsure how long my money would last, especially since I was now a number of the unemployed.


This meant I had to go back to the same daily routine as when I first arrived on this island.  Jen supplied me with big lists of schools and numbers then we started to systematically call through all the different schools to see which ones had jobs available.  We started to line up the demos and interviews again and my daily schedule was busy, but not quite as busy as when I first arrived here in the summer because not many schools were looking for teachers.


A lot of the jobs I went to for the interviews you could tell straight away that they were a heap of crap and it was obvious why they did not have a teacher, because in most cases the only time a job becomes available is when they are crap.  Who leaves a job they love in the middle of their contract unless for some kind of family crisis.  So I could tell there and then that it was going to be kind of tricky trying to decide which one would be best job to take if the offers started to come in.  This worried me slightly because I didn't want to be in the same situation 2 months down the line as I had been before I got sacked.  


We looked for jobs ourselves but we also decided to contact agents because the situation was quite urgent and we thought we might as well get all the help we could.  As it turns out most of the jobs the agent sent me too were piss poor or what I clearly told her I was not looking for.  She kept trying to send me for full time jobs when I told I wanted part time only, and she also kept trying to make me accept her job that she had in Yilan without looking at the school, meeting the staff, knowing what I would have to do, she wouldn't even tell me the name of the school, and she wouldn't even tell me the names of the schools she sent me to for demos she would only give me the address, I had to force the names of the schools from her.  Oh and Yilan is over 1 hour travel time from my house.  I didn't even know how close the school would be to where I would get off the bus or train.  


In the end I totally pissed her off when I told her I had found a job on my own.  So she then stopped contacting me even though I told her i'm still interested in a morning job.


In the end it seems like she fucked me over anyway by supplying the old school that sacked me with a new teacher before I even left, so the slimy bitch was trying to get a double payment really, money from me if I accepted one of her crap full time jobs, and money from the new guy she sent to replace me.  No wonder her apartment was huge, and seemed like she had loads of wonger, i'm not surprised if thats how she acts.  So I will never contact that agent again, I did have an idea of posting her name and number online for other people to contact her and say it was from the guy who gave the contact to me, because she is quite secretive about it all and doesn't want loads of people contacting her for some odd and bizaar reason, maybe she is working illegally.


I think in the future I would rather fail than use another agent.  No matter where I am they always act the same if you ask me.  Whether it has been in England, Germany or Taiwan they are all horrible at least the ones I have made contact with anyway.


So I started going to interviews again and it reminded me how much I hated demo's and interviews.  They always make me feel so nervous and I always somehow manage to forget my words and everything I know from the past and have read about learning, education and everything else slips out of my mind while the nerves set in.  I think I put too much pressure on my self to be great in the interview and I make myself so determined to do my best it makes my mind go like a blank sheet of paper, and then when I come out of the interview I remember everything again and think shit man, why didn't I say that in the interview or do that!


Another thing is sometimes you feel like they are just using you.  Like when they ask you to come and do a demo, but sometimes they just use you to fill in if there teacher has called in sick or whatever, or to trick the parents and say there kids get a free class or something.  Its wrong but I have heard it happen, and I have felt like that has happened to me a few times.  There is nothing you can really do about it because you can get quite desperate when you really need a job.


I had jobs for all different types of schools, and different styles.  Kindergardens and cram schools etc etc.  All the types of schools here I applied too, I just thought I have nothing to lose.  I even went all the way to Taoyuan for an interview which was a heap of shit.  It was miles away from the train station which took me over 2 hours to get there.  Then when I got off the train it took ages in the taxi, and cost over 200 NT dollars for the taxi journey which means I would lose money by taking the job.


Then I got offered 2 jobs one at a Kid Castle by Taipei Zoo and one at Joy English quite close to my home.  I had pretty much accepted the job at Kid Castle, then the next day I got offered the job at Joy too.  This put me in a situation I have never been in before.  The reason is when I get offered a job I normally get quite excited at the prospect of the new job and just accept whatever is put on the table.  

My new place of work, Long Fu Branch.

Even though I had pretty much said I would take the Kid Castle job, all the staff at Joy English seemed lovely and just what I was looking for.  I was quite concerned about the hours at Joy however, when I thought about the extra money made was going to be spent on the transport cost to get too and from work as it is further from my home.


Another thing that was concerning me about the Kid Castle job is that they seemed like they changed their mind a lot already about what they were going to be offering me.  The health insurance was a classic example they said yes they would provide it for me, then when I double checked and asked again, she said her manager would not provide the health insurance.  It was also taking them ages to answer my simple questions about the job which set off alarm bells ringing in my head.


In complete contrast to Kid Castle the boss at Joy English was a lot more helpful.  She seemed completely nice and pleasant and had no problems about answering any of my questions.  She could clearly see I was deep in thought about what I should do.  I was thinking which contract I should sign, and it is obvious she really did notice.  She let me take the contract home over the weekend to let me decide what I was going to do and think it over.  This was one of the first signs of them being really nice to me.  There were more signs too, some of the others were; the boss meeting me in the MRT station and taking me in a taxi to the school, not doing a demo and having what I consider to be a proper demo by western peoples standards, being up front about everything in beginning in regards to the visa, health insurance and labour insurance and what I would have to pay towards these, regards the visa she said she would get it done the very next day, but she could not guarentee that I would not have to leave the country this was because she had to wait for the government to sort it out and it was out of her control then, and she also let me meet all the other teachers before I even signed the contract this was good because the other schools always tried to give you dodgy answers when asked these questions.  They always tried to keep you away from their teachers too.

First picture is where I get off the bus, second picture is the road I walk down (notice Blockbuster) third picture is the alley with Joy English, my job in the alley.

I was cautious about only have 12 hours per week, but at the time I was trying to study Chinese (you can read about that struggle in the learning Chinese blog) but, now I don't know whether to get another a job, or save money and try and study Chinese again.  At the moment I am doing nothing in the mornings but have started running, and swimming and working on my fitness in general instead of doing it in the evenings.


So I called up my would be new boss, and told her that I wanted to accept the job.  She said that was great news, so I went in that evening and signed the contract.  Ever since I have signed the contract it has been great working there.  I really believe that my manager is one of the best I have had anywhere that I have worked in the world.  There really keen about communication between their staff and training for the staff which is great for me and them.  From my point of view though it is great for me personally because it means your staff will always be up to date and have good ideas about what they should do in classes.  I have struggled a little bit with Saturdays because I have to be up at 6.30am at the latest as I start work at 8am.  I am now getting better with getting up though as I am getting more used to it.

Inside my job, with co-teachers and kids, and one of my bosses in the middle.

I have to be up really early on Saturdays, every other day however I can just lie in bed all morning.  I think it is making me very lazy though, I just sit up all night and then sleep all day until it is nearly time to go to work, but now I have started breaking that habbit as I am changing my routines to make it better for me, and not just get totally lazy.  I can see how it is easy for other people to fall into this routine though, and I can see how Owain done this when he was here too.  Its too bloody easy to do it thats why.


The kids at my new school are really nice, and I think some of the classes really like me a lot.  I think though that they like any foreign teacher, because foreigns teachers are used a lot to play games and make the learning fun for the kids, so I have to realise that I have to just keep doing what I am doing and most of the kids should like me.  

Me with one of my classes.

One of my favourite kids!  He is always so happy!

All these are kids from one of my classes.

I forgot to mention that I work at 2 different schools, 2 days a week in each, but I have just managed to get another 2 hours so I will be working Monday and Tuesday at Long Fu school, and then Thursday Friday and Saturday at Shin Chuan Long School.  Meaning I have 2 days off, Wednesday and Sunday.  I used to think to think this was a bad thing because I wanted continuity but, it means I get to see how both schools work, see the differences and meet a lot more new people and see a lot of kids too.


Everyone at both schools has been more than helpful to me although, one group of staff is more serious than the other group.  That is not necessarily a bad thing, its just they have different personalities.  I really do love the job, and things seem to be going well.  I really like all the people I work with and all the help and advice they have given so far, and I know they will keep giving me good advice until I finish working there which makes me really happy to work there.  I am going to keep working as hard as I can because I want to repay everyones faith in me at the school for employing me when it would be easy for them to see that I had been sacked and just not take me on.  I also want to repay the manager for all her help to me, and all the other staff members help.  So I will definitely be trying my best all the time.


When work give me an extra 12 hours I was really happy because 24 hours was ideal to have enough money to live comfortably, pay the bills, buy what I want and learn Chinese.  They only let me work them for 2 weeks though.  I was disappointed at first when they took them from me but, maybe they think I couldn't manage all the hours or something with being relatively new with working here, and working in their system, plus they still thought I was learning Chinese and thought I didn't have the time to do the hours.  I am over the disappointment now though and back to showing them how great I can be.  I am determined not to mess this job up because I really do love it.

She has a very inquisitive mind.

Some of the classes that got taken away from me, we made loveheart lollipops for Valentines day.

In the end I was kind of sad that I dropped the Kid Castle woman in it, because she seemed really nice too, I had to think what was best for me at the end of the day.  It did really take me ages to get any kind of reply from her which meant it would of been like that whenever I wanted to meet the real boss and not just my supervisor.  I got the feeling her boss was not so honest as she seemed to come across as being.  It meant I would of been in the same situation at Kid Castle as I was at Happy/Sad Marian.  


At the end of day, it is clear to me and everyone else that I have made the correct decision and I do not regret it to this day, I am sure the woman at Kid Castle will have found someone to work there anyway.  I am really happy at Joy English, I am happy with the people I work with and I love all my classes too.

Football yesterday.

So after football yesterday, I was having beers with one of the guys and then he decided that he wanted to go somewhere else away from the rain.  He bought all the beers at Family Mart for us, and then he paid for the taxi to some other bars which I have totally forgotten the name off but they were completely dead.  We played some pool, ate there and drank loads, when I went to pay he refused to let me!  Said he wanted to show me around.  We played some games of pool and he totally whipped my ass but I did pagger him when I decided to concentrate a bit more on what I was doing instead of just smashing the balls about like an angry man.


Then we went to another bar on the same street and that was also completely dead, but it totally felt like an English pub.  The most English pub I have been to while I have been to Taiwan.  Then the football came on the TV and I was talking to 2 old guys from Yorkshire who were on holiday in Taiwan, when I asked why they chose Taiwan they told me because they love Asia and have seen most of it, so thought why not tick Taiwan off there list.  My guess is they love the ladies in Asia they looked the type but I can't just genralise so I have to give them the benefit of the doubt.


Then when I went back round the corner turns out my new friend from football had pissed off and left me, however he paid the bill.  He paid my bill how sweet and nice of the guy is that.  The woman in the bar told me that he went to Brass Monkey so I thought I would follow him like a bad smell, and offer him some drinks back.  He refused to accept any drinks and told me not to worry about it, I decided to play some more pool against some Taiwanese guys and I took some more beatings, then when I went back to speak to the people I had met they were gone!  Ha maybe he disliked me following him like a bad smell.  So, I paid Ruby for my beer and took a taxi home, all in all I had a good night and will have to thank the guy when I see him at football next Saturday.


Another thing I forgot to mention I met the president of the Taiwanese football association yesterday after football, you can't say that happens to you in many countries around the world can you ha!


Sorry I took no photos of the night out.  I will take some photos of the football next week.  Maybe write a proper blog about people playing football here.


Oh an another thing to mention, 2 teams were playing a competitive match on the pitch next to us, full of big black Africans.  One team was playing in black and white stripes which put me off my game a bit because I wanted them to win.  When they got a penalty I was shouting get innnnnnnnnnnnn.  Then the guy took the shittest penalty ever!


Oh and I scored a hat trick again, I think my movement is getting a tiny little bit better but anyone who knows me, knows thats still not much.  There was a tall fast guy marking me but his movement and knowledge of how to play the game is shit.  He doesn't follow his man he always runs after who ever so he can be dragged out of position easily enough!  I was happy with my 3rd goal the most looked the simplest of them all to score but its the type I normally mess up.  Cross came in, I managed to lose the marker, or more like he lost me then I flicked it in on the volley!  Happy days

Learning Chinese

After a while looking a job I decided to spend the majority of what money I had on learning Chinese.  This was for two reasons.  If I could not find a new job then I would be able to hopefully change my ARC to a student visa, I didn't know if this was possible or not inside the country but it was worth the risk.  The other reason, was the main reason.  It was I really wanted to learn Chinese a lot to be able to speak to people and not rely on others to get by in my daily life.


Me and Jen looked at a lot of courses and the schools that provided them.  We decided to go for the Cultural University at Technology Building MRT.  A lot of people recommended it to be really good and practical.  It was also one of the cheapest which I needed seeing as I was spending most of my money on it and didn't have a job currently.  So I called to esquire about the course and it was fully booked, I was really disappointed about this.  I didn't know however that Jen put my name down on waiting list in case anyone dropped out.


Then the next day I got a call from Jen telling me that there was a place and I had to go there with the readies right away and pay to secure my place.  This I done straight away it took a bit of time to find the school but that was because of my map reading ability than anything else.


So that was it.  I had paid and I was due to start the course the next day.  I was really excited about and Jen was really happy too.  I got there nice and early so I could find the room I was supposed to be in.  I was having difficulty as the rooms were signed well.  I asked some guy if that was the room in front of us.  He told me yeah it is.  He seemed nice and friendly, we stood and chatted for a bit.  (I didn't know at that point that we would have a lot of things in common and become good friends.)  


The first day on the course seemed like it was going to be fun.  We started by trying to learn bo po mo fo in only a couple of days which was never going to be enough really.  The teacher seemed to be trying to make it fun for us at the beginning maybe this was just until the class got to know each other more.  


Which brings me onto the class.  There was such a different mix of people and nationalities in the class.  There was an Aussie, Swede, 2 American ABC's, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Mexican and my good self.  The only people from the same country were the 2 Americans.

Chinese Class with our Teacher

It seemed everyone in the class had a big personality.  I thought it would be interesting to see how all the different cultural backgrounds would mix together in the class, and how everyone would adapt with each other in the class.


So at the beginning it was really fun and everyone seemed nice and interesting.  Once we got through the first couple of days of bo, po, mo, fo we then started trying to learn the characters.  This is where the problems began to begin for me.  I had such a nightmare trying to learn them.  I would sit up for hours trying to write them (over and over again like I had been told to) but I still did not manage to remember them no matter how much I wrote them.  This was frustrating because other people could manage them, and then they looked at me like I was holding them back.  No one else in the class worked though and some even didn't have bills to pay I don't think, but I am not 100 per cent certain about that.

Trying to write Chinese!

Some other people in the class especially the Italian woman would say all you have to do is write Chinese more and you will learn it.  Writing Chinese characters is so boring and time consuming, totally tedious work.  I would try all night then go to university and barely remember them.  Then the Italian woman would start with all her patter and bullshit about me having to study harder and all that.  I stayed calm for ages and didn't get angry with her then eventually I just shouted at her "I am trying to fucking shut up!!!"  Then she never bothered me anymore.

Writing Practice

Another major talking point about my Chinese class was when my teacher started crying in the class.  I wasn't there to see it but the Italian woman called me when I was out for my birthday gift from Jen.  She told me that Hong Lao Shi (teacher Hong, in Chinese) ran off crying.  She was insinuating that it was my fault.  She was saying that I ask too many questions and she could not answer them.  She also said I ask my questions too directly.  She started blabbering on to me that I am not such a good student, I need to try harder, and I shouldn't ask so many questions.  


Well I'm afraid if your going to be a teacher you should expect your students to ask questions and want to understand, otherwise it's blindly following everything you have been told and accepting it, where as I would rather understand it.


I understood it was an intensive course and you were expected to do a lot at home.  I decided compared to the others I only had limited time so wanted to concentrate on my weakest areas which I thought to be writing and reading.  If you couldn't read or write in the class you were looked at like you were an idiot and made to look completely stupid by the teacher.


Halfway through the course the teacher even asked why I wanted to learn Chinese.  Which I thought was a stupid question and the answer was fairly obvious considering where I am now living.  The reason I was there was clearly because I want to know Chinese.  Why else would I pay and go to the class?  The teacher also said that our writing ability was not what she expected.  I told her it is a beginners class.  I took the remarks about the writing quite personally seeing as I was pretty much the worst at it.


I also felt like we were being treat like children.  For example the teacher would write our name on the white board if we were late and would make a big song and dance about it.  Then say we had extra homework for being late.  If I was struggling managing my time doing regular amount of work and homework there was no way I had time to do extra.  Another thing is were all adults so if we are late we are losing out for ourself.  It is only effecting me in the long run not the rest of the class.  


As well as all this the teacher always mentioned her French student to.  She went on and on about how good he was so much that it sounded like she wanted him to bum her.  (Although she would bum him seeing as he is French.)  


I wouldn't mind so much if it was someone linked to my situation, but my situation couldn't be compared to some bloody French guy who only came here to study Chinese and nothing else.  It is not an inspirational story.  French guy goes abroad, spends all day learning Chinese, nothing else, wow funnily enough he is good!  Shock bloody horror!

Fuck France!

If I was shown someone who had a full time job, kids, marriage, and a house to look after I would have been more inspired. 


Most of the time I was only late anyway because I was staying up all night to do the homework and practice the writing.


There were other moments too when you could clearly see the class did not like other members.  One occasion was when the Italian woman started to tell everyone if they were not happy at the class tomorrow they should not come back the next day.


What exactly gave her the right to say this, she was not in charge of the class and it brought a quality comment from Anders.  He grumbled angrily "DO I HAVE TO SING KUM BYE AH BEFORE I AM ACCEPTED INTO THE CLASS OR SOMETHING?"  This made me laugh loads, I laughed about it all the way to work.  I just had a picture of him rocking up to the class bible in hand singing kum bye ah and saying happily, "is that happy enough fuckers?"


Another time she went crazy with the big American guy in class.  The class clearly bored him and he couldn't be arsed anyway he turns up late again for class and the Italian woman starts going mental with him, telling him he is affecting her learning!  Telling him he could be great and getting all rowdy with him, he starts  telling her to fuck off and to stop touching him and what have you.  The teacher just stood there and let them argue.  The fact she just let them argue didn't help the class dynamics, in the end the Spanish girl ended up stepping in and calming down the situation.


I then became very sick towards the end of the course, I think this was due to staying up late every night and the stress and pressure of being made to look and feel completely stupid and useless in class.  Was making me try harder and longer every night, but made me sleep in, get extra homework and the vicious cycle was continued.  In the end I thought the extra homework can go where the sun doesn't shine!

Ill in bed, trying to recover!

This made me fall really far behind and made me feel more stupid.  Which made me stop wanting to go to the class anymore.  Plus the atmosphere in the class by this point between the people in the class was a heap of shit, the only thing that kept me going back was the encouragement Jen kept giving me and I didn't want to let my parents down.


The daily routine of the class was so boring too.  There are a lot more teaching methods that could of been used instead of the ones we were using.


We would have a test every day which I thought was pointless, why test students everyday it is pointless because the same students will always come out on top, and the students who need more help will be obvious.  Sometimes there can be an anomaly but at the end of the day some people are more suited to everyday traditional tests and teaching methods than others, and you should try and mix them up instead of sticking to the same routine. 


I always wonder why more practical methods were not being used.  We are in an environment to use natural learning methods and the daily routine in the class was the same every single day.


First we would go through yesterdays words, then next we would do some writing practice, and answer some questions from the teacher (we would never have to ask the question!)  Then we would take a test, then we would go todays test answers (another pointless time wasting exercise because it would of been much more beneficial to go through yesterdays test answers, on the test paper that the teacher just gave us back) whats the point in going through the test you just done when you can't fix the mistakes because you have just gave it to the teacher.  Then we would read read the new words for today and read the conversations from the book and that would be it.

Fun day learning, should of been more things like this.

Why not teach practical stuff that will be needed in daily life situations like directions, how to take the bus, does this bus go to destination x or y, how to call people, how to make a reservation for a restaurant, how to tell the doctor what hurts, order food etc etc.  We could of role played this together in class, which would of helped us practice conversation and not just writing and reading, and we could of also went out of class to do this.  We could of recorded it, we could of wrote down what happened in Chinese there are loads of ideas that could of been done.


I had to ask a lot of the time for words I needed in my daily life, like MRT (how practical is it to know that here in Taipei) and work.  Don't even get me started on the use of duo! (can mean both, not both, or some both!!!) I still don't understand how to use duo to this day, and even now when I try to use it I always get it completely wrong.


When we had a test coming up I was still ill.  I went in totally ill to try and do the test but I couldn't think and didn't prepare at all due to spending all my time in bed trying to recover.  I failed with a shitty score of 48!


After that I just felt totally frustrated with it and the course totally killed my enthusiasm for trying to learn Chinese.  Jen told me a lot of the schools have the same shitty method of teaching too.  It's not a practical way of learning at all, and it is a way that education is moving from in the UK because they know there are better ways, and they also know that way does not suit everyone.


Now I have just been starting to try and re gain my enthusiasm again but, I need to save more money to try classes.  If I end up with the same shitty routine of;
answer questions (never ask them) read words we learned yesterday, have a test, go through the answers, read the new words, read the conversation, then go home.  I will go mental!  This same shitty routine will be ingrained into my head until the day I die.


Anders had the right idea when he just stopped going sooner than I did.  So all in all I learned some things but, I feel it was a missed opportunity to learn so much more.  To blindly follow 1 book that is clearly outdated is such a bad idea.  It is not 'one size fits all' you have to realise that this attitude does not work.  It works for Taiwanese people but westerners all come in different shapes, and sizes, and from different culture and educational backgrounds.


Why don't they do what they do in England and pick the best parts from different books and teach it instead of regurgitate from 1 book and stick to it rigidly?   If they took the approach of using different books, picking what is most relevant to students right now in society here and make a course relevant to that I firmly believe people would get more from learning Chinese here.


I'll tell you why it is easier for them to just follow one book, it is because they will still earn the same money that they are now even if it only clearly suits a tiny percentage of the class which was clearly visible in the classes.


At the end of the day my teacher tried her best and deep down she was really nice, and I hope this does not offend her, or anyone else who went to the class we all have our own struggles in life, and our own struggles here and learning Chinese.  Deep down I can tell she intended well, but maybe she has not had so much experience with this kind of class.  In the end I think she tried her best, but needs to gain more experience because I know myself class room management is not an easy thing to learn, and neither is time keeping in class.


She also needs to calm her emotions down too, and stop trying to become friends with the class and realise she is only there to teach us.  It is not important for the teacher to be my friend I only want to learn from them, and at the end if we become friends then that is fine, but I would rather have respect for my teacher because there good at there job, other than liking them because there nice.  In fact most teachers who I have thought of as cunts, I have often had the most respect for!  She also needs to stop clearly having favourites in her class, or stop making it quite obvious she has favourites.


I hope my next experience of trying to learn Chinese in a classroom setting will be a much more positive experience but I am not holding out much hope, as people in education here seem quite close minded.

Chinese class (I didn't go much after this picture) Disclaimer underneath please read!!!!!

(This is a disclaimer)


These are only my feelings, thoughts and opinions about the university, the teacher, and the classmates.  Deep down I do know all the people are genuinely nice people, and my intention is not to complain, piss people off, make them angry or upset.  The reason for this blog is to let my family and friends know about my struggle learning Chinese.  So if you get offended, angry or upset tough shit!  Stop being soft and don't let such small things effect you.  Toughen up!  


Keep on keeping on people!