National Cheng Kung University’s Chinese Language Center (NCKU’s CLC) prepared a special treat for the Chinese students this week with a 3 day weekend tour.
First day we went off to the places I’m already well familiar with - Confucius Temple, the Taiwanese Literature Museum and a series of old temples next to the Chikan towers.
Second day we got up early in the morning and headed out …
Since I wasn’t feeling at my best lately, friends from all over the globe have been offering me their kind tips and advice on how to improve my health and overall quality of life. When it comes to taking care of my self, I do things slowly, but eventually things work out. I am feeling a lot better. One of my Taiwanese friends suggested that we go together to visit a special kind of doctor - a China Shao-Lin 少林 temple Taiwanese master. I was up for just about anything, so we went together down Xiao-Dong rd in Tainan, took a turn right next to the big old temple in Yong-Kang at Minzu road and went down a block or two to …
The Toastmasters concept is something that I’ve heard about before, usually from American flicks, but I’ve never seen it in action. Toastmasters, for promoting international leadership, is an extremely popular student club here in Tainan, and rumor has it that Tainan alone has 5 different Toastmasters clubs in different institutes. The Taiwanese Toastmasters club is more about gaining public-speech abilities and using English, than it is anything else, and it’s admirable to see the Taiwanese students struggle through this.
The format is formal and simple. Presentations, or projects, are given by club members on different levels, starting from C1 as a self-introduction through higher C’s focusing on improving your body language, voice usage etc. There are 4 parts, I think, first …
This is part of what I love about Taiwan. There are so may weird things going on that I completely don’t understand. Driving around on the weekend, John and I came across a long parade from some temple with some beautiful horrible chant kind’o music, lots of Gods, shining colors and smells. I still have absolutely no idea what that was about, but it was fascinating to watch. Here are a few videos from that parade: …
There’s usually not much happening in Israel regarding Taiwan and Taiwanese culture. There’s the occasional photo gallery show at the university, but rarely have I seen more than that. Which is why I was surprised and thrilled to learn that the Israel Taiwan friendship organization is holding a small Taiwan food and film festival picnic event in Israel. Following are the details : We are proud to invite you to the 2007 Taiwanese Food & Film Festival which will take place in “Park Canada” Latrun. A wide variety of mouth-watering traditional Taiwanese delicacies will be on offer for you to …
Taiwanese academics is very different than what I’m used to back home. I’m still trying to get around some of the challenges I’m facing while studying in Taiwan. The teaching methods, the homework and class assignments, the interaction - or lack of - between students and professors, the interaction - or lack of - between students and students, are just quick examples. I think almost every English teacher blogger here in Taiwan or the ones I read in China has written at some point or another about the Taiwanese education system, some more critical, some more accepting, but that’s usually from a teacher’s perspective.
In the few weeks that I’ve been here and have been talking to fellow Taiwanese students I’m …
