Michael Turton discusses Taiwan blogging and social activism with Taiwanese NCKU students

Since he won’t blog about it, I might as well …

I’ve been wanting to listen to Michael talk about his blogging experiences for a while now, but although he’s been giving lectures all over Taiwan I never really got the chance. When he once said that he might consider my proposal of maybe sometime in the far future giving a talk in NCKU, I immediately took that as a yes and suggested to the Taiwanese student clubs that they arrange this with him. And so they did. IEAS took the challenge and so the Taiwanese students and I met Michael at one of NCKU’s classrooms. I posted it on our student council website, but no international students came. A real shame.

I’ve known Michael for sometime now following his blog and the Taiwan guide for about 2.5 years since I’ve first considered coming here, so it was great listening to Michael talk about that. I take so many things in blogging for granted that it’s fascinating listening to someone else try to explain what blogging is about to people who don’t really get it. Michael naturally spiced it up with his personal experiences and his perception of Taiwan.

What was really interesting was seeing his interaction with the Taiwanese students. I’m not an English teacher, and most of my classes have a relatively small group of Taiwanese, so I can’t really say that I’ve seen this kind of interaction before. Sure, they were a bit quiet at times, though I feel using English had a lot to do with it, but I actually felt that they were quite open and very interested in what Michael has to say and Michael had a way with them that helped the interaction. When Michael asked, and he did so quite often, they sort of played along, and so I also got to learn more about how they perceive things regarding blogging and life in general.

Here are some points we discussed:

• Blogging can serve what ever personal and social goals you set for yourself. It has for Michael, it has in a way for me, and it also can for anybody who does so with passion.
• Blogging might not make you money but the relative indirect wealth in social capital and reputation is sometimes worth more than that. The fact that Michael has friends all over Taiwan and foreigners recognize his name wherever he goes in Taiwan is a great thing.
• Being a leader of a niche is not an easy task, especially if that niche is only starting out and I think Michael’s done a lot to develop the community feeling in our little Taiwan blogosphere. The blogroll on the sidebar is an example, the Daily Links is another, as well as often meeting other bloggers to chillout, drink beer or discuss indepth politics. I will forever remember the surprise call to my mobile in Israel that I got from Michael when I wrote on my own blog that I’m considering coming to Taiwan to study for a PhD when he only knew very little about me. Did any of you ever do something like that?
• There are some differences, perhaps cultural, in the way Michael and I see blogging as compared to the Taiwanese students we met. I’m still fascinated with the whole BBS culture, wishing I could read all that’s going on over there and gain a better understanding of how they use it, but I’m quite sure that the Taiwanese are very opinionated about everything only they rather express those on a BBS and between friends.
• English blogging to people who are not proficient in English is possible. I’m living proof that it works. I remember that only a few years ago during my Israeli MBAs we were made to speak in English in class and I was one of students who strongly opposed that feeling that I can’t hold a basic conversation in English. I wasn’t being humble, I really felt I couldn’t. Now I’ve got students, professors and English native speakers asking me whether I’m American-Canadian even after they’ve been listening to my (I think - heavy Israeli) accent for a few minutes. But maybe they’re just being nice.
• I think Michael’s a really terrific guy. Yeah, I discussed that with some of the other students. They agree with me on that.

Following are Michael’s presentation slides:

Some videos and photos of Michael’s previous lecture to Taiwanese students are available on “Dr. Turton speech about blogging“.