(Belated) Breakthroughs

There are some things I've just had to accept about my experience here in Taiwan. For instance, that I will never be able to remember the names of every one of my students. And that those students will never be able to properly pronounce the letter "z."

Then today happened.

This first thing is embarrassing to admit, but a breakthrough nonetheless: today I realized, after 7 months of teaching them, that my 3rd class of 5th graders on Fridays at Qingshan has four twins from three pairs in it. I already knew that Bess and Kyle were in that class, while their respective twins were in other classes, but I had somehow missed up until today that this class also has Bruce and Chris in it--identical brothers whom I'd failed to notice were, in fact, twins.

I guess I just thought they were the same person or something? Weird.

Pictured here on the right: either Chris or Bruce. Chruce?

The letter "z" has been a major headache for me this year. It's an incredibly difficult sound for Chinese speakers learning English, yet for some unfathomable reason, it features pretty prominently in textbooks. Rachel's told me about her adventures trying to get kids to say the word "zebra," and I have had run-in after run-in with the word "zoo," which invariably comes out as "loo" or "lroo" or "roo."

To me, "l" and "r" bear almost no phonetic similarity to "z"--so why do they always resort to this? Why is this sound so hard? I honestly don't know. But I was thinking about it the other day, and realized that at least Chinese has the initial sound of "在" (tzai), which is admittedly not perfect, with the t sound before the z, but does at least feature a sound that, if said with "oo," would be recognizable as "zoo" (tzoo), not as "bathroom" (loo) or "regret" (roo/rue).

So I mentioned this breakthrough to Patty, who liked it and shared it with the classes via BoPoMoFo (Taiwanese phonetic system). The results? Whereas at the beginning of the class maybe 30% of the students could say their "zoo" correctly, towards the end I'd say about 75% could. Not bad! Now, just to retroactively teach this breakthrough to all of my students...

But it's pointless to "rue" the consequences of being slow on the uptake on this one. Just because I left my brain in the "loo" before doesn't mean its retrieval can't be meaningful--and it is, for Chris, Bruce, and the letter "z"!

Pairings

I don't know why, but I do love it when I come across a pairing of two that seems to suit in some way or another. Maybe it's a subconscious human instinct, to join two things to make a single one complete. In any case, I've been noticing plenty of pairings lately, and thought I'd go ahead and share them with you.

Kids' Names:

The best part here is that I have a pair of pairings, or actually a trio of pairings, taken from both of my schools. I notice paired names most often when kids sitting next to each other have appropriate names, or their names are next to each other on the roll call.

Take, for instance, two of my 5th graders at Hanmin who sit in the same row: Amos and Andy.

And then there's the two 6th grade girls at Qingshan whose names directly follow each other: Penny and Candy.

The best one, though, is a tidbit Maggie passed along to me today on the walk to one of our classrooms. She said that one of the teachers at the school has twins, a boy and a girl. Their family name is Li, and the twins are named Li Ke and Li Le. (李可 and 李樂.) Yes, Chinese speakers, that's right--the kids' names are made of the halves of the word 可樂--cola. According to Maggie, people ask the dad how his drink is, and things of that nature, all the time. And I have to say, he deserves it!


Smaller Pairings:


My most pervasive frustration with traffic here comes out when I am most fully taking advantage of traffic here. It's a perverse pairing. Essentially, when I'm running late and I hit traffic, I get quite annoyed at the cars, scooters, pedestrians, bicyclists and pushcarts--yes, pushcarts--in my way. Stupid Taiwanese traffic, I say, why is this person pushing a cart by hand down the middle of the street? This would never happen in America... 

I then rev my engine and find the best way around the problem, weaving and making marginally legal turns as necessary. That is, I drive in such a way that, if I were in America, would get me in massive trouble. It's a catch-22: the very order I'm longing for is the order I am more than happy to thrown to the wayside to get me to my destination quicker.


Another pairing: The Hunger Games and Sour Patch Kids. I like to eat sour candy when I go to the movies. Taiwan has a serious shortage of sour candy. However, Kaitlin brought me some like the gem she is, and so today I got to relive one of my favorite essential pairings from America: candy and a great movie. Nothing not to love!


So those are my pairings from the day. What are yours?

火锅 and cousins

I forget how much I love family, and family gatherings. Until I do things like I did tonight, going with my host family and extended family to a hot pot restaurant, then back to their place to play board games. It was a wonderful, three-generation gathering, and I got to meet Margaret's parents (it was her dad's birthday) and her brother and sister-in-law, as well as their three adorable daughters! And, on top of all of that, I had hot pot (火锅)for the first *real* time, and it was absolutely delicious.

The hot pot restaurant they took us to was stupendous, and had everything imaginable to eat. It was actually a hot pot/buffet, so in addition to the wall of hot pot ingredients, they also had everything from sushi to hot dogs to chocolate and strawberry fondue; watermelon juice to almond tea to Coca-Cola in glass bottles. But, apart from the drinks (and the fondue) I didn't even touch their other options, as I was too focused on the hot pot itself.

If you've never had hot pot, first of all, you should. Second of all, let me explain: you order a flavored broth (the place we went had everything from "original" to miso to Italian tomato to curry, which I ordered), and then go get a whole bunch of raw foods from the buffet. Back at your table, you discover a full pot of your broth and a heat control beneath it; you basically just drop in your ingredients, let them cook, and dig in!

It's simple, but brilliant.

My uncooked pile of goodies and the broth I later used to cook it

 And amongst the delicious food (they even had beef!!!), I got to meet my host family's family. And they are FANTASTIC. Not that I expected any less from my fabulous host family--they are altogether some of my favorite people ever. :) 

Emily and cousins!

Family!

Margaret's brother's kids, Bunny, Jenny, and Mumu (she doesn't have an English name yet; they invited me to help give her one!) are 13, 9, and almost 2, and, as odd as it sounds, I hadn't realized how much I missed hanging out with kids. Yes, I know, that's pretty much all I do here, but being someone's teacher is an altogether different dynamic than being someone's cousin and, with 21 cousins back at home, I missed that relationship.

No need now! Bunny and Jenny both have excellent English (Bunny's is better, as she's older and so has had more time to study), and they remind me of our family friends Shelby and Kendra, back home--same sisterly dynamic and  (for Jenny, at least) same personalities. Also, she pretty much IS my cousin Lindsey. About halfway through our meal, Jenny began spending more time at our table than her own, and insisted on bringing me to get, first fondue, and then ice cream. I wasn't hungry at that point, but I couldn't possibly say no to her!

Who could?

 Then she began quizzing me on my Chinese, and I began swapping simple sentences with her in English and Chinese "I am from America"/ "我 是 美國來" and "You are in the middle in your family. Me too!" (Emily had to translate on that one, but it made Jenny happy.) Eventually, Bunny joined the conversation and the cousin dynamics deepened.

Outside the restaurant, talking with my new-found cousins

 We headed back to James, Margaret, and Emily's place and Jenny immediately took control of the situation, breaking out the Taiwanese version of Monopoly (whose Chinese name directly translated to 'rich man,' incidentally), and proceeded to make what can be a relatively slow game into a fast-paced one, slapping dice into peoples' hands and moving for them if they were too slow. 

I, meanwhile, tried to follow simultaneously the game and the flow of conversation, in Chinese and English, which was passing over, around, and towards me from all of the adults. Everyone was speaking at once; many times several people were speaking to me at once, and I couldn't even begin to catch everything that was said, even in English, especially as Jenny commandeered my attention every few seconds or so for the game, but it was glorious. My family gatherings always consist of loud, boisterous conversations on all sides, punctuated by kids' queries; I was right at home!

After a while, we had birthday cake for Margaret's dad, who was turning 80, and sang him Happy Birthday in English and Chinese. (I just clapped for the Chinese part, but it was fun nonetheless.) Mumu, who had been alternately "playing" with the Monopoly pieces and grinning at me and others, figured all this attention was for her, and so perched herself in front of grandpa behind the cake--so as to be able to blow out her candles, of course! (Which she later did.)

Adorable.

After cake, Jenny busted out the Uno game and insisted I teach her how to play, then she, Bunny, Emily and I started the game, which Bunny promptly won, leaving an eventual 2nd place to Emily as Jenny and I commiserated with an arm wrestling game. Just like home, hanging out with my little cousins. :)

Meanwhile, Bunny took advantage of her free time to draw some stupendous sketches of the four of us, plus Mumu.

Eventually, it was time to say goodbye, and as I shared an over-enthusiastic hand-shake with Jenny, who had promised to invite me to the *next* family birthday, I hoped I wouldn't have to wait that long. I love family; love my family; love now having two families, one in America and one in Taiwan.

*** 

Side note: After my great evening with my family, Karina and I headed to the Young People's Shopping District to take photobooth pictures. I was able to find the place without a problem (accomplishment 1) and the pictures turned out FANTASTICALLY! (accomplishment 2). Therefore, I give you...

 Side note 2: This evening, Karina, who is staying the night, stepped out of my bed room to encounter a 3" cockroach flailing its legs in the air on our floor, just moments after telling me she is cursed with bringing cockroaches with her wherever she goes. Point proven, as I trapped it in an old tea cup and Rachel saved the day, drowning it in Raid. Seriously, though, Karina is like the Pied Piper of cockroaches...

Settling In

Today was a long day; to be honest, I'm a little surprised I'm still standing. I'm pretty sure that the sole reason that I am is the coffee drink I had for dinner (iced coffee with ice cream--delish!).

I spent all day today in my schools--from 8:00 to 1:00 at Cing-Shan, then 1:30-4:30 at Han-Min, then dinner with Maggie and Alison. I was observing again, and adding to my list of English names in my spare moments.

I've been learning a lot about my LETs' teaching styles, and getting more and more excited about teaching with them. They are each very different in how they teach, and even in how they prepare, but they are all great teachers, and wonderful people to co-teach and hang out with. It's going to be a great year!

This morning, (after a normal-time wake-up, thank goodness), Patty picked me up from the MRT and took me to Cing-Shan's student assembly, where (together with all the other new teachers) I was introduced to all 200 or so students, who greeted me with the standard "Laoshi hao," and then, at Patty's prompting, "Good morning teacher Bekah." Then the principal introduced me; then Patty introduced me; then they handed me the microphone. What was left to say? I don't know. I said good morning and that I was going to teach English with teacher Patty, then filed off the stage. I think I messed something up, because they laughed, but I don't know what! Oh the joys of not speaking the language.

Outside the classroom at Cing-Shan--it was super humid today, and fogged up my camera instantly.

So after that I was a superstar at Cing-Shan--every recess found kids in our classroom talking to me, or hiding behind their friends and refusing to talk to me. Several of them have pretty good English, too! And they're enjoying teaching me little bits of Chinese, most of which (Hello, thank you, etc) I already know.

Also, to continue the name-change saga, I changed "Boy" to Danny, and "Car" to Carl; "Wall" became Walt, "Wug" became Will, "Happy" became Harry, and "Jeach" became Jesse. Handed out a few names just because kids wanted to change them, too; it was fun to get a Liam and an Ella, a Shay and an AJ. Still let Boss slip through, though, and let a girl be "Ettie"--what she was saying sounded like Eddie, so I thought this was closer, anyway.

In the afternoon, I explored Han-Min and observed Maggie and Alison teaching--it is so different form Cing-Shan! At Cing-Shan, like I said, there are about 200 students, and Patty and I have an English classroom. At Han-Min, though, there are 2,000 students, and Alison and Maggie and I rove around to the various home rooms, and have a central office to spend breaks etc. So different! I think it will be nice having a mixture of the two, though--the intimacy of a small school at Cing-Shan and the bustle and fun of a big school at Han-Min.

My desk at Han-Min! More pictures later ;)

Of course, when I got to Han-Min, it wasn't quite bustling--it was still nap time. I love that we have nap time in the schools here--an hour and a half for lunch and nap, technically--and I can't wait until I actually get to utilize it. So far I've been in transit and/or preparing for a lesson in that time, but soon I'll be on a normal schedule!

After observing Maggie and then Alison, we each lesson-planned for next week, and then they graciously took me out to a DELICIOUS dinner--I had fried chicken with spicy and sour sauce, and we talked, among other things, about how little I eat and how tiny Taiwanese people are, considering that I can't even begin to keep up with them eating! (Main lunch-time topic at Cing-Shan, too, where I ate until I was bursting, ate some more, and then was asked if I wasn't eating because I wasn't used to the food yet...) Alison told me it's because a lot of Taiwanese women eat only 2 meals, which makes sense when I think about it. Maybe I should follow suit.

Alison and Maggie at dinner--Patty couldn't come because her son had piano lessons

Anyway, then I headed home and learned that Rachel bought a scooter today! I am itching to join the ranks of scooter owners/drivers--if only I had passed my test already! Oh well, I guess--a few weeks on the MRT won't kill me. It will, however, make me much more tired on a regular basis: I left the house today at 7am, and got back at roughly 6:45pm. *Sigh*

We're setting up Chinese classes now; I'm trying to see if I can take the "Basic," rather than the "Beginning" class, and maybe hire a Chinese tutor to catch me up to where others in the class may be. In the end, I think this will be cheaper and allow me to learn more faster.Also, it looks like neither Cing-Shan nor Han-Min have a lot for me to do in my extra 15 hours every week, so I have enough spare time for hardcore studying of Chinese--I'd love to come out of this year fluent, or at least conversational! Hopefully it will work out.

Well I'm exhausted (it is 2am, after all, and I've been up since 6am), so I'm going to go pass out now.