Wandering Fel

There is no way to learn a language without memorizing some vocabularies. Aaaaa~~~ O_O

It's a well known fact that Taipei has a lot of quirky themed restaurants. And now we are gonna looking into a toilet-bowl theme restaurant. Yes, I am not kidding, you are so gonna eat in the toilet. Don't believe me? The entrance even has a toilet bowl with poop on it. LOL.

Six months in Taipei, experienced two earthquakes and two typhoons. Whew. Thanks God it was not that bad.

Actually, typhoon Trami has just passed Taiwan not long time ago when I was typing this. And oh boy, it was raining all days (especially yesterday). I don't know where else to check on the typhoon condition apart from the news on TV. Taiwan's TV station broadcast news in the morning (around 8-9ish), noon, and evening (7-ish).

But...what if you have a TV but don't understand a single thing they say on TV? (chances this will happen to you if you don't subscribe to a cable TV, like me!).

Well, no worries! After scrambling through google websites, I've found a bit of information which may be useful in the typhoon days (hopefully you still have internet connection, even though you don't have cable TV. =P)

1. Where to check the location of the typhoon?

Most countries in the world including Taiwan has its own weather bureau. And the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) website has its English version. Phew. - http://www.cwb.gov.tw/eng/

The website will show you the satellite view of the typhoon. Like this one below. Yes, when I captured this picture, typhoon Trami is still hovering over Taiwan. U_U.

With the unpredictable weather in Taipei, riding a gondola (or cable car) to the top of the mountain can be a tricky affair. Why is it the case? It's because whenever there is any strong wind, rains, or worse, thunderstorms, the gondola will be closed.

You may be stuck in Taipei for whatever reason and one day, you realize you do not really know what else to do in Taipei. And you don't want to die of boredom at your own home. What to do??

Well, you can visit tourist information for once (if you haven't done it before) and guess what? Apparently they can be very informative. They have one at Ximen MRT Station, Taipei Railway Station and Shilin MRT Station. I believe they have more locations other than the above three.

One thing that I love about Taipei is...it has so many parks. Which means if I eat too much, I can easily walk of the fat by walking around in the park. If you are staying near Taipower Building MRT Station, you are in luck. Because there's a park just few metres from the MRT station. =)

It is a must to visit a night market (夜市/Yèshì) when you are at Taiwan. It's a culture. An eating culture, you can say. But since this culture involves yummy food, why don't we embrace it as well? =P

If you ask any person on which night market you would like to visit in Taiwan, they will mention Shilin Night Market. Without fail. After all, everyone will not miss the chance to munch that cripsy chicken cutlet and drink the bubble tea or ai yu jelly or papaya milk. Oh gosh, I haven't posted any pictures yet and I'm already hungry. =P

Welcome to Shilin Night Market! Yes, it's always crowded! Be warned!

As you probably realise by know, most language schools in Taiwan offer courses by term (i.e. per 3 months). You probably wonder how much time should you spend in mastering the language? I suppose the answer depends on each person's background and capability. Let's use myself as an example here.

Background

When I was in my teenage years, my dad forced me to learn Mandarin. The teacher was old and she focused so much on my writing. At least I kinda grasped the idea of the stroke order although I did not really bother to memorise it at that time. Stupid kid, I know. Zzzz.

Growing up, and joining the employment line make me realise that Mandarin is broadly used in the office especially in Singapore (fyi, I works in Singapore). Ack! Thanks to this, I forced myself to learn Mandarin during the weekends (mostly because I don't want other people to talk openly about me in Mandarin without I'm knowing it). And did that work? Uhh probably it will only give you the idea of super basic Mandarin conversation like "How are you?" or "Have you eaten?". In short, it didn't really work for me although I admit that my Mandarin improved a bit and I could sense it if someone is talking about me in Mandarin.

Current study

So with this kind of background, I am practically a complete beginner when Shida asked me a lot of questions about my Mandarin level. So I started from Book 1 Practical Audio Visual in an intensive class. And with this, let's go back to the question "Is 3 months enough?"

If by enough, you mean that you can survive by your level of Mandarin when you get thrown out in a country where no one speak other language, then my answer is...it's not enough. Unless, you can master it like how Benny does it (http://www.fluentin3months.com/).

By the time I finish the first term, my conversational Mandarin is still very basic. And it's tough trying to listen to the native speaker of Mandarin, especially because they naturally speak fast. The fact that Shida likes to emphasise on a lot of grammar and writing doesn't help either.

To summarise, these are roughly the list of conversation that you will learn within 3 months at Shida:
- Introducing yourself: name, nationality, etc
- Hobby
- Number and price
- Introducing your family
- Buy things e.g. clothes/food
- Introducing where do you live (and your place of living)
- Time
- Showing direction and taking transportation
- Visiting doctor
- Taking a trip

The list is not exhaustive and some vocabularies that you will be taught depends on the teacher's style of teaching. Of course, all chapters will involve its own set of grammar.

So, do you think 3 month is enough for you? Think think think...=)