Well I'm back... after more than a year. I'm not sure why I stopped writing last time, I think I left starting my blog until I had been here for a while, wrote a lot very quickly and then ran out of ideas and stopped. Then I just got into the habit of not writing.
I'd like to get back into the habit of writing this again. I think the focus will mainly be learning Chinese which has been my main interest for the past year and a bit. I will add a few pieces here and there about life in Taiwan but I think I have been here for too long. Everything feels pretty normal and not exotic. It's hard to write what amounts to a travel blog for a place that feels like home.
So recent developments? I'm still in the same job with the same employer and have signed on for another six months. I told myself that my second year would be my last and it was time to move on. However I've decided to study Chinese at university in an effort to get my Chinese to where I want it to be. Seeing as the town I live in has a university with a Chinese program it seems easier to stay in a job where they can work around my schedule and everything is already routine.
As for the choice to study at university, economically it seems better value for money than working with a private teacher at least by the hour. For some strange reason I have this conception that in order to get your Chinese accredited for work purposes you should have credits in it at a university somewhere. I'm sure you probably only have to take a proficiency test.
But for some reason I get this nagging feeling that if I ever get presented with an opportunity by a white employer who doesn't speak Chinese, who then asks 'Where did you learn Chinese?' my claims of self study to proficiency will amount to no more than 'I learned my Chinese from the streets YO.'
Nevertheless there could be a strong chance that I won't enjoy the university experience. Firstly from the few people I have known to study at university here. Most have enjoyed it but almost all have complained of clashing with Chinese educational culture and traditional language learning methods.
Most university courses in Chinese tend to focus on frequent testing as the motivator to keep students working hard. However this is usually paired with an intense workload of many many new words and characters each week. There is nothing wrong with working hard but the problem with introducing too many words each week is the next week you will have to learn many new ones and don't have the time to review the words you learned before. So it is all short time learning. You learn a lot of new words for the test and then forget them all in two weeks because you are busy cramming for the new test.
Either way it isn't a very intensive course. Only six hours a week. I'm sure the homework will be manageable and I'll still have time to study in my own way too.
I'd like to get back into the habit of writing this again. I think the focus will mainly be learning Chinese which has been my main interest for the past year and a bit. I will add a few pieces here and there about life in Taiwan but I think I have been here for too long. Everything feels pretty normal and not exotic. It's hard to write what amounts to a travel blog for a place that feels like home.
So recent developments? I'm still in the same job with the same employer and have signed on for another six months. I told myself that my second year would be my last and it was time to move on. However I've decided to study Chinese at university in an effort to get my Chinese to where I want it to be. Seeing as the town I live in has a university with a Chinese program it seems easier to stay in a job where they can work around my schedule and everything is already routine.
As for the choice to study at university, economically it seems better value for money than working with a private teacher at least by the hour. For some strange reason I have this conception that in order to get your Chinese accredited for work purposes you should have credits in it at a university somewhere. I'm sure you probably only have to take a proficiency test.
But for some reason I get this nagging feeling that if I ever get presented with an opportunity by a white employer who doesn't speak Chinese, who then asks 'Where did you learn Chinese?' my claims of self study to proficiency will amount to no more than 'I learned my Chinese from the streets YO.'
Nevertheless there could be a strong chance that I won't enjoy the university experience. Firstly from the few people I have known to study at university here. Most have enjoyed it but almost all have complained of clashing with Chinese educational culture and traditional language learning methods.
Most university courses in Chinese tend to focus on frequent testing as the motivator to keep students working hard. However this is usually paired with an intense workload of many many new words and characters each week. There is nothing wrong with working hard but the problem with introducing too many words each week is the next week you will have to learn many new ones and don't have the time to review the words you learned before. So it is all short time learning. You learn a lot of new words for the test and then forget them all in two weeks because you are busy cramming for the new test.
Either way it isn't a very intensive course. Only six hours a week. I'm sure the homework will be manageable and I'll still have time to study in my own way too.
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