On the Subject of Language

One common thing I see with many expats who are unhappy here is that they can't speak the local language well, and often they can't speak it at all. Upon arriving in Taipei, my Chinese was minuscule at best. I had taken Mandarin for a few months in Toronto, but that was four years ago and we didn't really get that far in the classes. Although I've managed to adjust and have learned to communicate very effectively with grunts and hand-gestures, I realize that long-term success here means that I need to learn the local language and, even if I don't become completely fluent, I need to be able to express myself and understand others at more than just a very basic level.

So for the past couple months, I've been studying Chinese. Instead of taking a class, I've opted for a private teacher in 1-on-1 lessons. This has worked out very well for me, because she can tweak the pacing of the lessons to go as fast or as slow as possible. She says I'm going very fast - in fact she says she talks about me to all her friends; she says how she has this new student who is learning so quickly and making such great progress. She also told me that my test scores (after every chapter we have to take a test) are highest amongst all her students.

While I'm happy to receive such praise, and I'm happy to be moving quickly (I'm almost halfway through the first textbook now, and hope to have it completely finished within the next fourteen or fifteen weeks), and I can see measurable progress whenever I talk to the locals here, I have to remember that I'm still a very beginner level and that only through regular habitual study can I continue to learn quickly.

So many times, I've met people who have lived or are living abroad, who say they regret that they never studied or didn't study as hard as they should have. But never once have I met someone who studied hard and said they regretted it later. 所以，現在我學中文。

PSもちろん、最近あまり日本語を話せない。「日本語を忘れてる？」と思ってる。ちょっと心配してるね！

Long Overdue Update

I've had a few e-mails, plus a recent comment, requesting that I update my sorely-neglected blog. Of course my first reaction is one of surprise (someone out there is actually reading this?) but anyway, I'll tell you about my life since moving to Taiwan.

How is Taiwan? Well, right now it's hot. Last Sunday the humidex (what it feels like when you include the humidity in the temperature) was 47C. I find that at the end of the day my shirt is a stinky disgusting thing filled with old sweat that I don't just take off, I peel off. The humidity is just as bad as Tokyo (if not slightly worse) and the temperature is hotter. It's going to be a long summer!

I've also felt two earthquakes since I arrived here. One happened last night around 2am and it literally woke me up. I wasn't really scared, but I woke up and felt my bed rocking, it was like I was a baby again and someone was rocking my cradle. I felt more uneasy after the event - although everything stopped shaking, it felt like the earth below me (I live on the thirteenth floor of a building) was unstable, and that made it hard to go back to sleep.

Aside from this life here is pretty good. I'm not sure if it's better or worse than Tokyo, but it's definitely different. Here are some good/bad points:

Apartment: In Tokyo my apartment was 5.5 tatami in size, and I had to share the showers, toilets, and living area with the other people in my building (there were 70 rooms in my building). And my rent was 72,500 yen per month (including utilities). In Taiwan my apartment is 20 pings (40 tatami) in size (yes, literally more than 7 times larger), and I don't have to share anything with anybody. My rent is 5,000 (about 15,000 yen) per month plus utilities. While I enjoy having my own living room and bathroom, and of course I enjoy the cheaper rent, I must confess I miss the sense of community we had in my building back in Tokyo.

Food: When I first arrived here, I missed Japanese food terribly. But now I've become used to eating Taiwanese food and honestly believe I would miss it very much if I moved out of Taiwan. While some Japanese food here is popular, such as sushi, ramen, shabu-shabu, tonkatsu, curry, etc. it's often not the same as Japan, they put their own Taiwanese twist on it. I've become used to eating out, because in Taiwan it's usually cheaper to eat at a restaurant than to cook for yourself. So I've become spoiled with all this good, inexpensive food at the local restaurants!

Work: In Japan I worked all over Tokyo seeing private students, and I worked 7 days a week, sometimes as late as 11pm, and sometimes as early as 6:30am. In Taipei I work Monday-Friday 8:30am-4:30pm (approximately - depends how quickly I finish marking everything). While I definitely enjoy the regular schedule and more free time, I also miss seeing different locations and talking to different people every day.

All in all, I've been very happy since moving to Taiwan, especially after I found my apartment here in Sanxia (a suburb of Taipei) and got settled and everything. Life here is not quite as exciting and dynamic as it was in Tokyo, but at the same time it's much less stressful because I have a steady paycheck, full health insurance and full legal status.

I will stay here at least three years, then decide if I want to go back to Tokyo or stay here in Taiwan.