tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30350162772723352612011-12-16T08:48:13.922+08:00a twentysomething hua qiao returns to Taiwan for uncertain adventures in identity formation, Mandarin literacy and English teachingTBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.comBlogger1461100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-26173652259678716482011-12-16T08:06:00.001+08:002011-12-16T08:07:15.111+08:00

Really, journalists? You're making me reconsider the merits of censorship. Someone has to filter this nonsense. The latest idiocy from a major newspaper or magazine, this time from the lofty peak of white privilege: "If I Were A Poor Black Kid", Gene Marks The collective outrage: "A Muscular Empathy", Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Atlantic "If I Were a Middle Class White Guy Writing About Being a

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-66767503222841037832011-12-03T07:43:00.005+08:002011-12-03T08:50:34.562+08:00

For a newspaper unit, a colleague and I were doing an activity on advice columns - all the Dear Abby questions that cover family feuds, work rivals, etiquette and so forth. The students in our class are 18 year old Chinese students studying in the US, and we gave them several hypothetical questions - my friend is smoking pot, I can't find a job...the student response to this one about a cheating

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-87629515919884365702011-12-02T09:12:00.000+08:002011-12-02T09:12:29.360+08:00

Nothing at all to do with Taiwanese issues or English teaching, just because I like it. Currently making its inspiring way around the internet, this video is often captioned, ""Two Lesbians Raised A Baby And This Is What They Got," and made me cry a little happy tear.Thanks to Mootastrophe, who brought it to my attention via Facebook, giving me warm fuzzies and a much-needed respite from TOEFL

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-59077127109212939172011-11-21T10:29:00.001+08:002011-11-21T10:42:01.961+08:00

...and convinces no one he is a brilliant new Jonathan Swift. This is pretty hilarious, I think. Step 1: Write a nonsensical op-ed, manage to be published in NYT. Step 2: Earn the scorn of policy experts, scholars, the entire Internet. Have ideas mocked as so-idiotic-it-ought-to-be-satire. Step 3: Days later, claim to have written brilliant and provocative satire. Seeming idiocy was a clever

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-62157078534394044302011-11-13T02:25:00.018+08:002011-11-13T05:22:10.560+08:00

An op-ed silly enough to pull me from a recent blogging hiatus: To Save Our Economy, Ditch Taiwan by Paul Kane, who shows remarkable boldness and daring in discussing foreign policy AND economics when  he seems to understand very little about either. Upon first read, I thought it was some kind of Jonathan-Swift style satire, like suggesting we eat Irish babies. Stunningly, Kane (a former

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-45680715545262933672011-06-01T14:10:00.001+08:002011-06-01T14:11:14.804+08:00

Check out this interview with Esther Hou from Mootastrophe with Next Media Animation (the animated-news subsidiary of Hong Kong's Next Media, the people behind The Apple Daily. NMA is based in Taiwan and has gotten media attention for their creative, sometimes controversial animated renditions of the news (notably, Tiger Woods, Conan O'Brien, Steve Jobs as Darth Vader). Esther Hou interviews the

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-92122432661016770882011-05-30T21:00:00.001+08:002011-05-30T21:01:20.459+08:00

Pretty cute song and video from Taipei-based band Transition [前進樂團] called "對不起我的中文不好" (Sorry, My Chinese is Not Good). Fun! Check it out: A friend of mine has a less innocuous 睡覺/水餃 mix-up aimed at girls - "我想跟妳睡覺 - 喔, 對不起...跟妳吃水餃...我中文不好! " :P

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-48260325365378162482011-05-26T14:48:00.007+08:002011-05-30T21:01:43.588+08:00

Over a week ago, Republican senators filibustered Goodwin Liu's nomination as a federal judge on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, abandoning bipartisan promises about the importance of filling empty seats in the federal courts and denying him the chance for a straight up or down vote. This is particularly despicable because of the 2005 agreement to prioritize judicial confirmations as a national

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-18368052244041147082011-05-25T09:27:00.001+08:002011-05-27T00:28:24.941+08:00

Interesting Q & A from Forbes' Russell Flannery with China/Taiwan expert Stephen Yates: Stephen Yates On Taiwan’s Presidential Election, U.S. Arms Sales Yates gives a good analysis of the upcoming Taiwanese presidential elections and the matchup between current President Ma Ying-Jeou and DPP candidate Tsai Ying-Wen. I thought he was particularly insightful in explaining the closeness of the race

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-77944506931040343632011-05-10T15:19:00.001+08:002011-05-25T14:31:42.071+08:00

The Asian-American internet-world is getting pretty excited about this article in NY Mag: Paper Tigers. It is punishingly long, so if you haven't gotten riled about about it already, you might just give it a pass. I only have one thing to say: as an Asian-American woman who is NOT deeply bitter about my lack of play with white girls, I just couldn't seem to care about this.

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-39231337440426146972011-04-06T14:11:00.004+08:002011-04-08T11:35:14.766+08:00

I don't know why I still go to the CNN webpage - after I realized they think it's legitimate to select and publish comments from online readers as if they were real stories, they pretty much lost journalistic credibility with me. Because the conspiracy theories, pseudofacts, and grammatical errors of anybody with an internet connection does not make for news reporting. Now I just scan the

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-84126739293165161952011-03-25T15:35:00.009+08:002011-05-30T21:04:23.702+08:00

**This post was mysteriously lost and has been mysteriously restored. It's very late.** I've avoided commenting on the Alexandra Wallace debacle, mostly because it's become such a frenzy. The video, which I'll pass on linking (it's never going to die anyway), was ignorant and offensive, although the most startling part for me was that she taped it herself and posted it online. Really? And then

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-54670849468739445962011-03-24T13:43:00.000+08:002011-03-24T13:43:23.673+08:00

Just sharing a link from Angry Asian Man about a research survey being done by a Columbia University student on Taiwanese American immigrant families and acculturation/intergenerational conflict. The information provided by Angry Asian Man about the research:  ~~DESCRIPTION OF THE RESEARCH: You are invited to participate in a study about acculturation, intergenerational family conflict, and

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-86559349869216248442011-03-18T22:46:00.004+08:002011-03-18T23:46:59.243+08:00

I know it's been a while, but I wanted to share a couple things that have caught my attention lately. The first is from Taiwanese-American singer and songwriter Cynthia Lin, who has recorded a cover of the classic song "The Moon Represents My Heart" as a charity single for the relief and recovery effort in Japan following the earthquake and tsunami disaster in Japan. The link is here: http://

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-66311265258942130142011-02-18T17:51:00.004+08:002011-03-19T01:32:11.034+08:00

What does Christmas have to do with Lunar New Year? Oh, let me explain... Before I went to graduate school, I taught at an international language school in Boston -  mostly young twentysomethings from Japan, Korea, and Taiwan who had finished college and wanted to study English abroad. It was an illuminating experience and prepared me for the culture shock of moving back to Taiwan after graduate

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-32752024379370405742011-01-22T17:30:00.004+08:002011-01-27T00:52:33.019+08:00

Over the past week or two, there have been some thoughtful and considered responses to the WSJ's (deliberately provocative) excerpt of Amy Chua's memoir, Battle Hymn of a Tiger Mother. At the risk of pushing us all right into Amy-Chua-fatigue, here are some links to the ones that drew my attention: Taiwan & Taiwanese-American Blogs: shu flies: "Tiger Mom? More Like Bat Sh*t Crazy Mom!" Jamie

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-46523740600026591082011-01-12T00:25:00.021+08:002011-04-08T11:30:01.176+08:00

This Wall Street Journal article, "Why Chinese Mothers are Superior," has been getting a fair amount of attention on the internet the past few days, especially in the Asian American community. It was an excerpt from the book by Amy Chua, Yale Law professor, Chinese daughter, and proud Tiger Mother. Being a Tiger Mother means, among other things, calling your daughter "lazy, cowardly,

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-55082637366104779422011-01-04T14:53:00.008+08:002011-01-04T16:04:19.246+08:00

An excerpt from my fifth grader's persuasive essay, on the topic of "Parents Should Let Their Children Choose What They Want." I've left the original spelling/grammar. Her writing is especially expressive, and I thought her essay was pretty good, sharing the perspective of Taiwanese students toward traditional parenting, expectations and communication styles. Some of the old minds family will

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-53287838829781453202010-12-23T23:45:00.004+08:002010-12-26T20:53:44.161+08:00

Hi guys - my name's Laura and I'm TBA Girl :) When I first started this blog, I consciously tried to keep my name/identity kind of on the DL, at least partially because my eighty-year old Taiwanese grandma believes that writing about politics will get you blacklisted/murdered. And I like internet privacy as a general principle. But in the spirit of saying goodbye to DADT, I think it's time to

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-53144726378696507692010-12-12T23:43:00.004+08:002010-12-15T03:17:29.920+08:00

In my last post for this series, I wrote about the unpleasant but true reality of Asian-Americans/Canadians, etc having a harder time finding teaching jobs in Taiwan than white foreigners and suggested some of the ways to overcome or mitigate that prejudice. In this post, I'll try to address both the degree to which it will affect your job chances/salary/advancement opportunities and the reason

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-78031236609455816152010-11-29T23:50:00.003+08:002010-12-15T03:27:08.347+08:00

Wrote this a while back: post-dated upload because I've been so busy. ~~~ This past Saturday was election day in Taiwan, and marked the first time I've ever properly voted in anything. It felt a little strange that my first vote or ballot would be cast in Taiwan and not the United States - still having some kind of existential musing about what that means for identity and such. These elections

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-14513498208205117582010-11-15T23:45:00.004+08:002010-11-17T00:15:15.215+08:00

Question: Is it true that it's harder to get a job if I'm Asian-looking? How can I improve my chances? Simply put: yes. It is harder to get a job if you're of Asian descent. There's this idea that because English is a  Western language, western-looking people must be better at speaking and teaching it. Almost all the chain schools prefer to hire "foreigners," and some exclusively hire white

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-90392793132909798202010-11-11T13:57:00.009+08:002010-11-13T01:21:40.036+08:00

I receive a lot of emails and comments from other Asian-Americans (or Canadians, Australians, etc) who are interested in coming to Taiwan to teach English, study Chinese, put off the inevitable job search/acknowledgment of adulthood. Since the economy went south, there's been an influx of recent grads and other expats to Asia and even a preliminary search about opportunities will eventually touch

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-55845638484387004052010-10-13T13:48:00.006+08:002010-10-16T16:32:11.483+08:00

Last Friday at work I wore a loose-fitting dress, which led to the following exchange with my fifth-graders: Student: Teacher, today you look like 孕妇. Me: What's 孕妇? Student: You are grow baby inside! Other student: No, cannot. Teacher is not marry! Another student: Not marry can have baby, too. Me: *dies* Let's get out our homework now... But this line of conversation was not over, not by

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-78117530005249433812010-09-29T00:56:00.003+08:002010-10-16T11:57:43.836+08:00

I haven't posted very much lately, and I forgot to mark a few blog-occasions. - one year since I started  TBA (sometime in June) - one year since I came to Taiwan (late July) - hundred posts mark (way back in May, I think). It's already past all of these occasions, so now I'm just post-dating. Since this blog is now past 100 posts AND the one-year mark, here are some of the top commented/read

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-37119472881313257492010-09-07T00:02:00.002+08:002010-09-07T01:05:05.799+08:00

...I am deeply jealous of you because you have a day off and I can't have one unless there's a typhoon/deluge/etc. I only realized about a half hour ago that today is Labor Day, which shows how deeply immersed I am in Taiwanese work culture. I went back to work about two weeks ago and started my new buxiban manager responsibilities last week. I now have a work computer and a cubicle and can no

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-13876255268512314032010-09-03T00:00:00.007+08:002010-09-07T01:05:45.754+08:00

IOU a bottle of duty-free Grey Goose vodka to celebrate your adulthood/the continued awesomeness of you having your Ivy League education funded by the Jägermeister billionare. I remember when we had birthday parties that looked like this: I also remember that you used to watch Free Willy on VHS every single day during this time in our childhood, and it's good you've grown out of that.  Happy

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-46626044844573376282010-08-10T01:28:00.004+08:002010-08-10T23:39:56.652+08:00

Sharing this, because it made me laugh. Apparently, Portland, Oregon is full of anarchists (and probably also vegans, independent coffee shops, grunge kids with flannel plaid shirts tied around jeans torn from falling off their skateboards) and the anarchists are in an uprising because 1) that is what anarchists do and 2) the government was mean to a little girl selling lemonade. Here's the

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-16616310950804060522010-08-09T23:06:00.034+08:002010-08-10T13:49:15.140+08:00

On Saturday I went to Dr. Jerome Keating's breakfast club, this time held in conjunction with the Taipei Foreign Correspondent's Club. Will Tiao, producer/writer and actor in the film Formosa Betrayed, was there to speak at the breakfast. The movie had it's Taiwan opening on Friday night and has had a pretty successful reception so far. The breakfast event was good, with an obviously supportive

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-59708836847713065242010-07-29T22:23:00.002+08:002010-07-30T02:00:04.338+08:00

Excerpts from real-life cover letters. With annotations. "I have long been a proponent of education(1), being that proper enlightenment of the mind elucidates(2) one's character and drives one to examine the talents inherit(3) within each of us. Such examination leads us to question refinement of our qualities and methods to forge value to serve society and our fellow brethren(4). These deeply

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-86273453953030922512010-07-23T02:50:00.029+08:002010-07-27T02:29:14.725+08:00

Look at the birds. Even flying is born out of nothing. The first sky is inside you, open at either end of day. The work of wings was always freedom, fastening one heart to every falling thing. Li-Young Lee, "One Heart" This is just a test. I am making changes to the format to streamline future posting. But this involves going through old posts and manually excising useless bits of code from

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-72084261963111085812010-07-19T15:07:00.016+08:002010-07-25T23:59:25.335+08:00

Just saw and read this article from the Harvard Business Review on someone's Facebook and I thought it was interesting enough to share. Professor Christenson, who teaches business administration, shares his views on applying certain management principles to life rather than simply career. I appreciated the questions he posed: "First, how can I be sure that I’ll be happy in my career? Second,

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-30176315160987003722010-07-13T22:34:00.016+08:002010-07-23T02:13:32.766+08:00

Other fun at work: my student J's father works for the Taiwanese military and he tells me stories about going to Costco to buy things for the soldiers. I never had the impression that the ROC army was awesome or anything - after the end of martial law, the military never regained their former influence and has slowly declined in size, budget, everything. The mandatory military service time for

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-50967763793024275022010-07-06T18:52:00.012+08:002010-07-23T02:13:54.041+08:00

1. The first time I went to view the building: had scheduled five viewings that day and was getting all my appointments mixed up. Upon arriving, was unable to tell the security guard who I was here to see or what apartment they lived in or on what floor. I fumbled with my notebook and took a wild and totally wrong guess. Miss C-? Thankfully, Mr. H- (I was only off by gender, name, and apartment/

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-33829276959884374782010-07-04T14:08:00.004+08:002010-07-23T02:14:19.070+08:00

I moved to a new apartment today, with the help of my auntie (Mom's school friend type auntie, no actual relation. My related-by-blood aunties make me nervous.) and her husband. Two car trips across the bridge to Taipei city proper and I now have two homes, both in a state of unspeakable disarray. I'm not quite moved out of the old place, not quite moved into the new place. There is no

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-30908845177525493642010-06-29T01:24:00.006+08:002010-07-01T15:20:16.495+08:00

Update: mostly fixed. Took some creative cache browsing, and some comments are still irretrievable. Not everything seemed worth the time it took to recover.~~~I have somehow managed to delete all posts and comments from June, not sure how that happened. Currently looking into it. Has this happened to anyone else? Is it the new format or is it me? I suspect it's me.This will be a busy week so it

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-43523604025652296502010-06-28T22:06:00.022+08:002010-07-23T02:14:45.514+08:00

With ECFA being in the Taiwanese news lately, this blog has gotten a lot more hits from searches for "what's ECFA" and "ECFA protest." I feel vaguely embarrassed about this, because I only posted once in August 2009 about ECFA and political transparency - at the time, no one really understood what it entailed or how it was going to happen. I merely pointed out that I found some polling data

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-24039106587309400592010-06-16T02:54:00.005+08:002010-07-23T02:15:15.005+08:00

Came back on Sunday from a short trip southwards. I had been to Kaohsiung before, but this was my first visit to Tainan. Tainan is the historical capital of Taiwan, and is a mix of Dutch, Japanese and other foreign influences. I wish I had had more time to see the city, but it was fun to get a sense of the local color. Tainan feels a lot different than Taipei or Kaohsiung - still modern, but much

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-2507424047960824912010-06-04T00:58:00.019+08:002010-10-16T00:56:41.059+08:00

I'm still learning how to work video on the computer and I found facebook too confusing, so here goes. A glimpse of English teaching in Taiwan. This is my precocious little 8 year old Lothario, who found himself with two girlfriends, a "big one" and a "small one" - they both laid claim to his heart. Oh, puppy love. And if you're in Taiwan, you probably know about 夜市人生, the most amazing

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-1521319731340941572010-05-28T00:24:00.013+08:002010-07-23T02:27:49.193+08:00

In Korea, men frequently and casually wear pink/silver/interestingly patterned ascots with nifty sky-blue blazers and boat shoes, no socks. This is attractive and manly to women, and does not (as *I* would have guessed) lead to misunderstandings about their preferences. Or the century they live in. I came back from the US on the weekend and I've been slightly jetlagged all week. As a result,

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-41717992711996826982010-05-13T22:38:00.013+08:002010-07-29T23:49:52.186+08:00

Cabbed to the airport tonight. Made friends with my taxi driver. I really enjoy talking to taxi drivers in Taiwan. They have awesome Taiwanese Mandarin accents. They expound on Taiwanese politics. They offer hilarious, unsolicited business /personal /relationship /financial advice. It's one of my favorite things about Taiwan. I arrived at the airport, with time to kill. Things I do upon arriving

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-3120208810439075912010-05-08T15:51:00.003+08:002010-07-23T02:16:55.210+08:00

I'm doing two and a half weeks worth of laundry right now and it's like my closet threw up all over my room. Don't judge me, I've been really busy. And when you run out of clean shirts here, you can just buy one for 100NT. I think some of my unwashed clothes have formed clandestine attachments and begun to reproduce. They must be making little dirty-clothes-babies, because I don't remember

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-90475664453730454582010-05-07T10:15:00.001+08:002010-07-23T02:17:12.365+08:00

It's Asian Pacific American Heritage month (so the Internet informs me. Being in Taiwan, every month is Asian month. ) This week is Taiwanese-American Heritage Week, and there's a better list of events/activities stateside HERE at Taiwanese-American.org. I'm been sharing the promos and news for the film Formosa Betrayed since I first learned about it almost a year ago. It's an independently

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-83781218888000882232010-05-01T23:59:00.010+08:002010-07-23T02:17:52.199+08:00

For the past few years, May 1st (May Day) has been selected as the day that groups supporting progressive immigration reform will protest all over the country and encourage their elected officials to pass immigration reform that is fair, comprehensive, civil, and respectful in language and implication. This year, the focus is pretty obviously aimed at Arizona's recent, controversial bill which,

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-77537872035895220302010-04-30T11:43:00.009+08:002010-07-23T02:18:18.586+08:00

Three more conferences and we're done with parent-teacher conferences for the year! It's been an extra-busy week. I've been interviewing potential new hires for the fall so I make a lot of international phone calls at absurd hours. English teaching resumes are pretty hilarious sometimes. I wonder who hires some of these folks. On Wednesday I was at work at 8am to start making calls and didn't

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-64700487641732879512010-04-26T22:49:00.005+08:002010-07-23T02:18:53.080+08:00

This week is parent-teacher conference week at our school. I have fourteen meetings scheduled, also known as hours upon hours of unpaid overtime. The law of parent-teacher conferences is that the parents you want/need/really ought to talk to will never, ever come. They will suddenly disappear off the face of the earth. They will avoid your phone calls and pretend that close relatives have

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-86604179167954725602010-04-24T01:06:00.007+08:002010-04-24T01:15:39.392+08:00

Cool link from Michael Turton of View from Taiwan:Journal of Current Chinese AffairsAnd by "cool," I mean to only to people who enjoy reading scholarly articles on Taiwan studies and the whirling, chaotic storm that is cross-strait relations. I think it's cool?If policy isn't your geekdom, then google search "new iPhone found in bar" and read about that instead :)

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-50322652788507694122010-04-20T23:17:00.005+08:002011-04-06T21:54:29.002+08:00

Following up on the campaign to write-in "Taiwanese" on the 2010 US census, another link. A friend of mine sent me this link Why Aren't Taiwanese-Americans Ethnically Chinese? from Hyphen magazine. Or rather, an open thread via an online blog written for Hyphen magazine. I usually refrain from reading comments/threads/forums on the Internet, because it tends to make me hate on people and/or the

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-6646207601283342922010-04-07T03:00:00.002+08:002010-07-23T02:19:20.207+08:00

"Sometimes fate is like a small sandstorm that keeps changing directions. You change direction but the sandstorm chases you. You turn again, but the storm adjusts. Over and over you play this out, like some ominous dance with death just before dawn. Why? Because this storm isn't something that blew in from far away, something that has nothing to do with you. This storm is you. Something inside of

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-195260922160790492010-03-23T22:06:00.008+08:002010-07-23T02:19:33.482+08:00

Google Shuts China Site in Dispute Over Censorship Interesting. Apparently many young Chinese are distraught at the partial pull-out, which I take as a good sign. My impression of self-censorship in China hasn't been encouraging. I ran a workshop for an academic conference on Asia and international relations in grad school, and one of our scholars from the PRC gave a presentation on Chinese

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-86738850619953789592010-03-19T23:49:00.004+08:002010-07-23T02:19:57.830+08:00

Meant to put this up earlier, never got around to it...I've been a little distracted lately. April 1, 2010 is Census Day, and TACL plus most of the major Taiwanese-American orgs are pushing hard for more Taiwanese-Americans to get counted in the census. At present, only Chinese is on the form - so if you identify as Taiwanese-American, you should check "Other-Asian" and write-in "Taiwanese." The

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-58685521342177125962010-03-02T03:08:00.008+08:002010-07-23T02:20:12.861+08:00

I'm too nice to these kids. It's hard to discipline them when you're laughing hysterically. "I have a English teacher, she's a white people. She isn't very old, she's lazy of cooking, she like to go out and eat and eat. She likes to eat ice-cream. Sometimes she will go out to eat with her friend or go to her friend's house. She loves to eat bacon for breakfast. I think she needs to be on a diet.

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-80415404707950863972010-02-25T23:59:00.008+08:002010-07-23T02:20:41.115+08:00

I've posted a number of times over the past several months about Formosa Betrayed, the political thriller about Taiwan's martial-law era. And a lot of Google searches that are variants of "formosa betrayed taiwan will tiao" etc., lead here to my scattered musings about teaching English and the weather in Taiwan. (Sorry about that.) Formosa Betrayed movie poster When I first was introduced to the

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-37331282064829022962010-02-17T16:15:00.004+08:002010-05-08T14:56:45.729+08:00

Thought I'd share this internet radio station - it was introduced by a friend and I've been enjoying it for about a half hour now. I like it! Their mix of music is eclectic and interesting but still relaxing. I miss radio.Radio Paradise - DJ-mixed modern & classic rock, world, electronica, acoustic, and more - 100% commercial-freeIt's raining a lot.

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-40479060386875457232010-02-13T00:15:00.010+08:002010-07-23T02:20:57.958+08:00

Last night was my school's end-of-year employee dinner, called a 尾牙 (wei ya). I'd never been to one before, so I thought it would be an interesting new experience, even though we had to go in and teach early and attendance was not, in fact, optional. During class that day, I gave out CNY candy to all the students, and we had a spelling bee (they had never experienced one, and thought it was a

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-65996703942126836892010-02-06T01:04:00.008+08:002010-07-23T02:21:19.063+08:00

One of the other teachers asked me to come and speak to one of her students today. He's been having these inexplicably emotional reactions to any kind of reprimand - just breaks down and cries at the slightest correction. I talked to him for a while, but it was hard to get much out of him. I think there's complications at home, and the children here are taught to be very protective and

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-4090462187535382622010-02-04T23:41:00.009+08:002010-07-23T02:22:16.195+08:00

"This must be Thursday. I could never get the hang of Thursdays." This was one of those days when I can feel myself just putting time in at work, instead of being as focused or engaged as I'd like to be. And when I can feel my tiredness or crankiness affecting how I perform at work, it makes me feel: a) guilty and b) crankier. It's been a long week for some reason - and an extended one, with the

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-47669294007892182502010-01-20T00:21:00.001+08:002010-07-23T02:22:24.961+08:00

This is not specifically Taiwan-related, but it's been bouncing around the Asian-American internet community. If you're on Facebook (and who isn't?), you may have noticed the app Chase Community Giving lately - it's an app on FB that allows users to vote for their favorite charities to gain funding from Chase (as in the bank). One of the organizations competing for funding is the Center for the

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-31552701003033736612010-01-14T09:11:00.003+08:002010-07-23T02:22:39.045+08:00

A couple interesting links on Google's possible reconsideration/withdrawal from the Chinese market. Since launching google.cn, the company's liberalish leanings have been at odds with supporting censorship and limitation of free speech in China - recent hacking attempts aimed at American corporations as well as Chinese human rights activists have led to Google releasing a statement about their

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-68207977438586446472010-01-12T21:31:00.015+08:002010-07-23T02:22:46.056+08:00

8 degrees Celsius should feel like nothing when you grew up in 8 degrees Fahrenheit weather - but dang, I'm a frozen girl-sicle. No central heat! Really frigid floors! Rheumatism-inducing cold! I've been resisting buying a space heater, but that may change these few days. The cold hasn't really lasted more than a couple days, so far. It was so pretty this weekend - we went walking in the Da-an

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-14528735647996542372010-01-01T04:53:00.004+08:002010-01-04T00:52:06.780+08:00

First NYE in Taipei - went up a mountain, was slowly cured by barbecue smoke, crashed a house party, hung out in a car, played with sparklers in the street, watched the 101 fireworks, walked around what felt like most of Taipei City. Am now so sleepy that even the death-defying taxi ride home could not get my adrenaline going.I'm going to sleep now. Happy New Year to everyone! Hope 2010 is happy

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-14062382409174188742009-12-27T01:00:00.007+08:002010-07-23T02:29:26.156+08:00

Dinner and resolution setting with friends tonight - it was a productive and thoughtful evening, and a reflective end to a pretty full Christmas weekend. It's been an eventful year, lots of changes and choices. Last December feels like a long, long time ago. I had classmates, friends, family and church all in one weekend - some good talks about the coming year, and what we want to pursue or

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-89656603839141702652009-12-24T01:54:00.002+08:002009-12-31T01:59:51.351+08:00

I've been too busy to post much - despite lots of things going on in Taiwan what with ECFA and protests and cross-strait talks and all that - the holidays have been pretty busy. I thought it would feel strange to spend Christmas abroad, but it's actually been pretty good so far. Hot pot instead of turkey and ginger sweet potato soup instead of cider - not bad! Also, I don't miss snow AT ALL.So -

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-11084843411908474162009-12-17T01:32:00.001+08:002009-12-17T02:31:18.389+08:00

A friend of mine who is a CBC is looking for an English-teaching position in Taipei - would anyone out there happen to have any suggestions/information on schools more open or willing to hire Asian-American/Canadian teachers? My school is great about it, but we don't have any openings, so I thought I'd throw the question out to the internet ether and English teaching/expat community. If any of

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-78436727484070467342009-12-15T22:32:00.010+08:002010-07-23T02:30:01.269+08:00

The assignment: descriptive writing My not-so-bright idea/example: describe your teacher The mixed results: "Teacher is funny." (especially when I sneeze. This amuses them no end.) "Teacher's hair is so messy." "Teacher eats a lot." "Teacher's angry is very scary." "Teacher is big-eyes girl." "Teacher now is thin, but soon will be very fat because eat too much shaved ice and french fries." "

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-23523591013084706122009-12-13T23:52:00.003+08:002010-07-23T02:30:44.111+08:00

I've been really busy lately, and haven't found time to post much. The 10th of December was the thirtieth anniversary of the Kaohsiung Incident, also known as the Formosa Incident - also briefly covered here. Some good coverage of how the anniversary was noted and analysis here, here and here. I've been thinking lately a lot about the costs and benefits of keeping our political history in mind -

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-3545020300186474882009-12-07T23:06:00.009+08:002010-07-23T02:31:03.274+08:00

I didn't follow the local elections too closely, I'm technically a Da-an resident, and Taipei wasn't included. I went to my grandparents' on Saturday afternoon though and watched some of the news coverage with my aunt. The DPP made moderate gains, nothing particularly surprising. Even though there's some analysis/spin on the results being a referendum on Ma, it's probably more fair to say that

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-33502930166720583802009-12-03T23:14:00.004+08:002010-07-24T03:19:23.662+08:00

I came back from the US on Sunday, after a pretty brutal flight. But at least it was EVA, which has prettier attendants than United. And slightly better (though still totally sucky) food. Started the new quarter of MTC classes at Shida yesterday - a lot of the same people from last class, which is cool. And our new teacher is kind of hilarious, but intense. She makes me think of the tiny yelling

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-53612445730620877452009-11-29T15:25:00.006+08:002009-11-29T15:58:23.801+08:00

Back in Taiwan after an all-too-short trip back to the US for Thanksgiving and various daughterly duties. Returned far, far too early in the morning and now I'm trying really hard to stay awake. For the past ten days, I've been jetlagged, without internet access, and also much too busy for someone who was supposedly on vacation - thus, no updates. When I'm less jetlagged, I'll edit and put up

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-74853441579662163982009-11-24T21:00:00.003+08:002010-07-23T02:32:16.942+08:00

The first things I did when I got here (aside from sleeping for about nine hours): 1. Drove my car. I missed driving a lot. 2. Drove it to Barnes and Nobles to browse for two hours and just bask in all the English. 3. Went to Chipotle for a fajita the size of my face. I've missed bookstores a lot in Taiwan - I know Eslite is supposed to be some kind of pinnacle of consumer satisfaction, but I

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-84137350646622830552009-11-17T20:38:00.010+08:002010-07-23T02:32:30.970+08:00

Today I had nine meetings which took almost five hours. And taught two classes, which meant I had to go to work so early they hadn't unlocked the door yet. By the last meeting, I was too tired to think straight and am currently rummaging my exhausted memory to see if I said anything undiplomatic. Also, my laoban had warned me about this particular mom, because she is, apparently, total crazy

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-89546253865502557252009-11-16T21:25:00.007+08:002010-07-23T02:33:02.350+08:00

I was sick all last week and didn't feel up to writing anything coherent. Barely made it through work and definitely didn't make it to class (my once steely ethic work ethic is disintegrating in an alarming fashion). I went to the doctor's early on, just to make sure I didn't have the piggy flu - and I didn't, although it was a pretty good dupe, as random viruses go. I hate getting sick, it's

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-87904301050609528202009-11-09T22:46:00.001+08:002009-11-10T11:09:12.457+08:00

Ten days left until I go home. I think I'm getting sick again. I missed class today because I woke up a bit feverish and sore-throat-ish, decided to stay in bed for the morning to head it off. All the teachers at my school are feeling a little under the weather, I guess all the vitamins in the world aren't protection against our adorable little bundles of contagion.I should finish my Chinese

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-64649492675641819592009-11-07T02:54:00.004+08:002010-07-23T02:33:38.029+08:00

I was shocked to realize that I had forgotten it was election time in the US until a friend of mine sent me a message about the results in the Virginia gubernatorial campaign. I spent a lot of time campaigning and registering voters in the 2004 election and was involved in activism on a number of issues - I can't believe I didn't pay much attention to VA trending back to red, much less forget

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-47186476397452812022009-11-05T22:00:00.011+08:002010-07-23T02:34:25.356+08:00

Felt some tremors during my second teaching block today, apparently from a medium-sized earthquake in Central Taiwan. The students were writing in the journals and I was painstakingly refilling my dry erase marker with ink (recycling is nice in theory, but kind of a hassle). Just as I was finishing, the table started to move. I was all ready to warn whoever did it not to fidget anymore, when the

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-25988048241067717192009-11-03T14:13:00.002+08:002010-07-23T02:35:15.638+08:00

Lots of interesting reactions after the news came out that Taiwan was going to lift it's restrictions on American beef imports. For a country that manages to be pretty blase about all kinds of insults and injuries (grift, vote-buying, being secretly American, whatever) people here take their beef very seriously. I've heard family members, colleagues, students and local friends all express their

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-70738786675746340792009-11-01T14:55:00.005+08:002010-07-23T02:35:39.772+08:00

Halloween was exhausting, but fun. On Friday, the day before Halloween, my school had a party for our students at the park next to the school and it was basically nonstop chaos for over seven hours straight. A lot of parents came (I have strong feelings about Taiwanese parents) and a lot of little siblings were there to join the fun. The teachers all wore costumes (well, I wore a hat and a black

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-62067034196764862222009-10-30T03:04:00.000+08:002009-10-30T03:32:20.894+08:00

I kept meaning to keep an eye out for this ongoing series of online/televised lectures by Professor Michael Sandel, but it slipped my mind until someone's FB post reminded me. "Justice" is an extremely popular course, and now the lectures are available for free online and on television through the extension school and WBGH.The link is here: http://justiceharvard.orgI read Public Philosophy in

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-43214875453332859802009-10-28T20:33:00.015+08:002010-07-24T03:21:38.736+08:00

Shocking (well, in the insulated world of my buxiban) news - our mystery vandal has been discovered after the boss man spent many an hour staring at videotape (and hopefully fast-forwarding through all the times my students sucker me into playing a game or giving them part of my lunch or letting them write slightly less homework.) They pegged me for a soft touch pretty quick, the devious little

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-17760451233074791892009-10-26T23:45:00.019+08:002010-07-24T03:23:36.688+08:00

Result! A-Ma finally let me take the A-bian mug home, although it came with repeated warnings not to use it until I'm back in the US because I might be seen (and apparently Taiwan is still a police state). I am, it should be fairly apparent, completely and immediately disobeying this warning. Sorry, grandma - I am willful and American and not afraid of the government. I went back to Taipei this

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-36799931901553293612009-10-25T11:23:00.014+08:002009-10-25T16:11:07.340+08:00

Update! Confirmed.Thanks to HoChie from taiwaneseamerican.org! Here's the press release about Formosa Betrayed being picked up for distribution.Screen Media Films Picks Up Formosa BetrayedImportant Bits:"Screen Media Films has picked up worldwide rights to Formosa Betrayed, a political thriller set in the 1980s, which made its international debut at the Montreal World Film Festival...Formosa

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-32722931059728617852009-10-22T01:50:00.004+08:002010-07-24T03:27:32.026+08:00

I'm taking a break from my Chinese homework, so in the spirit of procrastination: an extra post on random purchases and random racist gift with purchases. My room is pretty minimalist - I don't like clutter, and I don't see the point of collecting a lot of belongings I'll have to sort out when I leave. I only buy things when I discover I need them - I own two bowls and three cups and one bento

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-60928654604298212472009-10-21T20:07:00.004+08:002010-07-24T03:26:33.593+08:00

Two thirds into the first quarter of studying Chinese, but our themed literacy focused lessons have not improved my reading of frequent or daily usage words. (I can read and write all about Renting a House, Talking on the Phone, Methods of Transportation and Going to the Post Office, interesting things like that.) But my practical literacy is not quite there. Case in point: I have now twice

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-14806207619145501902009-10-18T20:25:00.023+08:002010-07-24T03:26:02.261+08:00

A little scattered today. I had a busy week, a busy weekend and a lot of conversations that made me thoughtful. One of my students is out with H1N1, so one of my classes was canceled for two days. All the students are wearing face masks now, which I don't have a lot of confidence in. I really don't have time to get H1N1, thanks. So far, clean bill of health. Some other weird things going on at

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-30180337399829311222009-10-16T02:01:00.018+08:002010-07-24T03:27:09.452+08:00

Haven't been posting lately, partly because I'm busy and partly because my thoughts are disorderly and I'm dissatisfied with them. I meant to put something up about National Day and a number of other things. There's been a lot going on in Taiwan - CSB's case went up the Supreme Court, was remanded to the High Court, was unsurprisingly upheld once again in the High Court, yadda yadda...then he

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-92228730661970539912009-10-08T23:59:00.008+08:002009-10-10T03:01:17.239+08:00

Some news from earlier today:Taiwan Supreme Court orders reconsideration of Chen's custodyInteresting. The Supreme Court instructed the High Court to reconsider their ruling of extended detention, dismissing the fairly absurd notion that Chen is a flight risk, as well as reprimanding the lower court for failing to justify the continued detention. The case is being remanded to the High Court,

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-68037140726961500832009-10-06T21:11:00.006+08:002009-10-06T23:40:11.527+08:00

I'm not as up to date on US news lately, it mostly seems to be about healthcare and Letterman and how much of a jerk that guy from the show with the dozen half-Asian babies is - nothing I'm particularly interested in.I get a lot of my American news by way of Asia now, but I'll look for domestic coverage to get a better sense of thing at home. Like this Washington Post article about how the White

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-89172607759808871132009-10-05T23:59:00.005+08:002010-08-07T13:12:32.511+08:00

ABC Radio Australia interview with Will Tiao, Gina Mao and Echo Lin (actor/producer, investor, and producer of the film Formosa Betrayed). Pretty interesting. Link is here. There should be audio as well accessible on the site. I liked Will's pithy intro: "With this film, we're hoping to bring awareness of Taiwan's struggle for democracy, and so that the world can kind of know what it took for

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-54223284803476286292009-10-04T21:16:00.007+08:002009-10-06T01:03:19.624+08:00

How did I not feel the 6.3 earthquake last night? I was still up reading when it happened, but I didn't notice anything at all. Maybe because I only live on the third floor? Of course, I'm not known for being particularly observant, and the term "space cadet" has been bandied about in the past.In other exciting natural phenomena news, Typhoon Parma is headed our way and no one seems to be able

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-33645015496953659382009-10-02T21:18:00.018+08:002009-10-03T01:54:57.653+08:00

"When I Grow Up, I Will Be a Great Sinner"This was the title of my student's homework assignment - context clues led me to conclude that she, in fact, wants to be a great operatic soprano in the future, and not an especially skillful committer of sins. Engrish makes me happy, especially when there's variations on a hilarious theme: "I love to sin, and I am good at it. Sinning makes me happy. I

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-22480242756391297542009-10-01T02:23:00.001+08:002009-10-02T12:37:27.015+08:00

One of the things I like best about teaching kids is not having to deal with too many people. By this I mean proper grown-up people, of course. Other than the occasional crazy parent (all right, in Taiwan it is somewhat more frequent than occasional), my work environment doesn't really include anyone over the age of twelve. I see my boss and the other teachers, of course, but for the most part

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-69317582174428183012009-09-30T11:56:00.008+08:002009-10-01T20:30:08.075+08:00

Tomorrow, Thursday October 1st (PRC's National Day), there will be simultaneous screenings across Taiwan of the film "10 Conditions of Love," the documentary on Uighur activist Rebiya Kadeer. More information, with English translation for locations, is at Taiwan Matters! She has recently been denied an ROC visa, based on vague "connections to terrorist organization" - though the only

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-19521273117996139812009-09-29T20:18:00.043+08:002009-10-04T10:47:14.070+08:00

I forgot to mention the part of my recent visit back to the family house that made me the most incredulous / touched to the depths of my unfilial American heart. I was watching a Taiwanese soap opera with my youngest aunt and the whole time she was using a knife to peel some pomelos, presumably to eat, or I figured for my grandpa. But when I was headed out, she handed me a bag with three

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-65506553945886702562009-09-28T23:36:00.015+08:002009-09-29T03:42:27.488+08:00

My students see it as their personal mission to educate me about Taiwanese culture, whether that means trying to teach me the "Sorry Sorry" dance (although it's Korean) or giving me advice on where to buy beef noodle soup or explaining holidays and festivals to their clueless American teacher.Today was Teacher's Day and I was given a few drawings with Happy Teacher's Day thoughtfully presented in

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-26686823292049361462009-09-26T12:21:00.010+08:002009-09-26T23:24:30.541+08:00

We met a great Taiwanese taxi driver last night. I had some people over and we called a cab when we were ready to head out. When we got in the taxi, the driver immediately began to bemoan the difficulty of finding us. Fair enough, as the roads here in Yonghe are the product of either random chance or a twisted and byzantine mind.We made some kind of half-apologetic response (although, I didn't

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-72613734534246074662009-09-22T01:41:00.006+08:002009-09-26T13:03:19.959+08:00

Writing Chinese characters over and over and over. It's a wonder to me we managed to have any kind of literary culture at all, it's so exhausting to be literate in Chinese.This is what my homework looks like:About three or four pages of 20 x 20 rows of words per night...No wonder my students are such little bundles of anxiety, is this what it's like to go to school in Taiwan? Glad I took a pass

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-16913493082899707282009-09-18T20:09:00.015+08:002009-09-25T14:07:34.057+08:00

Culture shock. Today I sent a student down to the head teacher to be disciplined for the first time - only to discover that "discipline" meant yanking him by the collar and pulling him outside to have some type of incredibly angry lecture (I did not see the details, only the startling result) until he comes back to my classroom all shaken and pale to make a tearful apology in between sobs and

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-77639546024812594212009-09-14T13:55:00.010+08:002009-09-22T21:58:13.155+08:00

The most frequent search keywords that lead to this blog are some variant of "formosa betrayed movie" or "formosa foundation." (Which I find encouraging, since the ABT Mei Mei has suggested that any increase in views is "probably weirdos looking up blogs belonging to asian girls.")At any rate, here's some information on the congressional screening of the movie Formosa Betrayed going on today (9/

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-56044759001914386912009-09-04T21:55:00.026+08:002009-09-22T00:46:19.536+08:00

Today marked the end of my first teaching week - I've been out of the classroom for over a year, and I haven't taught children since 2007. I've got first and fourth graders now, and they're hilarious/adorable/exhausting. Especially the first graders, who seem to find me fascinating, because I am a foreign English teacher and yet I look like them (also, they can't whisper things they shouldn't in

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3035016277272335261.post-31148781750225556702009-08-30T22:46:00.028+08:002009-09-22T01:14:46.494+08:00

Who can separate his faith from his actions,or his belief from his occupations? Who can spread his hours before him, saying,"This for God and this for myself; This for my soul, and this other for my body?"And he to whom worshipping is a window,to open but also to shut, has not yet visited the house of his soulwhose windows are from dawn to dawn. [Gibran]Thoughtful day today - had a visit with two

TBA Girlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16157817912525398591noreply@blogger.com6