Lugang, Taiwan

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The learning curve

When learning a foreign language, I'm certainly spoiled. I was educated in French from kindergarten (grade 0) through grade 10. The first six years of that education were in an immersion program. Half of a day of class was spoken and written entirely in French. My middle school years (grades 6-8) were at a bilingual school that tried to place multi-lingual teachers in common subjects, such as math and science. That's how I found out that the Belgian way of counting is different than French, but only in certain sets of 10 (70,80,90.) The confusion about what to call dinner is another interesting difference. Now, in Taiwan, I see that the playing field of language is even further mingled. The mainland Chinese way of saying 一 or 1 is pronounced differently in some cases than it is in Taiwan, but not in normal counting. I've even heard that 0 is pronounced differently. In Chinese, the number 二 (er4) or 2 is pronounced differently once you count above 100, or when you are a...
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Aboriginal Cultural Experience, if Nickelodeon was in charge.

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I'm very happy that there is a place and a way to examine one of the deepest historical aspects of Taiwan: the native tribes and their culture. Our friend Jack was kind enough to get all the details in order so that Cori, myself, Mattheus, Isabelle and Jack himself could all go to the Aboriginal Cultural Village.  After a long, soothing bus ride, and then a wobbly, car-sickness-inducing bus ride, we made it to the gates of the Village. Upon entering, we realized we'd accidentally gone to Versailles, so we got back on the plane and went back to Taiwan.  After getting to the ACTUAL park, we were all perplexed (as Cori is seen here smashing her hand into her head) as to why aliens had taken over the park.  There were spaceships everwhere.  The carnage was massive.  No one was safe from their armada. We ran to the nearest cave, hoping to hide out until we could formulate a plan. Regrettably, the cave was infested with dinosaurs. Who were not happy with us....
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I'm reminded of my childhood...

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In Taiwan, there's the official end of the new year (Chinese new year, that is) and its celebrated with a lot of fireworks, and attempts at seeing how many people can fit into a city bus. Its also known as Lantern Festival. From the questionable resource, wikipedia: "In ancient times, the lanterns were fairly simple, for only the emperor and noblemen had large ornate ones; in modern times, lanterns have been embellished with many complex designs. For example, lanterns are now often made in shapes of animals." We can now all be emperors. Along with all the bureaucratic nightmares that ensue. "The Lantern Festival is also known as the Little New Year since it marks the end of the series of celebrations starting from the Chinese New Year." As I was advised by our friend Jack, its the time after which you no longer say "新年快了" (happy new year, or for the literalists, new year happy.) Of note, it is still acceptable to be happy after this ti...
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