Trapped

As mentioned before in my previous blog post, recently I've been considering going back to Australia. Yesterday I found out that I'll be taxed 18% until May, and with few hours and such little income I'm really beginning to doubt why I should be here at all. A few of my fellow trainees have also begun making their way back home after only three months.

But when I sat down and worked it all out, I discovered that I can't actually afford to go back. For one I borrowed money from my branch to pay the deposit on my apartment, which has to be payed back, and I will also be charged 20,000 NT for breaking my contract. (But I can make a run for it.) There's also the cost of plane tickets, and the lost deposit on my apartment. To top it all off I don't have any job to go back to in Australia, so if I decided to leave I'll be digging myself into a financial hole.

So to sum it all up, I'm trapped in Taiwan.

If I have any hope of getting out I'll most probably have to stay and work for another few months. As much as I dislike it I haven't got much of a choice. During training I was told that feelings such as wanting to leave could be attributed to culture shock. I thought this was quit hilarious. Don't worry if you job is crap, the pay is little, you don't like the country and you want to go home, this is just culture shock.

I guess the best thing to do is try to make the most of this situation by working hard at my job, picking up more hours, and practising more Chinese. There really isn't anything else that I can do at this stage.

Thoughts about Running Away

Recently president Obama has finally made the trip to Australia. This means that Australia is finally on the news and I can get up to speed on what's going on back home.
Apparently the Australian economy has been doing great recently, which leads me to question why the hell am I here? I work very little, my pay in crap, and so far I've saved nothing. If by chance I manage to save anything, it will be worthless back home, and will probably only be the equivalent of a plane ticket.

That's why I've been thinking run Cathryn, run far far away, back to Australia.

Of course there are a few advantages to staying. I can practice Chinese, hang out in a big city, nobody back home ever has to know about the things that I get up too. If I just ride it out for another three months I will have paid off my loan, and hopefully they'll finally give me a pay rise.

But I can't shake the feeling that I'm wasting my life away working for this company. By the time my contract finishes I'll be a year older. That's a whole year that I could have done something more meaningful with my life. In my current job the conditions are pretty crap. I don't have paid holidays, paid sick leave, or any paid time off at all. I also have training and meetings that I'm forced to attend in my free time, that I don't get anything for.  It's not just my job, these are pretty universal conditions throughout Taiwan. It's even worse for the average Taiwanese worker.

If I went back to Australia, the conditions would be great, the pay would be great. Everyone speaks English, which is also great. Sure the public transport is crap and everything is so much more expensive, but I would finally have more money.

But it's also embarrassing to return home after making a big deal about leaving. Everyone always talks behind your back and asks questions such as: why are they back, did something happen? Couldn't they take it? Did they get homesick?

Of course it's not really possible to go back now due to my lack of funds. But that doesn't stop me from job searching. Ha ha ha ha. Taiwan, I will escape you yet!

Guide on Escaping To Japan

Teaching English in Japan.

So Taiwan has finally broke you. You can't take the food, the people, the risk of death by scooter. The easy option would be to pack up and head home. But if you're running away from a dark and mysterious past, that might not always be an option. Maybe you want to continue your Asian adventure, just not in this country. So where else is there to go? Believe it or not Japan is quite close. You might be a fan of cool street fashion, or a closet Pokemon fan, so you're quite up for escaping to the land of the rising sun. I am also contemplating making a run for it, therefore I've made this guide out of all my investigations over the past few weeks.

The first thing you must consider is whether or not Japan is really for you. It is a cool place, so I recommend a visit, but staying for a year or more is a different story. Sure the streets are clean, everything is well organised, and the people are very polite, but you are heading into a culture which is completely different from your own. Taiwanese people are generally quite friendly who will try and invite you around for dinner. Japanese people are a bit more closed off, which makes breaking into a friendship group hard, especially if your a foreigner. You're eternally an outsider. The Japanese are very polite, but this can also come off a bit cold. If you live in a bit city navigating around in English isn't too hard, but if you're out in the countryside knowing some Japanese is essential.

The Japanese are also very organised, which is great because they'll have ever thing organised months in advance. Unlike Hess Taiwan, which wouldn't even tell me where I was going to work until a week after I got there. (God Damn you Hess!!!) But they can be more uptight compared to the Taiwanese. Especially about garbage. Make sure you sort your garbage correctly. The Japanese are also a lot more formal, and they might expect you to wear a suit to work at an English school.

Also despite Japan paying you more than Taiwan THE COST OF LIVING IS MORE EXPENSIVE!! Possibly 4x more. All those dirt cheap Subway trips around Taipei that you think nothing of, will dig a hole in your pocket in Japan.

For the sake of comparing different schools I made this niffy table here. I can't guarantee that all the information is correct, so it's best to check the website yourself. The best deal is JET, but they might place you in a rural area where you may become the village foreigner. Aeon and Amnity are probably the next best thing. But they both seem very corporate. Most companies like JET, Aeon, Amnity, and ECC, do most of their requiting overseas in your home country, so it can be quite difficult to land a job straight from Taiwan. Some school will do a Skype interview, and you can always try to attend an interview in Japan.

A comparison of different Schools in Japan.

School	Location	Job Type	Hours a week	Contract	Salary	Housing	Free airfare	Commute covered	Vacation
Aeon	All over	English Instructor	38	1 year	270000	You Pay 55,000 max	No	1.5k>	3x1 week 5 paid days
Aeon Amnity	All over	Kids English instructor	40	1 year	285,000	You Pay 42,000 max	No	1.5k>	3x1 week 5 paid days
Interac	All over	School ALT		1 year	200,000 - 260,000	No	No	Can provide Car	School Vacations 60% pay
Shane English	Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka, Kobe and Fukuoka	English Instructor	40	1 Year	250,000 -        270,000	No	No	reimbursed	Christmas New Year Golden Week Summer
ECC	Tokyo Nagoya Osaka	English Instructor	29.5	Work till March 31st	252,000	Doesn't say	No	reimbursed	7 weeks
JET	Mostly Rural Areas	School ALT	35	1 Year	300,000	Yes	no	Can provide a car.	10 days paid leave
Heart  English School	Tokyo and Nearby Areas	School ALT		1 Year	230,000	No	No		School Vacations
Winbe	All over	English Instructor	40	1 Year	250,000	No	No	Reimbursed	5 weeks
Atila  Central	Central Japan	School ALT	25 classes	1 Year	240,000 ~ 255,000	No	No	Can Provide  Car	Summer and Winter Vacation Paid

Another useful website is Gaijin Pot. I've had limited success with this one so far, and most of the jobs already require you to be in Japan with a working Visa. But it does have a lot of useful information about living in Japan. 

Another online newsletter which provides many job adverts is O-hayo Sensei. You can subscribe and they'll email you job adverts twice a month, but the website it pretty ancient looking.

There are also a lot over overseas recruiting websites which can also get you a job in Japan. Such as Footprints Recruiting and  Teach Away.

However you go about it, I hope that this small guide aids you in your escape to Japan.

The Children have Infected me!

It's probably worth warning you that if you're going to teach Kindergarten, you will inevitably get sick a lot. Currently I'm down with some strange illness that makes all my muscles  hurt and sucks away the will to move. Although these are the usual symptoms of spending too much time with children, I also have a cough, so I'm assuming it's the flu.

There is only one thing to blame..The children

This week about half my class was sick. It's given me something to talk about in sharing time when I'll ask, Ok who is sick to today? To which half my class will begin to make exaggerated coughing noises. Their parents need to work, so even if the child is coughing with a fever, they'll just stick a mask on them and send them off to Kindergarten. This inevitable leads to the rest of them getting sick, and then me.

I taught the kids to say sanitiser. I thought it was too hard to understand, but I added a chant and now they know it. Now I just yell it from the hallway on the way back from the bathroom, and the kid up the front will spray the rest. I thought that would save me from their childhood illnesses but apparently not.

I often consider not going to work, but I have my classes well trained to be a bit more student centric so it makes my life easier, and I don't need to move around as much. I also only have a 10 minute commute, so I don't have to walk very far,

I don't want this to be a rant about how sick I feel, but it's my experience.I don't want you to to go into a kindergarten job without knowing the risk of catching some strange Asian illness. It's moments like this that I think. Damn I didn't even sign up for kindergarten, they switched my contract with someone else at the last moment without even telling me.
Of course kindergarten makes it easier to get teaching hours, but not if I have to take so many sick days.

Learning Chinese on Youtube

Recently I was told about this guy Mike here who does lessons on YouTube. I've been watching them for a few days now, and I can personally say that they seem very good for improving you Mandarin skills.

Here is lesson one.





His entire playlist of Mandarin lessons can be found here


http://www.youtube.com/user/Glossika#grid/user/E908A5765B385B99

He doesn't do any Chinese characters, so it's only good for speaking and listening, but at the same time you can just play them in the background without having to watch. I was thinking that it might even be worth converting them to MP3, and playing them on your Ipod.

He also does work of minority languages such as Taiwanese and Hakka, so if you were thinking of learning some Taiwanese you can also check that lesson out.

After School Care, Anxin-ban

Back in Australia we used to have something known as after school care, where children can go after school and hang out while they wait for their parents to come pick them up from work. The Taiwanese also have a form of after school care, also known as Anxin-ban, which really just resembles more school.

My cram school has classrooms above where I teach, which are used as Anxin-ban before and after class. The Taiwanese work until pretty late, so some of these children don't go home until 9pm. The kids are given dinner, and someone will watch over them while they study (because 1st graders apparently need to study you see) I didn't know about this until recently, because whenever I walked past I always thought that they were just doing more class.

I feel like I've discovered the answer to all my problems in regards to homework.

To be honest I don't really care if the children don't do their homework. I can get the Chinese teacher to tell their parents, but after that if they don't do it, it's no issue of mine. If they don't know the grammar and they fail that's their problem.

Or so I thought.

I discovered after the first month of teaching that I have to write giant long progress reports about everyone of my students at the cram school, and part of this report is an average of all their homework scores. I thought OK, fair enough, I'll just average up what they have so far. But no, apparently I can't do that. In order to write the homework average I apparently have to add up every homework that they have been given, blank spaces on the green sheet are a no-no.

Which inevitably means that I have to make them do their homework, and if they don't, I have to follow up on them and make sure they do.
At first I made them stay back after class until they finished it. This was really tiring on my part because I was working for nothing, and it can be a real battle to try and make these children do work. I even had one student who repeatably refused to do his homework no matter how much I threatened or bribed him.

Then one of the teachers I work with advised that I take them up to Anxin-ban and tell the teachers there what they have to do.

I've discovered that this is actually really amazing. Whenever one of the kids don't do their homework I now accompany them upstairs and tell the teacher watching them what they have to do. I don't know how they do it, but the kids then hand in their completed homework the following lesson, and I can go home on time.

Maybe walking in with your English teacher looks bad. The supervisor will always look disappointed and  say "Oh no not again," to the kid. Yesterday I had to follow up on a kid and the supervisor really chewed into her in Chinese. "Why didn't you write this! why is it blank!" It's so awesome because it makes my job so much easier.

Talking about my class, classroom relations in my class of 1st graders has taken a turn for the worst recently. Being kids they occasionally have issues, and yesterday they were really ripping into each other. There was fighting. They were yelling things at each other such as "Go away! and you are boo!" Given how childish it is I think it's a bit funny, but I don't want my class to be a bad environment for the children. After class one kid was even yelling "I hate you!" in Chinese. It's sometimes hard to work out what's going on with these kids, because they do it while my back is turned. When they're really upset they won't talk to me in English.

Hopefully they'll have all forgotten about it by Friday.

International House of Taipei 台北國際學舍

If you're thinking of studying Chinese in Taipei for less than one year, you will quickly discover that most universities don't offer accommodation to students who are only staying for a few months. You could rent an apartment, but most leases are one year or six months, so you will loose deposit money. You can always just live out of a hotel or hostel, but if you're on a budget why not give International House of Taipei a go.

Located in scenic, Xindian International House of Taipei (Or IHouse) is catered for students who are studying in Taipei for the short term. It may be a little far from Taipei, but they provide a shuffle bus in the morning for 15NT, which will take you directly to most mandarin training schools. It took about 15min to get to NTNU. Unfortunately you have to find your own way home on the bus and subway. The shuttle bus also doesn't run past 9am, so you will have to catch a bus down the hill, then transfer to the subway if you want to go to Taipei. This can sometimes be a bit inconvenient.

I thought it was good for short term study because I payed rent by the month, and it gave me the opportunity to meet many other students. There usually aren't a lot of western students staying here. Most of the occupants seem to be either Japanese or Korean, but it does give you a good opportunity to practice your Chinese. A lot of the staff also speak English, so if you have an problems in life you can always consult them.

My room was 8600NT , then it was an additional 400 a month for Internet, and another 400 a month to hire a fridge. You can also hire a TV for 400, but they have a few common one's scattered all over the place. The bathroom was at the end of the hall, and it was cleaned every day. It fine except for summer when strange insects started floating in an dying all over the sinks. They also have singles and shared rooms, with and without bathrooms. If you want more details about the rooms it's best to email them at this address.  ih102@ms16.hinet.net

I was lucky to have a room facing Taipei, and the view was really amazing, especially at night. 

Here are some pictures of my room. I miss having a balcony.

The also had a  website, but I think it's closed now.

The website also claimed that they have a restaurant, but it doesn't anymore. All that is left is a big room which they use to store furniture. But they do have a lunchbox ordering service, where they will order lunch and dinner for you, and there is an instant noodle vending machine. The closest store is a small Wellcome supermarket up the road, but if you want to go out and eat you have to catch a bus down to Xindian or Qizhang.

The greatest thing about Qizhang is Carrefour, and the bus from IHouse will take you pretty close. It's pretty much an all stop shop for anything. If you ever have to buy anything it can be found at Carrefour.

The one problem I had with the place were the thin walls. I could hear people talking in their rooms when I was attempting to go to sleep. I was also stuck in a hall full of noisy Koreans, and I even began to dream in Korean even though I don't understand one word. Many of my friends also complained about the distance from Taipei. It's also on a small mountain, so it can be a bit tough if you haven't grown up around hills. I grew up in rural Australia so to me it wasn't that bad. It was very inconvenient getting home late at night though.The The bus up the hill become more infrequent past 10pm, and then it stops at 11pm. So after that you either have to walk or get a taxi.

I used to walk home up the hill in heels, at night, with strange wild dogs watching me. It's not something that I would advise to anyone. Especially when your a young western woman all on your own. I would have at least three cars or scooters stop every time and try and offer me a lift. In the end I gave up and started taking a taxi. It only cost about 90NT-ish from Xindian City office station.

Hao-lo Harssment

One thing that I've learned to hate through my three years in Asia is random people stopping me on the street to say "hello". I understand that this sounds a bit cold and all. I was OK with it, maybe the first 100 times. But after three years I now internally cringe every time I hear the familiar "Hao-lo," shouted out by some strange old person who I've never seen before. I have now coined the term Hao-lo harassment (When Chinese speakers attempt to say hello it can often sound like hao-lo).

China was by far the worst, where it was impossible to walk down the street without 20 Chinese people popping up out of nowhere to say hello. Being there for one month is probably the cause of my hello phobic. Japan was not as bad, considering how reserved they all are, and I'd probably place Taiwan somewhere in the middle

Now all I can think is no! leave me alone, just let me walk down the street in peace, everyone else can walk home in quietly, why can't I? Another problem I have is that I live in an area where there aren't many foreigners, which makes me more exciting. These days I mentally cope by ignoring them. I hope that if I don't respond they'll stop doing it.

Old people and Children are usually the worst when it comes to speaking English, and staring in general. I don't really have the heart to ignore children and teenagers, but I try my best to shun everyone else.
 I understand that it's an attempt to be friendly, but I can't help but think that the only reason they do it is because of the way I look. If I looked Chinese would they do it? It's not like I'm new to Taiwan either, I've been here six months already and I speak their language. I understand that it may look cold, but I'm a girl who lives by herself. I'm already the local neighbourhood foreigner, so it's not wise to attract any unnecessary attention.

Yesterday I was walking home when a car full of old men stopped at the traffic light and waved out "Hao-lo," I quickly glanced at the blankly before continuing on my way. Thinking I'm just going to erase that moment from my mind

Saying hello back also comes with it's own set of risks. It's usually leads to questions such as "Where are you from, where do you work, come eat food with me, why are you running away?"

Late one night I was walking home when a man sitting on a scooter said hello to me. I thought that he may have been someone that I work with, so I stopped to talk to him (recently I've had people I know said they saw me and said hello, but I didn't say anything back). But his following question was "What's your name?" to which my first thought was shit I don't know this guy. I then decided that maybe it was best to get out of there, but he began to follow me on his scooter, yelling things such as "Where are you from, do you want to eat dinner with me?" Sometimes they also yell "This is Taiwan, it's safe here!"

Right, if you say so.

On the subject of Taiwanese people trying to speak English, the other day I went into my local convenience store, and I thought the old man at the counter was speaking Taiwanese to me before I realised that he was trying to say sorry.

Of course I've talked about this with many of my foreign friends. Some are a lot nicer than me and at least smile back.

Stalking Taiwanese Celeberities

If you're a big fan of Taiwanese drama you may come to Taiwan in the hope of meeting one of your idols. And you're in luck, seeing them is easier than you think.

When I first arrived in Taipei some Japanese fans told me about this websites. You have to check it everyday, and it will list what celebrities will be doing what, and where they will be.

http://stars.udn.com/newstars/Schedule.do

Of course it's all in Chinese, but if you cut and paste it straight into google translate (http://translate.google.com) you can have it in English in an instant.

Also if you turn up at least an hour early and plant yourself next to the stage it's quite easy to get a good view (Except it it's Super Junior, I'm sorry but you're going to have to camp out to get a good view there). Avoid standing directly in front of the stage is there is a space for photographers, because they will definitely turn up five minutes before the show and block your view.

Here are some pictures from my celebrity stalking.

Rainne Yang

Show Luo

Super Junior

F.I.R

Halloween

I don't know what Halloween means to you. In some places it means dressing up in scary costumes and harassing your neighbours for candy, but in a Taiwan cram school it means one thing and one thing only.

More work.

This year for Halloween my kindergarten had it's own little Halloween party. For the entire week we had to teach Halloween related grammar, flashcards, and songs. And on the day of the party everyone was dressed up in their own little Halloween costumes. Each teacher also had to do their own little segment for Halloween, like a song, craft, or story book, and the children rotated between classrooms.

We also build a haunted house, complete with scary music, and grabbing the children.
Most of them cried. I'm sure that back home if children are to the point of tears they wouldn't be forced to go though with it. The Chinese teachers seemed very into it, and if the child refused they would forcefully drag them though.

 I felt a little guilty because most of the children in my class are quite good kids, I don't want to emotionally damage them, but the next day they all seemed fine. The problem child in my class was forced to go through it twice. He's also terrified of ghosts. There was a moment when I was scaring him from one side, and another teacher was grabbing at him from behind. He was trying to fight us off from both sides, and was waving his little arms and legs about. He even left a shoe in there.

We had to remove the house the next day, but I think it would have been good to leave there for a while. Every time a child misbehaved in class we could have thrown them in there and turned the lights off.  Apparently even the regular public school had its own event for Halloween. A kid from my cram school class came in dressed up as a ghost, and proceeded to try and scare all his classmates. I find it interesting because they seem more into Halloween here, than when I was back in Australia. Apparently the Taiwanese are quite into the decorations and theme related goods, but they don't actually do anything on Halloween.

There are also various Halloween parties going on in Taipei if you're a die hard Halloween fan. A friend was telling me about the biggest party which is apparently called "monster mash" which is held near Taipei 101 and you have to buy tickets. Brass Monkey also has a Halloween party which is free for women in you arrive dressed up. It's not too difficult to find something to do.

Corporal Punishment

Unlike most western countries corporal punishment is still legal in Taiwan. Or at least I think it is, because I see it everyday. In training I was told that there would be no hitting, ear pulling, or abusing the students, but on my first day of observation the English teacher was pinching the student's ear and dragging him up the front of the class, and the Chinese teacher's didn't even bat an eyelid.

Personally I still remember what it was like to be a kid so I can't bring myself to yell, or physically punish them (That's probably why they're all so crazy). My kindergarten homeroom teacher on the other hand does quite a lot of yelling, pushing, and the other day she was even hitting a kid.

 For my first week I watched in horror, thinking "OMG what are you doing to that small child!" but after once month my reaction changed to, "Well that is quite nasty, but it makes them behave well in class," which is really the important thing when you spend two hours a day in a classroom together. If a children is misbehaving I'll usually tell her about it, she'll make the child cry, and then they'll behave for the rest of the class. When she's out of the room I'll even use her as a threat to try and make the other children behave.

One of the children in my class was really testing me. I despise yelling at children so I make him stand up and put his hands in the air. I could feel my heart breaking, he looked so sad and miserable and I cracked and let him sit down after three minutes.

Another interesting scene I witnessed the other day was when my smallest student was taking too long to eat her cake for snack time. The Homeroom teacher then processed to start forcefully shoving it into her mouth, chanting eat! eat!. At the time I thought "Oh if this was Australia they would encourage the student not to eat cake, but here they are in Taiwan forcefully shoving it into the student's mouth."

I'm not sure what the conditions are in regular Taiwanese schools but I have a feeling that they are also quite strict. If you have 40 students in one class it takes a lot of effort to try and make them all behave. If you have that many students in one class you can't afford to let one or two get out of line.

Kindergarten Dreams

You probably know that you've been doing a job too much when you begin to dream about it. I occasionally think that I had certain conversations with my homeroom teacher before I realise that it was a dream.

In my kindergarten if you want any supplies for Art and Craft you need to order them through the branch. But given how stingy they are with just regular paper I severely doubt how much they will actually give me. My latest nightmare is where I come down stairs to collect my craft supplies. They're all neatly arranged according to the teachers, but once I get to my pile there's nothing there. I then ask one of the office staff who tells me "Sorry you don't get craft supplies."

To which my reactions is, "I knew it was a lie! I knew that they would never give me craft supplies."

For some reason they're all paper Nazi's at my school. They give you one pack of paper that is supposed to last the year, or in my case I inherited my sole pack of paper from the person who I replaced. Yesterday I was checking my paper supplies which are quite dismal even though I haven't even used them yet. I get the feeling that someone probably raided them after my processor left, or the Kindergarten homeroom teacher's been making off with them behind my back. It's so painful just trying to get paper from my branch that I've given in and just brought my own stack from Carrefour (It was only 69NT, I don't know what my branch's problem is). It may be money out of my own funds, but at least I can use paper to my heart's delight.

Apparently the student's pay quite high fees but the school is quite stingy when it comes to food and supplies. I was eating cake from snack time one day with the Homeroom teacher who said that it was "So-So," and that what they feed the students is all quite cheap. I guess that in private schools such as my own the priority is really to make money, and if they can save money in certain areas they'll go right ahead and do it.

Two Months

It's now been almost two months since I began my Taipei adventure, or hell ( I'm still trying to figure it out). So far things have been going 100x better than when I first started. The Taiwanese staff have finally begun to warm up to me. I think because cram schools have such a high turn over, they don't bother getting to know you until they know that you're going to stick around. Teaching has also become more manageable because it's basically the same thing every lesson.

One thing I'm not so happy about is the amount of unpaid work. I have a child who hates English school and doesn't do his homework, so I have to sit with him everyday after
class and help him. There are also the reports and tests that I have to mark. My kindergarten Chinese teacher will often tell me about the amount of work she has to do,
but I see her doing most of it during my English time.

I was told that I should quit and try to find a higher payed job, but I don't want to go through the settling in process again, and I don't believe the conditions at other school are really that much better. I would rather leave and teach in another country (If you
want money Korea is the place to go).

On the brighter side I finally received my health insurance after two months.(Two months!! WTF Taiwan, I could have been hit by a scooter by now.) Apparently seeing a doctor now becomes incredibly cheap. Taiwan has one of the best health care systems in the world.

I would also like to share some classroom management techniques that I've come up with in the last two months.

If taking stars away isn't working, I now write the individual student's names on the whiteboard and make them stay ten minutes after class. It's a really easy punishment on
my side because I have to be there anyway to mark their homework and tests. If they continue to misbehave I just keep adding some more minutes.  It's also great because it's punishing individual students instead of half the class.
The only problem is if you have two many students stay after class, then it becomes a
mini party.

I've also come up with countdown star. If the children are failing to get their stuff out, or are just playing around, I start the countdown from 5, and 0 = bye bye star. Sometimes I'll even do a zombie walk to the board. The only problem with this is if the child is an arse and doesn't care about stars.

If they start pulling funny noises, faces, or start chewing their clothes I now do an impression of them. E.g, "I'm Frank, I like to eat my clothes, yummy yummy yummy." I'm not sure whybut this makes them stop. It's also entertaining.

I think that it's important to try and have fun while you teach, not just for the children but for your own sake as well. Those children can really wear you down and drive you
insane.

Happy 100th Birthday Republic of China

HAPPY 100TH BIRTHDAY TAIWAN!! Or is it?

10/10 is Taiwan's national holiday, and this year marks year 100, but don't be fooled into thinking that it's Taiwan's 100th birthday.

You've probably already figured out that Taiwan has been here for more than 100 years. The centennial actually marks 100 years since the foundation of the People Republic of China in 1911. But during that period Taiwan was under Japanese occupation, so wasn't even part of China.  Taiwan eventually joined the P.R.C after WWII in 1945 when Japan lost the war. So technically it's not even 100 years of government in Taiwan, it more so marks 100 years of a government which now exists in exile.

What does it mean for us? The answer, not really all that much. Sure Monday is a holiday so we get a nice long weekend, which is probably the best time to escape Taiwan, because where ever you go here it's super crowded. I was trapped at Sun Moon lake for hours (quite a scary experience where I didn't know if I would ever get home). I also heard that they were offering to pay foreigners $400NT to stand in front of Sun-Yat sen memorial hall along with the Taiwanese. Most probably to promote Taiwan as being more multicultural. But $400NT, really only adds up to about $12 US, so it didn't seem worth it.

The 100th year also made me feel quite nervous. I know that the Mainland Chinese can be quite dramatic, so I was thinking if they suddenly decided to invade Taiwan, they would probably hold out for some historic date to do it. But so far we're all in one piece, so maybe Taiwan just isn't worth it after all.

Bad English

I thought that I would take the time to introduce you to some of the bad English that I have found in Taiwan so far. I only have a few pictures here because to me bad English is hard to spot. Not because the English in Taiwan is getting better, more because I'm become so accustomed to it that I don't pay attention.

I'll add more to this post when I discover them.

Alien Resident Certificate, ARC

After working here for a month I finally received my arc today. It's great because I finally feel like I'm legal to work here, and that my job is somewhat legit. I haven't received my health card yet though, so if I get hit by a scooter I'm pretty much screwed.

An ARC is one of the essential items that you will need if you plan to stay in Taiwan for the long term. It can be quite useful if you ever plan to drive a car or scooter, or open an account with some banks. It's also a great form of ID, and has your address neatly printed at the bottom for those awkward What is my address again moments.
 Another great thing about your ARC is that its also a re-entry permit, so you can travel in and out of the country worry free.

Obvious this isn't mine because I'm not a man, I pulled it off Google.

Lets go through the ARC process for anyone who wants to work in Taiwan. The process is a bit different if you're a student.

Step 1: The Medical
You will be required to under go a health examination. They will take your blood. I remember when I went they had us line up in front of a desk, and we could see everyone being stabbed before us. There is also a chest x-ray where you have to hug a machine. They will require you to be immunised against measles and rubella etc. If you aren't they'll pick it up in your blood test and make you get it done. I think the health examination is just to make sure that you don't have AIDS or some health problem which is going to burden the health care system. You will be require to undertake one every year if you plan on working in Taiwan. You can also have it done back in your home country. But it may be cheaper here.
(A few weeks later)
 Step 2: The Work Permit.
Obviously a permit which states that you are legaly allowed to work in taiwan. 

 (Sometime later)
Step 3: Resident Visa
A stamp inside your passport that allows you to live in Taiwan.
 (A week or so later)
Yay! It's an ARC.
 (A few weeks later, where you still have to avoid falling seriously ill!!!)

They finally give you your health insurance card!

ARC for Students
If your a student it depends on your country. For Australia and the US you will first be required to get a visitor visor for sixty days which can be extended twice (such a pain because you have to go to immigration) But once you've been studying here for six months you can then apply for your ARC.  If you're a student hoping to work, the process is quite complicated and strict, so it's easier to come here for work, then pick up a few Chinese classes later on.

Immigration Taipei City
100 Taiwan Taipei City Jhongjheng District Guǎngzhōu Street 15號 +886 2 2388 9393 ‎

Kindergarten Excursions

Teaching kindergarten is probably my favourite part about working at HESS, and one of the perks of it all is the excursions. Every month the children have an outing to somewhere relevant to the theme that they are learning. Last month we were learning about rooms of the house and furniture, so we took a trip to Ikea. All I really had to do was say stuff, like "this is a bed, this is a desk. What room am I in?" This week were moved onto food, so the children look a trip to the local mochi factory where they had a small guided tour, and got make some themselves to take home. I actually get paid to go somewhere cool.

Usually on the bus I'll be required to drill them with flashcards, but that can get dull pretty quick (for me anyway) So now I also point out the window and say "look at that, its a bus, bus, bus, bus it is a bus." I think they need to learn more words relevant to their lives. The other week I was teaching them "Half a cup of coffee" I don't know who the bright spark was who decided that it was a great idea to teach children how to ask for coffee.

It was all pretty relaxed, until main office suddenly decided that teachers  were slacking off on excursions, and now we have to fill in a form stating what English we will be teaching. An office girl handed me one when I walked in the door after an excursion, and I must have given her my "What the f**k is this?" face. Like there isn't enough paper work that we do for free. If they want me to fill in this sort of paper work, then they should at least tell me about the excursion more than a day before. I'm actually quite lucky that they at least tell me the day before, because they need me to come early. My co-worker on the other hand usually rocks up with the reaction "What, are we going somewhere?"

Becoming a Task Master

One thing I've noticed through my one month of teaching here is that you really have to become a task master in order to get the job done. I was trained to be a fun loving teacher, but I don't think that really matches with the Taiwanese ideal of what a teacher should be. I think in Taiwan they prefer serious teachers who harshly discipline the children, and drill the English into them.

I remember talking to a girl working in Korea, who told be that the talkative student who she considered her best student, was viewed by other Korean teachers as their worst student. The Asian idea of a good student is one who sits their quietly and gets all their work done.

When I first began working here I had the mistaken idea that it would be great to be more of a friend to the students that a teacher. But know I've come to realise that if I want them to shut up and do their work that isn't really possible. Now my priorities are making them all sit down, behave, do their work, and if they actually like me that's just extra.

I've had to really crack down in my Treehouse class. If you work for Hess most people will say that the Treehouse classes are crazy. I've gotten a lot tougher with the classroom management. Before I would just take away stars if they misbehaved, but now I've also started writing their names of the board and making them stay in for an extra 10 minutes after class. If they don't finish their classwork they also have to remain after class until it's finished. Some other techniques that I've heard of include giving them extra homework, but I think I would forget about this one. Another teacher at my branch also had the idea of making them write a letter home to their parents, saying how bad they were in class. Being meaner has worked though, it make my job a lot easier when they misbehave less.

But I really feel like I've become a task master. I really don't like the idea of it, but it's my job and there isn't really anything that I can do about it. I've never been a fan of cram school system, and I believe that it's too much stress on the children, and they should really be outside running around. Sometimes I look at certain students and I think You clearly shouldn't be here, you would be a lot happier if your parents stopped making you come. But I can't tell the parents to quit sending their child, because the parents pay the school and the school pays me. Hess also offers cash incentives if 90% of students return the following semester.

Don't get me wrong, I don't hate my job, it's probably the most entertaining one that I've had for a while, I just wish people would consider the mental health of their children.

Compulsary Training

This Saturday I was lucky enough to spend it in Treehouse training :P as I mention before Hess has a serious of compulsory trainings that they won't pay you for. Some are done at the main office, but the one I went to was a local area training and was only for people from my area.

It was interesting because I've been struggling on how to explain grammar and phonics to my Treehouse 1 class (I would also like to add that my Treehouse class is crazy. I think the curriculum is too much from them on top of regular school, and I think their little heads are rejecting the information). I also got to meet some of the local NSTs which was also fun. They talked a lot about using flashcards, but to be honest I try and avoid them. I think they're ridiculous and don't make that much sense to me. I have a lot of moments when I stare down at the Treehouse book and think, "Why are you teaching that, how is it relevant to their lives?"

The branch where the training took place was a lot bigger and cleaner than mine, but I've heard that it's a lot stricter, not very friendly, and the NSTs are under more pressure. Apparently they like to control the class through fear, and everything is drill drill drill. When I first took over my Treehouse class I had to observe a sub from the same branch who didn't smile once. I remember sitting there thinking. "Do I have to teach like that? Do I seriously have to teach like that?" On my first day of observation the teacher was already pulling the student up to the front of the class by the ear.

Apparently your experience can differ from branch to branch. I remember wanting to quit during the main training because they made teaching look very strict and intense, but once I got to my branch (which is quite relaxed) it was a lot better. A few teachers have been at my branch for a long time so I think that's a good sign.

We also had a meeting the other week which apparently I can receive office pay for. It's only have the pay that I receive for teaching, but apparently it's something.

Practical Audio Visual Chinese

I used to have a Taiwanese obsessed Chinese teacher who would swear by these books. To be honest, out of all the Chinese materials that I've ever studied I think these book have been the easiest to understand. Mandarin is a pretty difficult language, but these books have pretty adequete English explinations. I've heard that Shida has put a lot of time and effort into researching how foriegners learn Chinese, and the best way to teach it. I think the only downside is that they're all in Traditional Chinese,
http://www.youtube.com/user/leosaran#p/c/57FE818F7E881FE1

You can also find the videos here on Youtube for self study, but they're a bit old and the actors can be painful to look at.
I found the ones about book three hilarirous because they're supposed to be in America, but it's the most Taiwanese America that I've ever seen and you can see Shida in the backgroud.

http://www.youtube.com/user/leosaran#p/c/57FE818F7E881FE1

 You can also buy them online at Amazon if you're located overseas

Learn Chinese online

 So you've decided to try and save money by tying to learn Chinese online. I hate to break it to you but learning online still comes at a cost. Sure there are a lot of website out there which will provide you with free learning materials and some flashcards, but  a lot of them will make you pay a month or a yearly subscription in order to utilise all their tools.

Because most website focus on mainland Chinese and simplified characters. I've decided to tell you about the ones I've found so far that can be useful for when you live in Taiwan.

www.chinese-course.com
You can also upgrade for sound which I do believe is worth the money. This site is good for learning vocab words, but it's not very good for grammar. You can set it to auto load the page every few seconds, so you can sit back and watch the words whiz past.

http://quizlet.com/
A great flashcard system. It allows you to create your own flashcards, or use ones already made by other people. It also comes with a few word learning games. The great thing about this one is that is also comes with sounds if you're more of an audio learner like me. You can also print out your flashcards for self study.

MP3 learning.

http://www.chineselearnonline.com
I used this one for a while, and it was good because it explains each grammar point and a lot of vocab in English, so mandarin did begin to make more sense. But I didn't really learn much just by listening, it only helped to re-enforce the grammar I already knew. Maybe you have to buy a subscription and utilise the other materials to really take it all in.

http://chinesepod.com/
This is quite a popular one, but I'm not a big fan. I found that it spent more time analysing and talking about the grammar in English than the actual Chinese spoken. And the speaker's English speaking accents irritated me a little.

http://www.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php
Good online Chinese Dictionary

www.nciku.com/
My favourite Online Chinese dictionary, unfortunately it's only simplified.

Of course there are still a few other options, such as illegally download Chinese learning software such as Rosetta stone. Some of my co-workers are really into this one, but as popular as it is I find repeatably clicking on pictures a little dull. I think I played around with this program too much as a child, so now I'm over it. Most of the accents are also from Mainland china, and can differ from what you hear in Taiwan. I remember that when I first came to Taiwan I was accustomed to mainland accents, so it took me a while to understand what anyone was saying to me.

Difficult Children

I would like to take the time to explain about a difficult child in my class. If you ever pursue a career in teaching you too will eventually encounter children who are hard to deal with. This child is the only kid in my class who's Chinese name I actually know, because every time he shows up late for class the other children say in Chinese 'He's here he's here.' Or when I have to give him to the CT's because he's being impossible to deal with, they'll sigh in frustration, say his name, and go not you again.

When I first arrived the CT had him pretty well trained, and although he was a bit crazy he would follow classroom instructions. She went away on her honeymoon for a week, and during that time he's become out of control. I think he was also ostracised by the other kids in the class as the naughty kid, so he's given up trying to behave. He jumps up and down during class, annoys the other children, hits the other children, and even hits me now too. I've tried ignoring him to a certain extent, but because he's distracting the other children every five minutes someone is telling me "Eddie hit me teacher, Eddie is stomping, Eddie scratched me." It's impossible to teach when he's being like that.

To be honest I feel a bit angry at my CT and the school for this situation. Apparently the CT is supposed to remain in the room during class (because they're only 4 for crying out loud). But my CT is absent for most of the lesson. I'm not going to lie to myself, I'm not a real teacher, I've never studied teaching before and my experience accounts for a total of three weeks. To be honest I like to think of myself as an English instructor, because all I'm doing is following the guide written by HESS. How can they possibly expect me to be able to deal with this kid. I have zero qualifications.

Yesterday I had enough and removed him from the classroom and gave him to some of the other CT's during a meeting. I really need to discuss this with my CT, if she's not going to be there the kid also can't be there.  It's difficult because most CT's don't speak very good English. So communication can be difficult.

To be honest I do understand that it's not all this kid's fault. Apparently his parents are quite young, work all the time, and he lives with his grandmother. He's late for class almost everyday, so I don't think this grandmother cares too much about raising him properly, or maybe she doesn't even try. It seems that a lot of children in Taiwan live with their grandparents, and most of them are misbehaving brats with attention issues.

Illegal Kindergartens

One thing you should know before arriving in Taiwan is that teaching at Kindergartens is actually illegal.

My schools also runs a cram school, so technicly I'm signed under a contract to work at the cram school, not the kindergarten.

There are actually inspections to rat out any foreigners teaching children English at kindergarten. If you school is cheap and dodgy you may find yourself in a lot of trouble.

From what I've heard so far they won't take you away and lock you up if they catch you teaching kindergarten. I think the school is just fined.

I haven't been inspected yet, but in the last few weeks two of my friends have. One of them told me that she was teaching, when

The advantage of working at Hess is that the reputation is good, and most inspecters are willing to over look an English teacher or two. I myself often have moments when I hope that my branch will get inspected because it will give me an excuse not to work.

Also just because you legally work at a cram school doesn't always mean you're safe. Many schools run classes that they may not be registered for, so you may find yourself being quickly ushured out, or asked to run, when the inspector comes knocking.

Simplified and Traditional Characters

One thing which I wish I had been told before I began wasting my life on Chinese, was that there are currently two different Chinese writing systems. I remember showing up for Chinese class on my first day of university, thinking that I could use the Japanese Kanji that I had crammed into my head, only to discover that I had to learn a completely different writing system.

Tradition characters are currently used in Taiwan and Hong Kong, and simplified is used on the mainland, Malaysia, and Singapore. It all began with Mao and his communist party a few years after they had won against the Nationalists, and took control of mainland China. They now had millions of illiterate peasants to try and educate, so they decide the best ways to make learning characters easier would be to simplify them, and make them faster and easier to write. This was the birth of simplified characters.

I won't go into too much detail about simplified characters. True they are a lot easier and faster to write, but sometime they look a bit empty. Here is a quick example bellow. With the words "I like studying Chinese."

Taiwan of course became the hide out of the Nationalist party. Of course they hated the communists, so they're stuck with the old systems of Characters until now. Hong Kong was also a British colony until 1997, and was cut off from the mainland. It has not re-joined China, but they currently have a system which is something along the lines of one country, two systems.

Obviously if you wish to pursue some Chinese study you're going to have to choose between the two. Most overseas universities will teach in simplified, because China has become the destination of choice for most businessmen. Obviously if you're living in Taiwan simplified characters are pretty useless and traditional is the way to go. Also if you're like me and studied mainland Chinese, but then came to Taiwan, traditional characters are quite an effort for a while. Most universities will place you in classes based of a test in traditional Chinese, so most of my friends have been placed in lower classes because of their inability to read traditional.

I've asked a few die hard Taiwan fans whether or not they would consider learning simplified characters, and the answer has generally been "No, because its not real Chinese," or "I don't want to learn communist Chinese."

To be honest I really don't think that it hurts to know a little of both. If you really hope to use Chinese in your future career you will inevitable come into contact with the mainland. I've also heard things such as if you learn traditional you can automatically read simplified. I have to break it to you, but that is a lie. Of course there are character which aren't hard to recognise, but once most of them have had the strokes knocked out of them they can be unrecognisable. I was once helping a friend with her Chinese essay and I had to constantly ask "What's this character? What's this character?" It goes the other way around as well, with even mainland Chinese people having a difficult time trying to demystify traditional characters.

Make an Apartment Look bigger

When living in Taipei you may find yourself living in an apartment far smaller than you are accustomed to in the west. I myself was almost over come with a fit of claustrophobia when I first entered my room. If your coming here for study, or on a budget, your apartment might only consist of one room. So I thought that it might be best to give you some advise on what to do with your tiny living space.

Advice 1: Keep is clean. Clutter can make a space look smaller than it actually does

Advice 2: Invest in storage. Draws and boxes can be used to store away all your cheap night market trinkets

Advice 3: Use light colours. Light colours can help make a space look bigger.

Advice 3: Divide your room into different living sections. Create a space which can be called your living room, a space for study, and a space for your bedroom.

Advice 4: Dividers. Curtains, closets, or bookshelves can be placed in the middle of a room to divide it into two separate rooms. I read somewhere that opened back bookshelves are good because they allow light to filer through.

A trip to Ikea can also be quite inspirational. The Taiwanese are already accustomed to living in small spaces. So Ikea has many examples of how a space can be utilised

Here are also a few website that I was looking at to help me redecorate my room.

http://interiordec.about.com/od/articlesonbasics/a/smallroomtricks.htm
http://www.ehow.com/how_4705498_make-apartment-look-bigger.html
http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Your-Apartment-Bathroom-Look-and-Feel-Larger

Coffee

So far I've been talking about many essentials of living in Taipei, now I'd like to share with you one mine, Coffee. To me Coffee is the only thing which gives me the energy to face the children everyday. (That and the tasty blueberry bagels they have in 7/11 and Family mart) Those little children have minds that go at 100 miles and hour, and the only method to keep up with that is Caffeine

So far I've been drinking the 7/11 café lattes since they're a lot cheaper than buying real coffee from a Coffee shop (for 25NT it's not a bad deal). The Coffee in Asia is also notoriously bad, and it seems normal to burn the milk.

The downside to the coffee drinking is I don't sleep well at night, and have 'What is there in your living room' and other kindergarten Hess songs, stuck in my head until three in the morning. To combat this I've been listening to Taiwanese TV shows. I also had what can be describe as a brilliant mind moment late one night when I suddenly that all the furniture in my apartment was wrong, and that it had to be statistically placed based on it's function.

So thanks to Coffee I can now face the Children, my Chinese listening has improved, and my apartment looks a lot better, but unfortunately I'm so exhausted by Friday that it takes every inch of will power not to strangle the children.

I discussed this with a fellow member of my training group the other day, who said that instead of Coffee he had been trying the Red Bull method with a local Taiwanese knock off. So anything that works for you and contains caffeine is probably the way to go.

One Month Training

So after working for Hess for one month, you will be forced to attend another all day one month training, or in my case two week training. Because I came as part of the peak training season, where they trained about three groups in the course of a month and a half, it was one month training for group 1, three week training for group 2, and a two week training for the rest of us.

To be honest I was quite glad that I didn't have to wait an entire month before training, because they finally told us about classroom management. I don't think I could have waiting an entire month of wanting to strangle children before they taught us. Of course I realised from my first day of class, that I needed classroom management, so I sought help from the CTs at once, and it's been going ok so far. Classroom management is really something that needs to be implemented from day one, you can't really wait an entire month.

At the one month training you also have to remember to do your one month assignment, and get your NST to sign it as well. Hess has a series of compulsory trainings at different intervals which are necessary for getting you HESS teaching English certification. The next one is in two months. Hess also has little training things for different classes, on Saturday I have to attend a training session for Tree House.

As far as classes are going, it been going a bit better recently, as I slowly become more accustomed to the material and how to teach it. I had to give my kindergarten class a test yesterday (yes kindergarten children have tests) and either I'm no good at asking them the questions, (I have no idea how the frick to give four year olds a test) or they're bombing it, because they don't know the answers.

My kindergarten CT recently went on her honeymoon and her replacement doesn't really speak English. If I need to tell her something I have to say it in Chinese, so I have to nervously glance around the classroom to see if any of the children are watching, because if they discover I know Chinese the balance could be broken. I have a feeling that they already know that I understand because I react when they speak Chinese to me. Yesterday I said 'Konnichiwa' to children in the other class, and they all went 'woooo' and started pointing their fingers at me in accusation (Children are not allowed to speak other languages in English class).

Over all I feel a lot better about this job now than I did a few weeks ago.

Learning Chinese in Taipei

If you intended to live in Taiwan for a while it might be a good investment to learn some Chinese. It really does make life a 100x times easier when you can read a menu and order food. Learning food words opened up a whole new world for me. :)

The equation is

Effort X Chinese learning = Easier time in Taiwan

There are a lot of schools out there, but I've decided only to write about the ones that I, or my friends, have personal experience with. I'll try and go into more detail about some of these later on.

National Taiwan Normal University www.ntnu.edu.tw/ntnu-eng.html

a.k.a NTNU, a.k.a Shida a.k.a Sida (If you're saying it with a Taiwanese accent)

This was the first school that I ever went to on my arrival in Taipei. It is probably one of the best schools in Taiwan (and one of the most expensive), and a lot of language school use the materials produced here. Most of the teachers are fairly good, and will teach the same material in a similar way. I did the normal course which consisted on two hours a day, five days a week, for three months. Class wasn't too difficult, and I definitely felt that my Chinese improved. If you chose to take the two hour course you will also have to take five hours a week of complimentary classes. These are either big group lectures, culture courses, or studying in the audio lab.

They also have an intensive course, which believe it or not is pretty intensive. It consists of three hours a day, plus a tone of tests, and homework. I was advised not to take this one if I wanted to have a social life.

Shida also offers many extra Chinese Culture classes, language exchange, and even some class trips. It has the most number of classes, suited to many difference language abilities, so it's probably the easiest school to find a class suited to your time and level.

Chinese Culture Univeristy http://mlc.sce.pccu.edu.tw/

The next school I went to on my quest to learn Chinese, and probably my favourite. The tuition here is significantly cheaper that Shida, with one semester costing 19,000 for three hours of class a day. It also has the flexibility of being able to chose how long you want to study. So if you only want to study for two or three weeks, you just pay that amount, instead paying for an entire semester. Recently they have also begun offering night classes on Tuesday and Thursday.

I liked this one a lot. We did a lot more conversation practice and extra things, instead of every lesson following the textbook like Shida. (I wish I could go back) A Taiwanese friend once told me that CCU students could talk a lot better than Shida students. It also has a lot less students than Shida, so I felt like I got to know a lot more people. The building is also newer and the library a lot prettier.

The downside is that what you learn really depends on your teacher. If you get a good teacher you can learn a lot, but if you end up with a not so good one you're screwed. You are allowed to change classes. It also has less classes on offer than Shida, and there are less class times to chose from.

National Taiwan University www.ntu.edu.tw/

Not to be confused with National Normal Taiwan University.

National Taiwan University, or NTU boasts the reputation of being the number one university in Taiwan, and it also has the most expensive Mandarin learning program. I have friends who study here, and the classes seem quite good. It seems like their Chinese is improving. Class is three hours a day, and the classes are smaller than most other universities. It does seem like quite a good program, but for that price, you could go to any other university like Shida or the Culture University, and probably learn about the same level of stuff. It uses textbooks produced by Shida, so none of the learning materials are original or new. But if you have the money, why not?

Taiwan Language Institute www.tli.com.tw/

I knew a guy who once went here. If possible, I would advise you to go to one of the universities listed above instead of this one. The Mandarin program isn't too great, and most of the materials seem a bit outdated. But it does have schools in places other than Taipei.

Other Schools

Just to let you know, my quest to learn Mandarin isn't over yet. I may have a job which virtually rules my life, but from here on out I will be investigating other Mandarin schools, most probably night classes as well. So once I've checked them out I'll try and write about it.

Finding a Place to Live in Taiwan

Sometime during your stay in Taiwan you will inevitably have to find somewhere to live. Staying in a hotel or hostel when you first arrive isn't a bad idea, but eventually you'll become tired of the lack of space, privacy, and drunk people wondering in at two in the morning.

It's highly advisable that you get someone who speaks Chinese to help you out, since most landlords will not speak English. If you've come here seeking work, your job will most likely help you out to some extent.

Most foreigners tend to use tealit, (http://www.tealit.com) but there aren't that many houses there, and most of the good ones get snatched up pretty quickly, so if you find a good one don't hesitate to take it.

These are also many Chinese websites, but I must warn you that the picture often lie. I went to to see a house once, which looked lovely in the picture, because the picture was most likely taken when it was first built, 10 or so years ago. I found my current room on 591.com, but the pictures that I looked at, and the room itself, were completely different.

Here are a few Taiwanese sites. I think they're good for gauging the average price of a room in certain areas.

http://591.com.tw

http://www.sinyi.com.tw

The room that I currently live in is 9ping (I'm not sure if this is true or not) and is 9000 a month with internet, water, and cable included (The power is paid separately). It was also furnished. It doesn't have a kitchen, and the washing machine is located outside the room. The bathroom is also a bit tragic looking. The advantage to where I live is that it's located close to the MRT, work, and a few shopping centres. Once you've decided on a house it usually doesn't take long to move in. You just sign, give them the money, and it's suddenly all yours.

Generally in the West you will have to clean your house before you leave, but in Taiwan it's the opposite. You can pretty much leave the house a mess and the next people will clean it, which means you have the clean upon moving in. I think if you move into a giant expensive building they will mostly likely clean for you, but in my case I had to clean my current room. It wasn't so bad looking at first glance. But once I got into it everything was covered in dust, dirt, and I didn’t know the meaning of dust bunnies before I moved the bed. The air-conditioner was also quite disgusting, and I think the occupant before me was a smoker.

To be honest I'm not very thrilled with my current room, but I didn't really have much choice because I had nowhere else to live. I'm broke, and my Chinese skills are very minimal. Looking back on it now, I really wished that I had just booked into a hostel and spent a bit longer house hunting, instead of being stuck in a one year contract with a $18000 deposit.

I also discovered that if my building catches fire I will most likely die because there is no fire escape, and that windows are bared. So if I suddenly stop blogging you'll know the reason why. Luckily there's a fire station located a block away so hopefully they can save me in time. (But knowing how efficient the Taiwanese are I wouldn't bet on it.)

Here are a few pictures of my bachelorette pad.

One Week down, 51 to go.

So after one week working at my branch I definitely feel less terrified now than I did on Monday. One of the advantages to my schedule is that I currently don't work Saturdays, (I have a feeling that this could change any time) but many of my fellow co-workers do. I remember when they first took us to look at our branch, it was a Saturday, children were running up and down the corridor, running, screaming, and fighting. I then turned to my fellow newbie and said.

“That's going to be your class.”

The observations were worthwhile because now I definitely have a better idea of what I should be teaching and how I should be teaching it. Yesterday the teacher pulled out a set of flashcards in front of the class, which I didn't even know existed. The most useful thing about the observations is that I now know what I should have, but don't have. If I hadn't used up my free time to go watch other teachers I would have been so screwed. As much as I complain about the slackness of my branch, the upside is that they haven't been strict, or told me off at all.

Thank god that it's now Saturday. I'm so exhausted from being at school every single day and having to constantly keep my eyes on the the kids and tell them.

“Why aren't you sitting down?”

“Why are you looking at that book, you should be writing in this one.”

“Why are you standing on the table?”

I think that I'm probably still too lenient on these kids, I have to slowly get stricter and stricter. Today's lesson was a lot better than the first, but I think I still have a long way to go if I want to be a teacher.