Week Four Top Five
1. Taiwanese dishes often mix multiple ingredients together In America, we often like to eat our dishes separately. Vegetables, meat and rice can all be eaten at the same meal but each would be served in a separate dish. Here, they are often served altogether. For example, my lunch today was a plate of noodles with squid, shrimp and vegetables all mixed together. My dessert included shaved ice, taro, peanuts, red bean, glutinous rice porridge, glutinous rice dumplings, and chocolate. My dinner was rice, vegetables, lamb and soup all served together.
2. Ordering drinks at a restaurant is uncommon here At a lot of restaurants, there will be a large jar of tea in the corner where you can self serve yourself a drink. However, at plenty of restaurants there are no drinks whatsoever provided. When my host family eats dinner, we don’t have anything to drink with the meal.
3. Stationery stores here are the best I went to the stationary store after school on Saturday to buy supplies for my classes (cute notebooks are a great motivation to study more!). I thought I would be in and out in ten minutes. Instead, I found myself rushing to make decisions after 45 minutes because I needed to be home on time! I bought some great supplies for incredibly reasonable prices. There are stationary stores everywhere; I pass at least three on my walk home from school. I am going to have to be careful not to spend too much money at these stores!
4. I’m becoming so accustomed to hearing Chinese that it is starting to feel natural When I first arrived in Taiwan, I really had to make a concerted effort to switch my brain over from English to Chinese when I started having a conversation in Chinese. Today, I noticed at the cafe that I had been listening to a conversation in Chinese and I was catching bits and pieces of it without actively thinking to myself, “Ok, this is Chinese, time to listen extra carefully.” I still don’t understand most everyday conversations and I’m often lost as to what exactly is going on. However, listening to and speaking Chinese has become a natural activity. 5. I need to find ways to self-supplement my Chinese acquisition I am not receiving a lot of homework in school right now. As the semester just started, it is very possible that this will change. However, I need to find ways to pursue my language goals outside of class. This past month, I translated all the Mass parts so I could participate in Mass. However, I need to find more ways to challenge myself outside of the classroom. This month, I am planning to study an extra chapter a week and keep a journal in pinyin to improve my tones.