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Atlas Hugged posted:Gaoliang bottles are made of sterner stuff than vodka bottles. I've had the same bottle of Gaoliang plummet from my fringe half a dozen times without so much as a crack. My bottle of Finlandia drops once and my entire dining room is covered in shattered glass and wasted booze. If I'm ever in a bar fight in Taiwan, I know exactly what to reach for. The vodka, because isn't the purpose to improv up a shank? 
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Feb 6, 2014 07:04
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| # ? May 16, 2024 10:03 |
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I literally got excited at what new poo poo Pandemonium must have stirred up when I saw a bunch of new posts in this thread over a short time span. That's how pathetic my life is, I guess. Signed, English teacher extraordinaire, Esq.
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Feb 6, 2014 07:04
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Anybody have any inclination to visit Pingxi for lantern fest next friday?
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Feb 6, 2014 07:06
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USDA Choice posted:The vodka, because isn't the purpose to improv up a shank? The gaoliang because I won't get a face full of glass. POCKET CHOMP posted:I literally got excited at what new poo poo Pandemonium must have stirred up when I saw a bunch of new posts in this thread over a short time span. That's how pathetic my life is, I guess. I'm just amazed that he really can't tell the difference between "every artist on the island is talentless including you, you and most especially you" and "the average 'white man in Asia' experience is typically uninteresting".
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Feb 6, 2014 07:09
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Atlas Hugged posted:The gaoliang because I won't get a face full of glass. Let me troubleshoot this one. Step 1) Hit the other guy in the face with the bottle.
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Feb 6, 2014 07:10
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Physics goes both ways.
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Feb 6, 2014 07:27
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Spanish Matlock posted:Anybody have any inclination to visit Pingxi for lantern fest next friday? I missed it the dragon and snake year. But yeah, I'd love to go. I never did work out how best to get there. (am using information on: http://www.pingxiskylantern.tw/2014/en/index.php) e: http://www.chinatimes.com/realtimenews/20140206000022-260405 ^^^ Moonslayer, did you have a moan on facebook? url fucked around with this message at 08:05 on Feb 6, 2014 |
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Feb 6, 2014 07:58
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Hey so trying to see what Pandemonium's probation reason said I stumbled on something interesting:Pandemonium posted:Whoever name-dropped Said needs to please take that poo poo out of this thread. That dude is an idiot. An important one, but an idiot nonetheless. Pandemonium posted:Or check out Edward Said's Orientalism for a really good, albeit Near Eastern framed, exposition of the idea of Orientalism (at least the bad kind).
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Feb 6, 2014 08:43
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It's probably best to take the bus to pingxi, which I will probably be doing. The train is fun, but slow and full of people. But hey, trains!
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Feb 6, 2014 08:44
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I will never say anything bad about the public transport in Taiwan after seeing how things are run in Bangkok. Bus stop? More like bus slow down a bit. Easy card reader? More like woman with a tin of coins and a roll of tickets (but at least you can get change!). Come to think of it url is probably hoping there's a mountain trail he can walk his motorcycle up after stalling on the incline.
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Feb 6, 2014 08:50
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:/ Speaking of which, I was up yangminshan again recently, some reedy plateau.  Was wickedly windy and that made it freezing. Stopping at the hot spring was a really nice way to warm up my hands on the way down.
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Feb 6, 2014 09:34
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A football player from Texas told me that the warmest place on the human body was between the legs. He then vomited after trying betel nut for the first time.
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Feb 6, 2014 09:51
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This is from quite a few posts back, but thanks for the info, quadrophrenic and TetsuoTW. You'd think we were headed to Antarctica, the way my family goes on about the cold.
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Feb 6, 2014 11:42
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Atlas Hugged posted:A football player from Texas told me that the warmest place on the human body was between the legs. He then vomited after trying betel nut for the first time. whilst I'm normally happy to jam my hands into my pants, I felt like it might be frowned upon. Steering would have been that bit trickier too. Tbh, it was entirely my own fault. I picked the place on a last minute decision to try and get a ride in in a dry day. I deliberately left my rucksack behind, because I wanted to ride light ( normally has my water proofs, gloves and Chinese books in it). So yeah, it was all my own doing.
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Feb 6, 2014 12:36
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Spanish Matlock posted:Anybody have any inclination to visit Pingxi for lantern fest next friday? Yeah, I plan to take the bus from Taipei Zoo MRT station on the 14th.
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Feb 6, 2014 13:03
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Spanish Matlock posted:It's probably best to take the bus to pingxi, which I will probably be doing. The train is fun, but slow and full of people. But hey, trains! I got some stuff I need to get on top of at work. If I can make it, I'll shout, not sure either way atm. I'm imagining hoards of the great unwashed. Never been a big fan of massive crowds tbh.
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Feb 6, 2014 14:08
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kenner116 posted:Yeah, I plan to take the bus from Taipei Zoo MRT station on the 14th. That's when I'll probably be going. It's a good time.
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Feb 6, 2014 14:39
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Is the lantern fest specific to Pingxi or if it's specific to the date instead might I find something going on in southern Taiwan? I might be mobile again soon and I'm getting cabin fever.
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Feb 6, 2014 16:50
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poetrywhore posted:Is the lantern fest specific to Pingxi or if it's specific to the date instead might I find something going on in southern Taiwan? I might be mobile again soon and I'm getting cabin fever.
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Feb 6, 2014 17:03
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A lot of poo poo is overhyped in Taiwan (I'm sure you've all gone to a night market and been told their Food Item X is famous and you just have to try it) but the Pingxi lantern festival is really quite cool. Sort of a pain to get to and from like with any destination at peak time but I thought it was worth it which is more than I can say for a lot of things. I'm looking at you Sun Moon Lake
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Feb 6, 2014 19:28
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Once you get to pingxi though there are an infinite number of little spots on the mountain overlooking the festival that are easy to get to, relatively secluded, convenient to the food and beer in the nightmarket, and great for having little lantern lighting parties.
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Feb 7, 2014 08:47
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I'll have to wait for the next one then. No way am I mobile enough yet to get too far up the road right now.
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Feb 7, 2014 16:56
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Spanish Matlock posted:Once you get to pingxi though there are an infinite number of little spots on the mountain overlooking the festival that are easy to get to, relatively secluded, convenient to the food and beer in the nightmarket, and great for having little lantern lighting parties. That's a sell. I much prefer that rather than being corralled around. Hmmn, I really do fancy it, just gotta fit it around work is all.
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Feb 8, 2014 10:04
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poetrywhore posted:I'll have to wait for the next one then. No way am I mobile enough yet to get too far up the road right now. Friend is telling me yuanshan do a lantern thing if getting out of the city is a chore. 
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Feb 8, 2014 12:16
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A Taiwanese English buxiban teacher was arrested for murder in Kaohsiung, so someone who teaches down there might not have a CT tomorrow. Sadly, the story doesn't say which school he taught for.
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Feb 8, 2014 14:17
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When was this?
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Feb 8, 2014 16:17
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Dude was arrested today, murder took place back in January.
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Feb 8, 2014 16:25
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Might be the coteacher who was murdered 
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Feb 8, 2014 16:50
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Nah, the teacher was arrested for murdering a music shop owner over a debt.
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Feb 8, 2014 17:01
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I am so so happy he was Taiwanese. The last thing we need is some knee-jerk legislation requiring foreign teachers to get a background check.
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Feb 8, 2014 17:08
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For those down South, you get something so much better than flimsy paper lanterns... BEEHIVE FIRECRACKERS http://eng.taiwan.net.tw/pda/m1.aspx?sNo=0002119&id=5454 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCvm7YjBWu8 Just remember to bring your full head-covering scooter helmet and whatnot because it is literally the most dangerous fireworks festival in the world. GG Taiwan, making a name for itself in all the right places. I went to Kaohsiung for far too long to learn the Meaning of Lunar New Year and I come back to see that a debate on some of my favorite topics (superiority of  , terribleness of English teachers/white guys in general) came and went and I didn't even get a chance to offer an awful opinion  Pandamonium, your heart is in the right place but Magna is generally right. Characters like 国(which you mentioned), 体, and 学 are not "bad evil Commie simplifications", they were used in handwriting much earlier. As Magna mentioned you can go to museums in Taipei and see evidence of this. Some even written by Chiang Kai Shek's very own hand! (there needs to be a crying ROC flag icon for times such as these) One handy trick is to see what the Japanese are doing -- all of those simplified characters are in common use in Japan. Of course Japanese people also invented 済 伝 働 and a million other weird characters. Ugly simplifications like 爱 and 书 can die in a fire though. Or 夠 and 够, where I can never remember which is S and which is T. Then there's the 決->决 simplification which saved us a total of 1 dot. Oh thank you Great Chairman Mao for that stroke of brilliance.  Other times bitches just write whatever they feel like, that's called 異體字. The word for "point" is "點" right? But a lot of Taiwanese people themselves just write 奌 for some reason. (And they never believe me when I tell them that no is not a proper simplified character, that 点 is the one used in China and Japan) Then sometimes they add in English words like MAN and FU and PO (ok, FU and PO are not even proper English words) or Taiyu crap like ㄍㄧㄥ住 and you have to learn Zhuyin anyway. However generally I agree with you and use as complicated of characters as humanly possible, as follows: 臺灣萬歲. Just know that if you wanna write a note and you accidentally write 与 instead of 與 you are in good company Horrible expats is a topic I cannot even manage right now. I met my friend's roommate the other week and he was boasting about how he was bedding a Taiwanese girl and her BFF at the same time, like he totally expected me to high five him in some sort of weird white power imperialism kick rather than realizing that as a woman I might be slightly nonplussed by another thrilling tale of conquests/generally forgetting that people are actual people.  However not every expat is horrible, you need to meet a lot of them and sift through, just as you would in your home country.Since your Chinese is so good, you can also forsake the expat bubble and just do whatever you normally like to do, but with Taiwanese people. I participate in volunteering and social activism and political debate salons and such, if you can speak Chinese after the initial awkward introductory bump most Taiwanese people will be pretty chill. Of course all the good events are in Taipei (好事都在台北 is actually a hitension fucked around with this message at 08:30 on Feb 10, 2014 |
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Feb 10, 2014 08:23
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hitension posted:For those down South, you get something so much better than flimsy paper lanterns...
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Feb 10, 2014 10:33
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hitension posted:I participate in volunteering and social activism
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Feb 11, 2014 00:33
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Aren't you in Hong Kong? Things are pretty open over here in Free China(ROC crying flag here), I don't know why a little volunteering would endanger someone's visa. I haven't found a volunteering cause/organization I'm 100% behind yet; I've volunteered with both Buddhist and Christian organizations, a women's organization, animal protection organizations etc. usually just one-off things. As for social activism, I'm more in the passive observation/紙上談兵 stage, but I regularly participate in a general political/social debate forum, a cross-strait relations discussion group, an international relations reading group, etc. Probably the most subversive one is the China Forum hosted by one of the 6/4 organizers that's more geared at mainland Chinese students here, giving them some advice for what they can do once they go back. Whenever there are protests (1985 is the big one) I usually go and take pictures and write up a little thing but I haven't really actively protested anything myself. It's not my country so some things are kinda weird, I can't really get personally worked up about a land dispute in Miaoli but I can certainly record and write about it in English and let the world outside Taiwan know it is happening. Looks like I'm just another hack writer though :P Most of the groups I just listed above are small/lacking foreigners that if I posted them it'd be obvious who I am, so here's a random example of the type of events I like to participate in https://www.facebook.com/cafephilotw hitension fucked around with this message at 00:56 on Feb 11, 2014 |
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Feb 11, 2014 00:47
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hitension posted:As for social activism, I'm more in the passive observation/紙上談兵 stage, but I regularly participate in a general political/social debate forum, a cross-strait relations discussion group, an international relations reading group, etc. Whenever there are protests (1985 is the big one) I usually go and take pictures and write up a little thing but I haven't really actively protested anything myself. It's not my country so some things are kinda weird Yeah that's what I was thinking. Volunteering for charities and stuff is fine and encouraged, but like protesting the government crosses some lines. Even if I think the government is jerks.
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Feb 11, 2014 00:52
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The best part is how things in Taiwan are really not that bad, but people still get so worked up over issues. I love how advanced civil society is here. Then there are things like elementary school children here studying 台語 as a mandatory subject now, when you consider the intellectual progression from "completely banned under martial law" to "accepted but not an official language" to "actually we want to save this language", it makes Taiwan feel much more developed than it actually gets credit for.
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Feb 11, 2014 00:59
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How do the Hakka feel about Hokkien being called 'Taiwanese' and being a required subject? Aren't the Hakka just as Taiwanese as the Hoklo, with as storied a history and as deep of roots?
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Feb 11, 2014 01:09
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My student once said Hakka are the Jews of Taiwan, because they work much harder than normal people and have a lot of money.
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Feb 11, 2014 03:51
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Bloodnose, it's a very good point and in the circles I run in, it comes up somewhat frequently. There's even a word for this issue: 福佬主義 (Hokloism) Taiwan's national identity is really all over the place, I come across people with such bad  e: added in translations in anticipation of appeasing Bloodnose's 英文主義, it really has been awhile since I posted on these forums hitension fucked around with this message at 06:46 on Feb 11, 2014 |
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Feb 11, 2014 05:20
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Spanish Matlock posted:My student once said Hakka are the Jews of Taiwan, because they work much harder than normal people and have a lot of money. This is a pretty common sentiment. I've run into it with multiple Taiwanese people.
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Feb 11, 2014 07:08
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