User Comments - calkins

Posted on: Turn in Your Homework

Interesting. I've also heard 功課 used for 'take home work' from your job, as in 我不可以出去了，我得做功課。Is this a Taiwanese usage or fairly common everywhere?

Posted on: International vs. Local Schools

Hi bodawei, you lost me on:

"This 100 day 以后 celebration seems to have been maintained even if the counting of years now looks more like the convention in other countries."

Even if I switch "other countries" with "The West", I still don't get it! Could you elaborate?

Posted on: Dealing with 管 (guan)

dewknot4git2takurmedz2day;-)

Posted on: International vs. Local Schools

I guess I would say that there are more (or at least some) traditions that died out on the mainland but are still practiced in Taiwan. I can't say for sure, as I don't know much more than you do on that subject! Perhaps it's the whole Mao destroying Chinese traditions thing, I'm not sure.

I think the 虛 part of 虛歲 simply means fake or false. Fake age or false age, perhaps. But then why would they believe this is a person's true age, yet call it the fake age. I just searched for 虛歲 in Pleco and the ABC Dictionary gave me the antonym, 足歲 "real age (vs. counting a person as one year old at birth)". So perhaps 虛 does imply "false". Where's Changye when we need him?!

Regarding typing in traditional.....before, I was posting from my iPod, which is set to traditional (handwriting-recognition). So I guess I wasn't typing, I was writing the characters. However, now I'm on my Mac and am using QIM to type traditional. I have the default set to traditional, but can easily toggle (shift-space bar) to use simplified. QIM is a great IME (very intuitive) with lots of options, but it does cost money (I bought it I think about 3 or so years ago for $12.95 and it has been worth every cent). I'm not sure if it works on Windows. Let me see if I can find the link. Nope, only for Mac. But hey, that's just one more reason, in the millions of reasons, to switch to Mac ;-)

Posted on: International vs. Local Schools

Hey Baba, Taiwan still uses the traditional Chinese age, called 虛歲. When a baby is born, he or she is considered 1 year old, basically counting the 9 months in the womb as a year. I guess it kind of makes sense when you consider a fetus as a living thing.

Posted on: Chinatown Diary

I definitely understand and feel your pain. It was the same for me when I moved to Taiwan. The zh --> z, sh --> s, etc. drove me up the wall. I still can't get used to 十四 (sisi) and 四十 (sisi). Sometimes they even go from z --> zh, like in the word 房租, which should be pronounced fangzu but most Taiwanese pronounce it fangzhu! I really don't understand that one.

One good thing is that it really forces you to focus on listening to tones.

I have also found that most Taiwanese understand standard pronunciation, because as children they are actually taught (using bopomofo) the standard pronunciation (i.e. zhongwen instead of zongwen).

I'm partial of course since I live here, but now I actually prefer the Taiwanese pronunciation....it's a bit softer to my ears.

Posted on: Chinatown Diary

Ha ha, it seems I'm sticking up for Taiwanese a lot today :) Probably because I'm a little impartial (but just a little). Anyway, yes Taiwanese pronunciation is "non-standard", but how many parts of China are "standard"?! I would say the majority are not.

I would have to disagree with:

"To make matters worse, they're often not even aware how non-standard their speech is."

I would say that the majority of Taiwanese know they don't speak the same way those in Beijing speak, at least those who have been to Beijing or watch mainland TV (which is a lot of people). And of course, no matter what accent you speak with, you are always going to think that your own accent is standard, as it is what you hear and speak 24 hours a day!

Let's embrace the many different Chinese accents.....let's live as one people with many differences....let's communicate with each other even if we sound like drunk monkeys to each other :) 我知道，太誇張了吧！

Posted on: Playing Ice Hockey

I agree with you completely. My point is that you wouldn't call a "Chinese" American a 中國人，you would call them a 美國人. And definitely, as you and cinnamonfern point out, most 華人 maintain strong ties with their Chinese heritage and customs (at least as much as they can in a foreign country). Taiwanese are no different.

Taiwanese (at least the ones I have encountered) definitely consider themselves Chinese, but from my experience you'd be very very hard-pressed to find one who says "我是中國人。"

Posted on: Playing Ice Hockey

Absolutely, Taiwanese consider themselves Chinese (at least those who can trace their ancestors to mainland China). Taiwanese don't dispute that, and Taiwanese certainly have deep roots in Chinese culture and ways of life.

However, you wouldn't call a 華人 (a person of Chinese descent) born and reared in the United States a Chinese, you would call them an American. Same applies to me....I can trace my ancestors to Germany, but I was born and reared in the U.S. - I'm not German, I'm American. Same applies to those of Chinese descent who were born and reared in Taiwan - they are Taiwanese...台灣人，not 中國人!

Posted on: Playing Ice Hockey

In the 2 plus years I've lived in Taiwan, I have never come across a Taiwanese (young, middle-aged, or old) who wants Taiwan to give up its independence to become a part of China (PRC). I'm not saying this is an accurate poll or anything, it is just my experience as a foreigner (who admittedly knows too little and has too little experience on this subject) living in Taiwan.

The way I look at it, if China had a more "open" government, allowed more individual freedoms, and had even a decent human rights record, I think many more Taiwanese would be happy being a part of China. But to do so now, with the way the government is in China, would be taking a step backwards, not forwards. Why would anyone in Taiwan want to do that? Why would any country want to do that, to take a step back? The ultimate goal of a country is to improve the lives of its people.

Please don't take this as a bashing of China or its people, it is not at all. China has many many great things to be proud of. There are just a few areas that would need to be greatly improved before it could expect Taiwan to happily (without force) become a part of the PRC.