Finals 期末考

(Brain pain...)

And so we meet again...

For the last couple of weeks I have been ridiculously busy with classes. Normally, my Chinese class is from 2-5, Mon-Fri, with on average two hours of homework each night; however, recently that has increased, with an extra class Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 7-9pm, with its own homework, and more recently Thursday and Friday afternoons from 5-7, with its own homework too. All of these extra classes were tailored for the TOCFL (華語水準考試), and since all levels of students take the same tests, all levels of students prepare the same way.

This, of course, meant that I was by far the newest student of Chinese in the room. I'm currently studying "Beginner 3" level of Chinese, which for all intents and purposes means I can talk about pretty much anything I want to, as long as I'm okay describing some more difficult concepts because I don't know the actual word for "kayaking"; however, after my level we start getting into written Chinese.

Chinese is a really interesting language. The spoken form of Mandarin I've been studying (and over one billion people speak) is actually only about three hundred years old, but their current writing system dates back to the Han Dynasty, established around 300 BCE. (There was Chinese writing before that, and a scholar could still read it, but it although the current system is descended from it it wasn't standardized, so it's incredibly difficult to read.) The beauty and horror of Chinese writing, really, is the same aspect of it- you can communicate a huge amount of information in a tiny amount of space- for instance, 近府施行法律成功了 means "The recent laws enacted by the government have been a success"! But, you would never, ever speak like that- no one would understand anything you say. Essentially, written high-level Chinese is a kind of officially endorsed shorthand, combined with a few thousand old, very specific characters that if you know them make it impossible to misunderstand what the author meant (useful when your hieroglyphic written language is spoken in over fifty local dialects), but if you don't know them leave you blankly staring at the shape in front of you, searching for contextual clues.

My teacher going over some new words in the form of a story (this is the normal class, I just felt we needed a picture to break up the wall of text).

And it is just this kind of written Chinese that we started studying in these evening classes. At first, I was completely lost, and despite the rapidly approaching test was seriously wondering why I was attending. I talked with my teacher, though, and she encouraged me to at least try, even if I felt like I was slowing the rest of the class down; so I did. We got workbooks with all the class material in them, but about 40% of the characters in them (all Chinese, no English to help out) were beyond me. I took them one at a time. I took them apart, looked at the grammar and meaning, then tried to put together a new sentence with them, and with the help of my teacher (working a little overtime for me, I might add) one by one filled in all the major gaps in my understanding, enough that after two weeks I could actually keep up in class, despite being a full year of studying behind the next newest student.

Class picture! Myself, my teacher Qiu 丘, Tatsu, Vietnamese Suqiu, and Indonesian Yuzu 

However... all was for naught.

This last Wednesday, I thought it was odd that although I knew which day the test happened, I still had no idea where I was supposed to go or what time of day to arrive at. Back in March, I went to my school's office to sign up for the test, so I figured I'd go ask them.

They told me they had no record of me signing up for the test.

We went back and forth for a while- I had to pay money for this thing, where did that go?!- and eventually figured it must have been a miscommunication. I went to the office because although I have to take the test as part of my scholarship, I had no idea how to sign up for it. They thought I wanted to sign up for the supplemental courses (which in fairness I did), but since signing up for the test is SO EASY, why would anyone ask us for help? His Chinese is probably just off, that's all. So they took my money for the supplemental courses and told me I was all set, which I took to mean all set for the TOCFL...

The next morning I woke up early and went to the Ministry of Education's office to see what I could do. They sympathized, but it was too late. I have two options: Either I can wait until November and then take the test, or if more than 40 students flunk, there is a make-up exam that I am invited to.

As far as the test itself, it would be nice to have an official document saying "Taiwan Says He Is Fluent In Chinese", but really it's a scholarship problem. I need to get in touch with the SF branch of Taiwan's Ministry of Education and explain my situation- hopefully they'll understand. Worst case scenario, they could take back all the money they've given me, which would leave me with little option but to return home and try to get out of debt!

But enough of that, it's depressing. Here's a picture of the "ethnic section" of our local supermarket instead!

Ketchup, Minced onions and Rosarita! Yes!

The only real interesting thing to talk about that wasn't class since I got back from Hong Kong was a little get-together we had the middle of last week. A couple months ago, we had a sister named Irinka leave our congregation, first to return home to Detroit and get things in order, then to go onwards to Mainland China. (Normally I wouldn't post that, or certainly not her face, but she said the area she is going to is totally fine with it, for some reason. Okay.) But on her trip to 大陸, she first stopped in for a visit one more time, and we had pizza!

Not pictured: Pizza.

We had gotten music and games set up, but in the end we just kind of sat around, ate pizza, drank beer and talked for like five hours. It would've been really boring to watch, I'm sure, but that's what happens when you have interesting friends! She took off just a few days after, surely off to a good start in her new territory!

Last weekend was our Special Assembly Day. We had a total attendance of 671, with 16 baptized- not bad for a SAD! At least one good thing came out of all this hassle with the TOCFL- if I had taken it like I was planning, I wouldn't have been able to attend this with my own congregation.

Main auditorium- it looks like we just rented out a high school's :-)

It was an excellent, very upbuilding program, and as a bonus we had not one but two English talks! (Translated, of course.) Two people from our congregation got baptized, too :-)

Afterwards, a few of us decided to go out for something to eat.

The view outside... and us, in the way of the view

Although only six of us decided to eat, people heard about it, and invited more people, who invited more people... in the end, twenty of us ended up all going together to Taipei Main Station! We looked around for about an hour, trying to find someplace that was both cheap enough for us pioneers to eat at, but had enough seats for us all to sit together... eventually we gave up, went our different ways to get whatever food we could, then met back up in the main hall an hour later.

Joseph brought donuts! Hooray!

Not everyone did meet up again, of course, but eating donuts on a (clean!) train station floor in a suit is just not for everyone. :-)

Then, because me and Nikolai decided we spend too much time in Taipei, we got a small group together and went to the small village of Wulai, about an hour south into the mountains.

Bridge into Wulai (and a butterfly that flew in the way!)

Wulai was originally an Aborigine village, and most of the people who actually live there are of Native Taiwanese descent. It's a little touristy, of course, but how could it not be only being an hour outside the capital city?

Wulai Main Street

Although it's definitely a tourist town, mostly they cater to Taiwanese tourists- we only saw one other non-Taiwanese person there the whole day. Because of their ancestry, they're allowed to hunt freely on the island (no one else is, ever), which made the food there amazing! Wild boar sausage with honey glaze... on a stick! (The stick makes it fancy. :-) )

Amy and Joel chilling with some... locals?

After bumming around the town for a little while, we went for a walk up a mountain road, and before too long...

Waterfall!

There was a Buddhist monastery built at the top of the cliff. The only easy way to get to it was by a fairly expensive cable car ride, though, and since we didn't want to pay for their temple, we skipped it. Awesome place for a temple though, gotta say.

Near the waterfall were a couple more small shops, mostly selling Aborigine crafts and such. They were really nice, but a bit too expensive for me! It was a nice walk and a beautiful waterfall, though.

We also saw this guy. Best caterpillar ever.

Check out what I found in one of the stores: Bee alcohol!

Actual bees, not honey. I asked the guy behind the counter who had that idea, and he said the bees "are very angry and attack people", as if that explained anything.

Apparently it tastes sweet and a little acidic, and is very good for your heart and hair. I wasn't brave enough to buy any, though!

We decided to be lazy and not walk on the way down- instead, we bought very cheap tickets to ride their tiny train back into town. They had a sign next to it saying how this train is really the only reason Wulai still exists, and at one time was their sole method of bringing food and supplies into the town. Now of course they have paved roads, but it's cool to see they maintained the tracks!

Fun ride too!

After buying some fruit and bread at one of the stores in town, we capped the day off by going down to the river for a swim!

Wulai Riverfront

The water was clear and cold, with a surprisingly fast current! It was full of fish and ducks, with the occasional hot spring making the water abruptly warm in spots. Downriver, they had harnessed a bunch of those to make a free area where people could swim or walk to and relax for a while. Myself, Nikolai, Cameron, Michelle and Joel swam across the river to do just that, but those hot springs are really, really hot, and only Cameron could stand them for very long. Even he said that was the hottest water he's ever been in!

I only have two more days of school left until I am officially no longer a student. Tomorrow is a review course and an opportunity to ask any last questions we might have about the last three months, then Tuesday is the actual Final. After that... well, it depends. If I can use my online schooling and my TESOL here in Taiwan, I'd like to find a job and save up some money for a few months. If I can't, I'll have to think of a new plan. And of course, if the San Francisco MOE decides to be a pain, that could affect me too. But all of these concerns are future ones that I can't currently influence- I just need to wait and rely on Jehovah.