Urban Farms beneath the towers of Technology

Hsinchu, where we live, is widely known as the "Silicon Valley" of Taiwan.  It is home to a lot of tech companies and well-paid engineers.  You may have heard of some of these brands - ASUS, Logitech and Acer to name a few.  Jenny's university specializes in engineering and technology as well.  

But between the high rise apartment buildings and along the river trail below the luxury towers, Zhubei's original residents are working their own low tech revolution.  Small community garden plots and even a rice paddy here and there offer a moment of respite from always looking up and counting floors to the sky.  Instead, our focus turns to simple daily work and nutritious food raised by neighbors and feeding our need for a connection to the earth.

Jenny's sister has shared some healthcare tips for city residents like us who suffer from countryside melancholia.  She says we need more time with our feet on the ground - down on the first floor, walking barefoot on the grass.  Today we took her advice and had a picnic breakfast in the park before church.

Here are a few photos I've taken of the urban gardens populating empty lots in our neighborhood. Below those are two videos Jenny took along the riverside bike path during the rice harvest this fall.  The second one has a brief narration that refers back to the first.

The Luxuries of a Pencil Box

What do you need for school?

Markers and Crayons:  I have two boxes of markers and one box of crayons.   One box of markers is small and one big.   

  

Erasers, Pencils and Rulers:  There are many erasers in Taiwan and many different shapes.  I have an eraser shaped like a girl's head, shoes, a cracker sandwich and Winnie-the-Pooh.  There are many different decorations on the pencils.  One of my pencils, the pink one below, you can pull out the lead and there's another new lead under it.  This pencil lost it's cap.  These three rulers you see in this picture.  One of them you can trace circles and the other two you can trace shapes.  In Taiwan they use centimeters (cm) to measure.

Pencil boxes:  I have 5 pencil boxes.  I brought two from Maine, a purple bag from Mama and a pink box from Ms. Powell, my first grade teacher.  My friend Joanna (陳運如) gave me a Sponge Bob pencil case!  I bought two pencil boxes in Taiwan.  One that is a zip open dog.  And one that has Butter Lion on it and many luxuries.  See the video below for details.

A Windy (but not White) Christmas

Merry Christmas from Taiwan

Zhubei is a windy city and that is especially apparent in cooler weather.  Riding my bike to school can be a challenge in the morning when gusts of 20-30 kmh rush between high rise apartment buildings and threaten to blow me into traffic.  This last week as I read about the snow and ice storms crossing the US, I was grateful that all we had to deal with here was rain and wind.  Numerous friends and colleagues in their down parkas, have asked me "Are you cold?"  I usually tell them that it feels like autumn here not winter.  Most can hardly imagine temperatures below 40 degrees Fahrenheit.

While you make your homes cozy and warm for the holidays we want to send our greetings to all of our friends for this Christmas season.  Wishing you the best through even the most difficult times.

Recitation Contest

There was a recitation contest at my university on November 27.  Greg posted this video he took of my performance at the contest.  I will put the speech here in English and Chinese in case you want to read it.  Contestants could pick any text we wanted and read it in Chinese.  I wrote my own on the topic of Redesigning People. I had to shorten it quite a bit to fit it in under the three minute limit.  The contest was for foreigners who are learning Chinese. Students from four universities were invited, but since it was held at Chiaotung University, the university I attend, most of the contestants were from there.  There were three categories of contestants: beginners, intermediate/advanced, and overseas Chinese.  I was in the second category and got first place.  I won an instant camera that spits out film and develops it on the spot.
Below is the full original article in two languages.  And below that is the shortened version in Chinese that I used in the contest.
If you scroll all the way down, you will see a seven-year-old artist's rendition of the redesigned person.

He's holding his teeth. And there's a good reason why his belly is so big.

The first Quarter at National Chiaotung University

These pencils were long when I got to Taiwan but I've studied them down to little stubs.

Hello! It's Jenny here, remember me? You haven't heard much from me because I have been too busy studying these past few months. But now that mid-term exams are over, I am taking the time to update you on how my studies are going. First, how did I choose this university where I am studying?

I got this nine month Huayu Enrichment Scholarship to study Mandarin, paid for by the Taiwan Ministry of Education.  Greg had been accepted in a program for foreigners to teach English under the auspices of the Taiwan Ministry of Education.  After applying to three other universities in Taiwan, and then discovering that Greg's program didn't have teaching positions for him nearby, I chose National Chiaotung University in Xinzhu.  Greg could get a teaching assignment near Xinzhu at two Junior High Schools and I could attend the intensive Mandarin study program offered by NCTU's Mandarin Language Center. (There were lots of teaching positions for him all over Taiwan and lots of universities for me, but very few of them were near enough for us to live together as a family.) Along with my applications for the scholarship and for admission to the universities, I submitted a history of my previous Mandarin studies and time spent in China, and a study plan.  I also checked their online course list to make sure the university had intermediate and advanced Chinese courses for foreign learners.

Here is what happened after arriving in Taiwan.

We arrived in Zhubei in mid-August. It is within communing distance of NCTU in Xinzhu, and of Greg's jobs. I hadn't heard much from NCTU other than that I'd been accepted. So I called to see when the placement test was and when classes started.  That's when I found out there wasn't a placement test because the intensive Mandarin study program that I applied for does not exist for intermediate or advanced learners of Chinese.  It is only for beginners. Despite all the investigation and application materials, the woman at NCTU I had been communicating with by email, just assumed I was a beginner in Chinese.  She said they don't always offer all the courses listed on the website. They do have a limited selection of intermediate and advanced classes but they don't have a formal intensive program for this level.  

I asked the Ministry of Education to transfer me to another university but this isn't allowed if I want to keep my scholarship. So I'm at NCTU.

The intermediate and advanced courses I am taking now are meant to be for foreign students who have had an intensive year of Chinese study but are now in a degree program in some other subject area such as science or technology and only need one or two language courses to keep improving their Chinese.

So this semester at NCTU I am taking six different Chinese courses at various levels from the Mandarin Language Center.  Some are too hard for me, one is too easy, and several are at the right level.  I also take a calligraphy course from General Education (regular courses that Taiwan students take).  Plus I attend two tutoring sessions a week and a bi-weekly Chinese Circle where we are supposed to practice conversation. (Sometimes we do converse and sometimes we just listen to the teacher lecture. It depends which teacher is in charge that week.) I also have recently started attending a weekly tutoring session led by a volunteer teacher.  This is a very heavy course load, way too much, actually, when you add it all up. But I need to take a certain minimum number of course hours to fulfill my scholarship requirements.  

In the Chinese courses the teachers mostly just march through the textbook in a very traditional Asian teaching style.  We learn grammar patterns and long lists of vocabulary words from a dialog or text.  We do workbook exercises at home and take dictations in class.  Most classes are predominantly teacher-centered. I'm familiar enough with the Chinese education system, so this was no surprise. I do have one teacher whose teaching methodology is more student-centered and interactive, and I appreciate that. But generally speaking, we are not using the type of teaching methods ACTFL recommends: three modes of communication, the 5 C's, having students reflect on the learning process, goal setting, performance indicators, etc.

Since I am taking so many courses, there is a lot of material to be responsible for at a time.  Most of the teachers introduce the dialogs, vocabulary and grammar in class but there isn't time to practice these in class.  That's why I do a lot of preview before the class is taught and a lot of follow up to practice outside of class.  Also, the work study students who serve as tutors and the volunteer teacher are great because they don't introduce new material.  I ask questions about what I've been studying and they help clarify. Occasionally we practice with the material but there often is not enough time for that.

I hope next semester I can take fewer classes and do a more thorough job of mastering the material I am studying.

Although the study conditions are not ideal, the good news is that this year I am finally getting to do some serious study in Mandarin.  This is something I've wanted to do for many years now.  So I am working very hard and making the most of it.

One cool thing about my classes is that I have classmates from all over the world: Korea, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Kiribati, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras, France, Ukraine, Russia, Peru, Holland, Thailand, Paraguay, Canada, USA, Burkina Faso and probably a few others I'm forgetting.

In the next blog I'll let you know about the two contests I took part in at my university in November.

Global Citizens Walking Together

Dear Readers,

Our family is really enjoying the challenges of living abroad, learning to communicate and learning to appreciate our differences.  But we also have our moments of exhaustion and discouragement when things don't go smoothly.  At these times we tend toward homesickness and a perception that "home" in the US would be much better.  Knowing that we can't go home however also gives us reason to persevere.  We are thankful for your support and encouragement and we are ever grateful for people here who have taken us into their hearts and lives to make us feel comfortable.

You have already read about some of these folks - my colleagues at school, our church friends and the relatives that have come to see us from afar.  In this month we are thankful for this warm welcome and hospitality.

Earlier this year we were guests in two other countries, Guatemala and El Salvador.  The three of us traveled with the Sister Parish board experiencing welcome and loving care from our friends there working for justice and peace in their corner of the world.

This weekend marks the annual meeting of our Sister Parish board in the US.  Although I remain president in name, I am not resident, and therefore unable to join my colleagues in our annual Walk in Solidarity.

Here's a clip from the beginning of my Walk in Solidarity 2013 - a crowd of supporters leaving the High Court House in Guatemala City after the genocide case against Efrian Rios Mont was suspended on April 19th.  Mayan people from the Ixil triangle led an impromptu march proclaiming the right to truth and the end to impunity of former President Rios Mont.  It was a remarkable day and left a deep impression.  Here you will see Sister Parish delegates, David Martin and Vicki Schmidt from Fargo, ND, Sarah and Mark Jerde from Rochester, MN, Rick Nelson and Nancy Weins from St. Paul, MN and Linda Williams from Danville, CA all walking as we took over a main street artery in downtown Guatemala City.

I will continue my 2013 walk in solidarity this weekend in Taiwan.  It is definitely time for us to come together internationally to address many injustices and imbalances in our social structures, our economic disparity and our environmental degradation.  As news emerges from the Philippines about the "largest typhoon in recorded history", I am asking myself, what can I do better?  And the answer is clear that it cannot be me alone, but me, my family, my church, my school and our wide network of Sister Parish churches working in solidarity to make the world better.

Please walk with us this weekend for our 25th Anniversary celebration.  And if you unable to walk, you are welcome to contribute to my walk fundraiser at http://www.razoo.com/story/25th-Anniversary-Walk.  Click the link or copy and paste it into your browser.

Many, many thanks!

Greg

A Most Frightening Halloween!

On thursday we had a very surprising earthquake.  I thought it was our washing machine bumping around.    The washing machine was going when the earthquake started.  

My mom told me to stand in the doorway of our bathroom.
 I got really really dizzy after the earthquake.  There are many earthquakes in Taiwan so 
the buildings in Taiwan are built so that earthquakes can not do any damage.