In the Thick of It

Hello friends,

At this point, I've been in Taiwan for close to two weeks, and in Pingtung for two weeks. Over that period I've been plenty busy, adjusting to life in Taiwan, adjusting to life in Pingtung, and adjusting to my position teaching at a school owned by my host, Andrew Carrick. The period has been a wild mix of bracing acceleration punctuated by open spaces of empty "down time." My brain, ears, and stomach have been busy reorienting themselves to a new social and physical environment, with a different cityscape, different food, and different language. For all of these reasons, the trip so far has been a little rocky. It is important to emphasize, however, that it has not been bad--each success I reach is all the more fulfilling because the road is rough.

Since my arrival, working at Carrick's English School has captured most of my time and attention. The school itself is a good example of cultural difference between Taiwan and the USA. As a "Bushiban" or "Cram School," the English school is not any sort of standard elementary, middle, or high school. Rather, it is akin to an after school program. After students have finished their normal school day (which runs until about 5:00), their parents will enroll them into a "Bushiban" program such as Carrick's, where they will stay to learn English until sometime between 8-9:00pm. By the time I'm done with them, these kids are really exhausted.

From my own end, teaching has proven to be quite challenging. Last summer, too, I was teaching English. The experience was really exciting, felt like a success, with the one caveat that my Chinese was not yet very conversationally communicative. This summer, coming to Pingtung, I was looking forward to using much better Chinese to communicate with a new batch of kids. What I didn't count on was that the school, Carrick's Bushiban, requires that teachers speak no Chinese in the classroom. This, has been a challenge. Lately, I've been finding that I am naturally loquacious, and not given to the simple, direct, easy speech that is necessary to the classroom, especially with young children. This has led to a lot of misunderstanding, which is currently my biggest frustration with teaching, the counterbalance to having my job, essentially, being to make kids laugh.

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When not spending time at the school, I've spent much of my free time exploring the immediate area. Pingtung, the city where I am staying is not too big, boasting only about 100,000 residents or so. It has a very local-town feel. It is adjacent, however, to Kaohsiung, which is the second largest city on the island of Taiwan, following only Taipei. Kaohsiung has a fascinating history. Founded in the 17th century by the earliest immigrants from China, the city grew into an important industrial base and shipping center under the Japanese colonization from 1895 up until the end of World War II in 1945. Kaohsiung's mixed legacy from the Japanese rule, having experienced both colonial repression and significant investment in the form of colonial development, matches the experience of much of the island to Japan's presence during the war. In comparison to the heavy prices exacted against the populations in Korea, Manchuria, and the Chinese heartland, Japanese rule in Taiwan was much less harsh. In the case of Kaohsiung, investment during the war did much to position it to become one of the largest commercial harbors in the world in the second half of the 20th century. It is still up there, following below only the likes of Singapore, Shanghai, Rotterdam (Dutch), and Guangzhou (Southern China). In the last few years, the city has also begun to grow not only in industrial and commercial capacity, but also as a metropolitan, livable city. Perhaps 1.5 million people live within the city limits, and maybe 3 million in the wider metropolitan area (including Pingtung!). (Thanks to Wikipedia, Lonelyplanet.com, and my hosts for the history).

So it's an interesting place to be next to. Perhaps surprisingly, Pingtung doesn't feel entirely overshadowed by its larger neighbor. Sure, people travel to the larger city whenever they want to do serious shopping, but Pingtung still has a strong sense of regional identity. Much of this comes, it seems, from Pingtung's position--a space between the mega metropolis and the rural countryside leading up into the mountains. It is a mere 20 minutes in either direction to international shopping malls in Kaohsiung or to the territories reserved for native (non-Han Chinese) Taiwanese villages in the nearby mountains.

So far, as part of my busy schedule, I've had a chance to visit both Kaohsiung (see the pictures of the beach below) and the native-Taiwanese village of Sandimen (lit: Three Gates) at the edge of the mountains (see the picture of the mountains). Both were rich visits fully worthy of their own independent posts, but for the moment I leave you with a few pictures of the surrounding world around the Pingtung region.

Until next time,

-Eli

My hosts (Andrew and Julia Carrick)














The beach by Kaohsiung














Lanterns by a restaurant where we ate in Kaohsiung














A view from Sandimen














Morris (a student) and me!