Stirring Hope: Fun at the Chinese Learning Center

When I first began my Chinese classes it was an exciting adventure because I always love learning and experiencing new things. However, by the halfway point of the semester I was really starting to wonder if I would ever be able to speak this challenging language. Thankfully I had an awesome teacher, wonderful classmates, and Jesus of course :) Now with final exams completed I can look back at the past 10 weeks and realize just how much I've learned and how far I've come!

The Chinese Learning Center (CLC) does a great job in creating a fun learning environment. Not only do they do a fantastic job at teaching us the Chinese language but they also host a number of cultural activities and other great events for all of us foreign students. Over the past 2 and a half months I've made some great friends and we've had many good times and have shared much laughter. Here are some of the highlights:

The beautiful pond right outside the CLC
Perfect studying environment, right???

Trip to the Aboriginal Cultural Park

Taiwan continues to boast of it's rich history and culture of the native aboriginal people that inhabit the island. There are currently 14 different aboriginal tribes in Taiwan, most of which live in the rural mountainous regions. Although the aboriginal tribes have many commonalities, each tribe has their own specific tribal language, clothing and customs. It was fascinating to learn more about each tribe and to participate is many of their traditions first hand!

Cherry, Jess and I snagging a photo with this tribesman

Men and women representing all the different tribes

A Tribal canoe

Learning the art of making glass beads

Dancing in the streets

Tattoes and warrior cries from Jess and I

Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year is celebrated at the beginning of the lunar calendar, not on January 1st as we do in Canada. It is probably the biggest holiday of the year in Taiwan but also the busiest because pretty much the whole country has these days off of work and school. The Chinese Learning Center made it a fun experience for us foreign students by teaching us how to make dumplings and write Chinese calligraphy.

2014 is the Year of the Horse

Dumplings anyone?

Dumpling filling: pork, green onions, spices.
Pretty easy but still delicious!

Learning how to "bag" dumplings

Group consensus: yum!

The "shū fǎ" (Chinese calligraphy) master

Manuel and Pablo scoping out my work.
Take my word - it's harder than it looks!

Happy New Year!

Reading Competition

Every semester the CLC holds a competition where every class has to perform a specific Chinese act. This semesters it was a reading competition so our class performed a very popular children's poem called "Bàba bǚ yú qù" (translated as Don't Go Fishing Dad). Our teacher got creative and changed it into a song so it was a hit with the judges as they were all flooded with nostalgic memories of elementary school. We were supposed to be judged based on our pronunciation but even despite our mistakes, our charisma was enough to win us 2nd place! The prize? Pizza and chicken wings. Kind of funny to have Western food as a prize considering we are Chinese language students! It was delicious nonetheless and it was so fun to see the other classes' performances.

A1 class gets creative with yellow rain jackets

A2 class' pronunciation is spot on

A3 class reciting a famous children's poem, Bàba bǔ yú qù

A3 class - So maybe we weren't quite perfect but
what we lacked in skill we made up for with our enthusiasm!

Congrats A3 class - 2nd place winners!

Hot Pot

One thing you will notice right away when you come to Taiwan is that their culture is all about food. Going for hot pot with a group of friends is particularly popular, especially during the "winter" season (I say "winter" in quotation marks because even though it's winter it's still sunny and 25 degrees outside). All over Taiwan you will find hot pot restaurants, most of which are all-you-can-eat buffets. Each person gets their own heated soup container so you can choose which kind of soup broth you'd like and control the temperature individually. You then get to pick from a wide array of noodles, meat, seafood, vegetables and other edible goodies to put in your soup. There are also many other non-hotpot dishes as well as fruit, ice cream, fondue and other desserts. It's one of my fave outings because it's a great place to socialize and also because you can literally eat for hours!