[Ganoderma]

it is the third election here in Taiwan.

who will it be, DPP or KMT.

who do you think should win, why?

honestly i think the DPP have done a horrible job as far as securing international trade. But i strongly agree with their fight for freedom and better quality of life. They have done loads of cleaning up, and social justices. The KMT, is much better at business it would seem, but at what cost?

[InfiniteNow]

Does either side have close ties to the Chinese government? I'd be concerned that new leadership would sacrifice Taiwanese independence, but I truly know very little about the issue.

[Ganoderma]

you share the same cncern with me and MANY others!

KMT is more interested in trade and business with china, they want to open the doors to more investment and such, which i can see hurting the way of life here...make the rich richer and make taiwan like china.

And teh results are in, Ma wn...KMT is is and also have a majority of the seats....i am very sad and honestly a little shakey about how the next 4 years will go.....surely it will be more peaceful as china likes KMT more, but i can see the average persons life going down hill because of them....


there was also a referendum for UN membership. my wife voted yes to join the UN, but said a lto of people here (in our town) didn't even vote...sad.

all i can say is ths is what separates Taiwan from China...the right to voice your opinions and be free...so they got what they wanted...

[InfiniteNow]

Thanks for tuning me into the current events there. I'll be paying more attention now. Good luck to all of you. It will be interesting to see what happens as we move forward.

[Ganoderma]

well, the UN vote needed a 50% voter turn out to pass (meaning 50% of the people who voted for president needed to vote for the UN for it to work)....only 36% voted...this is very sad

what the DPP wanted was to join the UN under the name Taiwan, which the KMT strongly opposes! KMT governemnt now, we shall see which way the country heads.....at least it made the US and China happy to see DPP leave.

[InfiniteNow]

Now, are you native to Taiwan, or are you just there teaching? Also, out of curiosity...

老师
or
教授?

我现在学习中文一下.

[Ganoderma]

i am actually a canadian with permenant residence status in taiwan. i am married and teach english here i make the same $ per hour as i did in canada but i SAVE about triple what i could in canada!

so i am a teacher, nto a university or college proffesor or anything fancy....actually the way i type on the internet i probably should not say i teach english, no one would believe me LOL.


thats awesome you are learning chinese, i am as well...mine is till pretty poor. are you learning simplified (china) or traditional (taiwan)? my HUGE problem is the way words are formed, reading/writing are problems for me....you have whatever "letters" to amke the word, which spoken makes sense but writen makes some whole new looking word that looks nothing like its spelled...its not good for bad memory people like myself lol.

typing is another problem for me, cause there can be like 30 words that have the same spelling, but simple stuff i am ok with

你多久學中文？

[InfiniteNow]

Ganoderma said:

are you learning simplified (china) or traditional (taiwan)?

I'm studying primarily simplified, but our class requires that we can recognize both simplified in traditional (which is also used in Hong Kong). So, I can write simplified, but pretty much read both.

Ganoderma said:

你多久學中文？

Not long enough that I can answer in a proper chinese sentence, but about 3 months now.


Cheers.

[Ganoderma]

cool, keep it up i think* Singapore also uses traditional, but not sure.

i have a problem knowing which word is used, when it is the same spelling...something that is even MORE difficult with simplified. but you seem to be doing very well for 3 months! you learning in a school or a mail type program? i went to class for 3 months but had to stop cause of work. after this summer i am going back to school to learn it the right way (on my own i only learn the naughty things ) i find movies help me a lot, so i often rent a lot fo movies and put them on with chinese subtitles or audio if they have it.

[InfiniteNow]

I'm studying at the University here, and my company is paying for it. I am studying while working more than full-time (roughly 60-70 hour weeks), but I do enjoy it, as tired as I am.

This week's lesson is about eating and rest. Maybe I should pay more attention than usual.

[Ganoderma]

well, the price is right! here the classes are quite cheap (relative). itis about $1000USD for 2 hours 5 days a week for 4 months.

what books do you use? i still have not remembered the alphabet, but if you want to try chatting on msn in chinese or something im game

[InfiniteNow]

We have two books. One is the Practical Chinese Reader I, the classic green book with bamboo cartoons on the front that is found in most book stores, but we also have a university specific course packet that guides us. It's printed and put together locally, and is split into lessons.

I've even been listening to the BBC online broadcasts in Chinese. Thanks for the invite on MSN. I don't chat much online, and don't even have MSN installed. I can post to the fora because I do it during meetings or when I'm waiting for queries to finish.