October 2011
29 posts
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MLC: To the Point -- Evening Chinese Classes
MLC: To The Point - Evening Chinese classes
I know you keep telling yourself you’ll study Chinese but something always comes up. Well this is a great class for those busy people who have to work in Taiwan.
These classes are focused on a specific topic every week like ‘eating at a restaurant’ or ‘talking on the telephone’. Since there’s a new topic every week...
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Taipei Metro (MRT) (iPhone app review) →
Taipei Metro (MRT) app http://rguide.info/zht/ Free app (small ads at the bottom of the screen)
This is the best Taiwan MRT application on the iPhone by far. It can find the closest MRT station to you using GPS. It is the easiest to use because it has the cleanest interface and is bilingual. Did I mention it’s free too? If you wish to pay for an upgrade, you can get offline station maps...
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List of Chinese Language Centers in Taiwan →
What are you doing in Taiwan? One reason people come is to study Chinese.
The Republic of China(ROC) on Taiwan has for many years been home to numerous institutions devoted to the study of the Chinese Language. Perhaps this is one reason why the number of foreign students coming to the ROC for all levels of language study has been increasing for so long.
Studying Mandarin Chinese is a good...
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Green Apple Guava 芭樂 - my favorite fruit in Taiwan
One of the great things about Taiwan is the huge variety of tropical fruit we have here. We have guava, mangoes, pineapple and dragon fruit. There are so many different kinds of fruit here I have never seen before in my life!
My favorite of all these amazing fruits is the green apple guava. The Taiwanese call it by it’s name in Taiwanese, ba1la4, but write it with its Mandarin name, 芭樂 (Bā...
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Say "hi" to Taiwan! →
Non-Taiwanese can enter a photo in a contest. The photo must have at least one of the following elelements in it: Taiwan, hello or love. The winner gets up to NT$100,000 to visit Taiwan. That sounds like a sweet deal, eh?
I entered! Go upload your photo right now.
Good luck to all participants :D
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Taipei Baboons Rugby Club - Taiwan →
Taipei Baboons Rugby Club is a rugby club based in Taipei, Taiwan. They regularly practice & play rugby and also watch rugby matches at The Brass Monkey.
Group description:
For past and present members of the Taipei Baboons Rugby Club. It will be also used to keep you posted on games and events planned for the season.
For more info or to join, check out their Facebook group.
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Taipei Int'l Design Expo 2011, Part 2
I went to the Taipei Design Expo again today at Songshan Cultural & Creative Park. I sure seem to have bad luck though, every time I go it seems it is overrun with students.
I started by going through the Exhibition 1, ‘In Bliss’. It was the second time going through it but still interesting. There are lots of interesting exhibits in here. They range from model houses to an...
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Buying Furniture in Taiwan
Where do you go? It depends how much you want to spend really but the good news is that it’s probably better quality, built in Taiwan and cheaper than what you would buy back home.
You have 3 basic options when buying furniture: buy used, get from IKEA or a factory store.
1. Buying Used
The cheapest option but with the least selection of colours and materials. Picking up the furniture is...
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SchoolX.org - We Do Your Homework! →
Written by a teacher living and working in Taiwan who’s been around the block a few times. Valuable insight is shared on his blog from stories of horrible places worked, HESS, and awesome places he has worked, Time International.
It’s a very interesting blog especially for those who are teaching in Taiwan but the posts tend to run a bit long and there is little graphic relief :/
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Taipei Chess Queen Club // 臺北下棋俱樂部 →
What? Club that meets every week to play chess, xiangqi, shogi, anggi, Go, and other games. When? Wednesdays 7:00 - 11:00 PM Where? Starbucks at Shi-Da Rd. No. 74 in the basement Cross street is Yunhe St. 師大雲和門市. Chinese address: 師大路74號B1
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Pleco, your Chinese study buddy (iPhone app)
Pleco is my favorite iPhone app to study Chinese from the dozens I’ve tried. It stands out from the rest for three reasons:
It has a beautiful interface.
It’s modular and customizable.
It has a killer flashcard feature. (“Flashcard system”)
1. Beautiful interface
It has a very soothing blue color scheme. The Chinese characters in the dictionary are color coded by...
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Taiwan World Design Expo 2011 - Taipei, Taiwan
Coming to Taipei soon? Check out the Taipei World Design Expo. Only 1 of the 3 venues is open right now, Songshan Cultural & Creative Park, but it is still a blast! There are exhibits from all over the world on architecture, industrial design and graphic design as well. The lines to get in look daunting but they move really quickly. There isn’t much to eat or drink around there so you...
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I Got my Scooter Licence! - How to Guide
I finally got my scooter licence! I’m so excited that I don’t have to drive so cautiously now for fear of the police. I now can drive with reckless abandon for traffic rules like the rest of the Taiwanese!
But seriously, I’m sure you want your scooter licence too right? Not the wimpy 50cc licence, I’m talking about the 50-250cc licence. Well once you have your 1 year ARC...
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523 Mountaineering Association, Taiwan. →
Do you like hiking?
Do you sometimes venture outside of your apartment into “nature”?
Well I do. I like this group! It’s a mixture of ex-pats and Taiwanese people who enjoy hiking. It’s for all experience levels so you have no excuse not to try it at least once.
Join the Facebook group and maybe I’ll see you out there next time!
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35 TEFL Career Milestones →
… a list of typical career milestones for a TEFL* teacher. How many have you achieved? How many will you achieve? Just tick them off, and see if you can consider yourself a full-fledged master of the game, or just another also-ran.
My score is 20!
15 -25 milestones achieved — you’re a total pro, baby
Psst….so what’s your score? Find out!
* TEFL = teaching...
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Top 100 Cram Schools in Taiwan →
There are thousands of schools in Taiwan. Good luck finding their website or unbiased information about them. When you do find their website, it’s probably going to be all in Chinese anyways.
Top 100 Cram Schools in Taiwan attempts to bring some order and accountability to the schools. It has a Teacher Satisfaction Survey which asks teachers questions about their experience at their...
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Using Recruiters to find a Teaching Job in Taiwan
They can be helpful in your search for a teaching job once you get sick of trolling TEALIT everyday. They should be the first people you contact when you start your job search as they will be sending you jobs to check out while you are manually searching for your own job. Also some schools only use recruiters to find their employees so you can’t ignore the recruiters.
There are two big...
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Taiwan’s Double Ten Day and the Republic of... →
Two sides of the same celebration: the politics explained by Kevin McCaffrey in this blog posting in The Morningside Post.
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Where to Find a Job in Taiwan?
After unsuccessfully trying to win the lottery for a few weeks, you decide you need a steady source of income. Great, now what? As a foreigner in Taiwan you basically have 4 options: teaching, engineering, sales, and translating Chinglish into English. You can also find other sorts of jobs such as modeling and commercials but it’s not steady work.
Once you decide what sort of job you are...
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“Tai·wan [tahy-wahn]”
– nounWade-Giles, Pinyin .
a Chinese island separated from the SE coast of China by the Taiwan Strait: a possession of Japan 1895-1945; restored to China 1945; seat of the Republic of China since 1949. Capital:Taipei
Quick history lesson: Taiwan’s history is very complicated. Since you live here...
Welcome!
Welcome to Taiwan. Some of you are English teachers, others are business people and others are aliens (?!) Oh wait we are all aliens! Anyways, whoever you are, welcome! I hope you enjoy your time in Taiwan.
What’s this blog about?
I want to share my experiences with you about living in Taiwan. I know it can be very frustrating to find English information online about certain things. I hope...
