Chao hao!

I learned from my laogong that people in Taiwan don't say ting hao ('quite good'), instead they say chao hao (something like 'super')! I like it.

Sorry for not posting this earlier, but I should mention that Kaohsiung was barely affected by the typhoon, so no need to be worried about me. The city is on the west side of the island, and typhoons all come from the east side, off the Pacific Ocean. Also, there are some really tall mountains in the center of Taiwan that shield western Taiwan from the force of the typhoon. At any rate, northeastern Taiwan got hit pretty badly, but down here all we had were a couple of really windy days and a bit of rain. It was actually pretty nice. After the typhoon left, the air was really gross - humid and heavy with pollution - and I wished the typhoon would come back. The pollution here can get pretty bad...it's just palpable in the air sometimes, and you can feel it settling on your skin. Ew.

So! At the beginning of this week, I spent a number of hours interviewing 3rd-6th graders at school for spots in the Little Angels, the school's elite group of English students. It is apparent to me that the whole concept of Little Angels is less to provide enrichment for advanced English students and more to give the school something to show off. Whatever.

Anyway, the auditions went like this: each student gives a speech in English to two of the local English teachers, who then ask some follow-up questions. The student then moves into the next room, where they have to face...dun dun dun...a NATIVE ENGLISH SPEAKER! ONE-ON-ONE! This was me. Naturally, most of the students were very nervous, so I threw them a couple of softball questions and tried to work up from there. I started with things that I knew they had practiced, like "what's your name?" and "how are you?" The answer to the latter question is, invariably, a robotic "I-am-fine-thank-you," sometimes with a little "and you?" tacked on the end. I think at some point I will do a lesson for my class in which I explain that there are other things to be besides fine, like "fabulous!" Once I got into more open-ended questions, the interviews got more interesting. When I asked, "what do you like to do?" one student cheerfully announced, "I like to hit my brother." This turned into a common follow-up question - after asking the students about their siblings, I would ask how they got along.

The funniest, though, was the one little girl who I could barely get to talk to me. I got her to tell me her name, but she stared at me blankly with every other question. I asked her what she liked to do, and when she didn't respond, I gave some prompts..."do you like to swim? read books? play baseball?" Finally, I got a very soft "bicycle." I responded with lots of enthusiasm and encouragement, but my further questions got more blank stares. Do you have brothers or sisters? Mumble. Do you have a brother? Head shake. Do you have a sister? Mumble. How old is your sister? Stare. Do you play with your sister, or do you fight? Long stare, finally followed by one whispered, barely audible word......

"Bicycle." Aaaaaaand the interview was over. Heard all I needed to hear.