2nd semester

Hello world, I'm back in Taiwan!

After a great Germany trip I am back here in Taipei where my second semester of Chinese study at Shida University already has begun!

I arrived here in Taipei on sunday night at 11pm and was sitting in my classroom monday morning at 8am. I absolutely didn't want to miss another day since I had already missed the whole first week.

It was a great feeling to be back and do the thing I enjoy the most: study Chinese. I felt a bit funny at first because I had not spoken or heard any Chinese the whole 3 weeks I was in Germany but after a while I got the rythm back. ;)

For the 2nd semester I have a new strategy. First semester was already very successful, but in the end of the first semester when it came to the test I found out that I had not really studied at home after class which meant that I was not so well prepared for the test at all. This semester I will change that. Directly after my class at 10am in the morning, I will directly go to the library and sit down for at least one hour to study on my own. Did it these first two days and it was really nice. In the first sem I just went to Taida directly after my Chinese course and did nothing but surf the web and wait for lunch, that time will be spent much better in this semester!

Will keep you updated about my efforts... :)



Here some pictures of my Germany trip...

Went to see the famous castle Neuschwantstein:

Castle Neuschwanstein

Of course that is not the only place we saw. Here are some pictures of the absolutely stunning city called "Rothenburg". A romantic city that takes you back to medieval times...

Rothenburg

Oh yeah, and there was lots of beer when we visited the world's beer capital... MUNICH!

Munich

1st semester is over!

Hello world!

The first semester is over, at least for me! I am writing these linese from Dortmund, Germany, where I arrived on Saturday already! I am back for a 3 weeks vacation before my second semester starts.

Last thursday we had our semester achievment test. Some test were the school checks how well you can recall everything that you learned in the past 3 months. And you have to get a score higher than 60% to go to the next level. I passed. Was really interesting to sit for the exam, I liked it. :)



Here some video greetings from my home in Germany:





Bye bye, and cu next semester!

I dreamed in Chinese...

Yeah, the subject of this blog post says it all: I dreamed in Chinese! I never thought that this was really possible but I guess all the Chinese everyday in class and here on the streets in Taipei did have an impact on my subconsciousness...

In the dream I talked to a blond girl in Chinese. And she also spoke Chinese back. And after a while we both laughed because we realized that we could as well speak in English, but we kept on speaking Chinese. I cannot remember what we were talking about though but it was Chinese and I felt I was quite fluent...in my dreams!

BOCA

There has been a new development in the BOCA issue that I reported about some time ago. I was personally called by the boss of the visa section at BOCA today...

Read more here in the original posting: At your service...

2 months at Shida...

Oh my goodness...

...has it really been 2 months already? I can't believe it. You know, the time goes by so fast, I already see myself sitting in front of my computer and writing a blog post with the subject "My first 2 years at Shida..." !

This whole thing is soo enjoyable! I don't want it to be over so fast! What to do?? Hm, well, what about just staying here in Taiwan and not going back, taking every single course that Shida has to offer, until they will tell me: "Sorry, Sebastian. It is REALLY time to move on, you have taken every course we offer, there is nothing more to learn!! GO HOME!!! THERE IS A LIFE OUTSIDE OF SHIDA WAITING FOR YOU!!!!!!"

Haha...let's see what life will bring. That's the exciting thing, you really never know. At the moment, I really feel like I want to go on with this life, going to Shida in the morning, and then after Chinese class to go Taida and do research. I lead a good life here now. But well, this can't go on like this forever. And that's also a good thing because I will graduate in the end of the year and will be a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering. Sounds like working life is coming closer and closer. I will keep you updated with my plans for life here. :)

So what about my Chinese? Did those 2 months at Shida really make a difference for my spoken Chinese?

YES YES YES.

And also I might say: yes.

I made a lot of progress in those 2 months. Especially in my spoken Chinese. The motivation throughout these 2 months always stayed high, because of the fun that we all had in class. I mention it in nearly every post here, just because that never gets old for me. It is one of the best things to directly practice the new vocabulary and sentence structures with your new friends that can just communicate with you in Chinese and not in English. Go for a class with Asians if you are a westerner. Find a class that doesn't have people from your homecountry or that has few or no people that are willing to speak your native language with you! This will force you to really speak Chinese, also in the breaks and I love to do that. That's why my spoken Chinese really improved.

My teacher is a motivational factor as well for sure. I had very good luck that I got her as my teacher and we all think like that. For the next semester we will ask the school to keep her and the class at it is now. You can keep your teacher and the same people if you find 8 ppl who share this wish and the teacher also signs this form. We will do it!

So now, you might be interested in how I use Chinese in my everyday life here. A good example that shows that I really dare to use it out in the streets: I found myself arguing with a waitress in an Italian restaurant here. No, didn't use Italian (which I cannot speak) but Chinese! The service really sucked and I had to release my anger and frustration. And I did that in Chinese. Wow that was interesting. Haha! AND? Yeah, didn't have to pay the 10% service charge because of my outburst of fury. It must have been super funny though. An angry Germany guy in an Italian restaurant in Taiwan furiously scolding a waitress in Chinese...haha!

Okay, looking forward for the last month of my first semester at Shida!

Bye, Sebastian

Chinese Gadgets

Hello everybody!

Back to Chinese! Enough of room rental websites and so on... :) Who is still interested in how the room rental site is working out can check my blog about that: roomsdb.wordpress.com

Remember I told you about my flashcard system and that I wouldn't use any cool PDAs or smartphones but still really wanted to have one anyways? Well, I really couldn't resist to get one, I love gadgets and here is my newest one:




The Motorola Ming ! This is my first Motorola Cellphone and I love it! Well, the design speaks for itself, it is just awesome. But it's functions really gave me no other chance but to buy it.

It is small compared to other smartphones but still has all the PDA functions you would need. Calendar, Tasklist, Notes, Contacts, Email and so on and so forth. Of course you can synch all that to your Outlook over bluetooth or a standard USB cable. Nice. It also comes with MSN pre-installed, so you could chat with your buddies on the go as well. Of course it can playback MP3 and videos with its build in real player.

But what made it really appeal to me is its Chinese-English dictionary with handwriting recognition function. And it works like a charm. Whenever I see a character that I cannot read now, I just write it onto the big display and the phone will recognize it and directly give me the translation. Sweeet!! I love it.

And the price is also very good! You can get it at NOVA next to Taipei Main station for just 9000 NTD, without a contract! That is really a good price for this smartphone. If you get it with a contract, I have even seen it for 3000+ NTD (Taiwan Da Ge Da).

Okay, I can't write more now, have to play with my Moto Ming..

You also have a Wii ???

Hello everybody!

I haven't written for quite a while now. Oh my god, was I busy! The other part of me, the one where I am this computer nerd got the upper hand again...at least for the last week. I have been working on a web project of mine and once it is finished, I'll tell you about it. Back in Germany I worked part-time as a php programmer, you know that web stuff. It is still a big hobby of me now and from time to time I got some ideas and I need to realize these ideas or I cannot relax anymore. But once finished, I am always very happy and that moment will come soon. Having time to write this article indicates that already...

But back to my Chinese studies. Yeah, Chinese class started this monday again, after 5 days of spring break. It was hard to go back to school. No, not because I lost my motivation to study Chinese! The wheather completely sucked! It didn't stop to rain and it was really cold. Walking through the rain for 20 minutes to get to school on a monday morning is far from ideal...but I have to fight for my Chinese to improve! :)

Class is as great as ever before. Today I could witness the magic of language once again. I have a Japanese in my class, he is 32 years old but looks younger than me. I had never talked to him before, but today in our little break, we started to talk. Of course in Chinese. I found out that he is also an electrical engineer and later we discovered that we have more in common: we are both fanatic videogamers! Ah, how great that was for me to speak with a Japanese about videogames! You know, Japan is *THE* country when it comes to videogames. Actually, I had never in my life spoken to a Japanese before, have you? In Chinese?? haha... :) We share the same passion, and we both own a Nintendo Wii, a Nintendo DS and a Playstation Portable. Actually it was funnny. I asked him if he had a Nintendo Wii already and he answered: "OF COURSE!" At that time we became friends. :) Learn languages - make new friends! We will bring our Nintendo DS to class tomorrow....