Intermediate - Taipei

Haha, a lesson on Taipei leads to a discussion of my favorite local Chinese Restaurant in Maryland, Bob's Noodles. My wife and I actually got 66 to cater our wedding, but these days it's all about 88 and the shabu shabu. Also, I think 66 has gone downhill a little, probably because Bob spends most of his time at 88 now. The oyster omlet there is good but the best I"ve had was on the street in Fongyuan, Taiwan.

101 is great on  a clear day, and of course the Palace Museum is a must see for any vistor to Taipei. The surrounding mountains are also quite spectacular.

I will be living in Taichung, Taiwan for the coming year.

(only 2 hours by bus from Taipei)

Feel free to get in touch if you head this way.

Hey, Brent! When's your big move to Taiwan? It's almost summer of '08.That Taipei 101 looks pretty awesome; thanks for the video.

Hi Alice, thanks for asking...the earliest I can move is end of July, once I fulfill all of my work obligations...but I also need to sell my place.  Anyone looking to buy a loft in Chicago?!

Thanks for opening the door to my little plug:)  I'm ready for the big move to the wonderful capital of Taiwan...

Glad to be of service : ) Do I get a commission? BTW, awesome loft pix! Wow!

I find that Tainan is the most interesting city in Taiwan because of its interesting mix of old and new.  Also the street vendors in Tainan serve up an amazing array of food and all of it very very good.  Tainan was the capital during the Qing dynasty.  Lots of Confucian, Taoist and Buddhist temples.  I have visited Tainan several times.  Don't miss Tainan in your travels through Taiwan.

Just playing around with the video tool.

Great, that saves me having to dust off my HTML or whatever alphabet-soup codes are used nowadays.  I noticed that there were a number of different video player protocols available  (e.g. flash, Quicktime, etc.).  Which one is best or does it matter?

The characters for the oyster omlette are “蚵仔煎” in Taiwanese they call it "ô-á-chian".... hmmm.... it may sound strange... but it's very tasty.....

I lived in Taiwan for a number of years.  I loved it there, but was very fustrated with their form of pinyin and the way they teach Chinese.  I speak and read a number of languages (Japanese, Korean, Spanish, etc.) and found that it was very damning to the learning process.  I teach Chinese now with Taiwanese materials, but not with the silly phonetics.  My students surpass the standard in Taiwan quite quickly.  Hope Taiwan will modernize their teaching methods and pinyin.

@amber:

Thanks for your help! Frank

谢谢你的帮助！弗朗克

tsulu

I think Taiwan's attitudes towards Hanyu Pinyin are slowly changing.  My "3000 Chinese Character Dictionary", (Far East Publishing Company, Taipie) incorporates both bopomofu and pinyin.  BTW, it is a very good dictionary. Street signs in Taipei are in Hanyu Pinyin

I've heard some Taiwanese claim that bopomofo lends itself to clearer pronunciation, something that I am a bit skeptical of because a mapping system is simply that, a mapping system.  I already know pinyin, but I plan to also learn bopomofo so I can read some of the Taiwanese children's books we have at home.  However, I hear you, I find Hanyu Pinyin to be more intuitive since it is a Romanized system.

I've heard that bopomofo is better for pronounciation as well.  I have no idea regarding the truth of the statement, but the general idea is that westerners sometimes let preconceived ideas of pronunciation creep into a phonetic system based upon their own alphabet.

I believe that the Taiwan government wants to phase out bopomofo, but there is both institutional and cultural resistance.

For oysters, what is the difference between 蚵 (é) and 蚝 (háo) ?

Also, another way to say oyster is 牡蛎 (mulì)...  Are these different types of oysters?  One of my colleages said 蚵 (é) is smaller than  蚝 (háo). 

I'm know both zhuyin and pinyin. I'd say the zhuyin avoids some of the problems native english speakers have with expecting a letter to have one sound and it actually having another, so I can see some basis for thinking it might produce better pronunciation. On the other hand, pinyin is much, much easier for your average english to start with, because they don't have to memorize a new alphabet.

This lesson reminded me of one suggestion I've been meaning to make to ChinesePod--in the lesson transcript PDF's, is it possible to include the traditional characters too?

Also, I appreciate the few comments above about restaurants in the DC (Rockville, MD) area.  Keep them coming!

jeff,

customized feeds have an option for the PDF transcripts in traditional characters.

Odd though, that there is not a link for it with all the other download links on the LHS.

Instead of 看起来很特别 can one say 样子很特别? And would it have pretty much the same meaning?

@hezhicheng

If I may, 看起来很特别 and 样子很特别 are essentially the same except for probably very subtle differences in usage. I feel 看起来很特别 is applicable in a broader sense, in reference to things, people, situations, relationsahips, etc. However, 样子很特别 has a more narrow usage, more in reference to the appearance, shape, size or physical characteristics of something.

I don't think I would say 样子很特别 when commenting on a father-daughter relationship, for instance, but would use 看起来很特别. Hope that helps : )

Jeff,

If you put "trad" in between the end of the file name and the pdf extension (e.g. chinesepod_C0889.pdf becomes chinesepod_C0889trad.pdf), you can retrieve traditional PDF's for any lesson.

I recommend trying 大腸蚵仔麵線(台灣話：ô-á mī-sòaⁿ）with little oysters 蚵仔, large (pig) intestines, (大腸) and vermicelli. Add chili sauce and black vinegar to taste. Mmmm!

我有一个问题， 在北京subway是地铁可是在你们的生词单子上有捷运。  在台湾他们说不说地铁？  下个月我搬到了台北所以我因该知道这样的说法 :)

Hi dedsall78

你这个问题问得好。 台湾人就是不说“地铁”的，他们说“捷运。” 台湾人也不说“站台”-- 他们说“月台。”

对了，因为你下个月才要到台湾，最好说 “下个月我要搬到台湾去..."

Funny, I said it incorrectly here but correctly in another post :)

Thanks pete.