My Fulbright Year in Taiwan

We had a few days of quiet, then the dogs started barking again. There are two families who keep their dogs tied up outside. The dogs bark every time that it’s appropriate for dogs to bark, in other words, all the time. After we complained the first time, the owners kept the dogs inside their house for a few days, so the dogs didn’t bark. Then they started leaving them outside again, and guess what? They started barking all the time again.

Stacy called the police again and complained. There isn’t a local nuisance ordinance, so the police can’t fine them. The only way that they can take action is if someone presses charges. Stacy is reluctant to do that under our current circumstances. It’s a bit unseemly for a Fulbright scholar to be pressing charges against residents of their host country. But Stacy asked the police to come by and “advise” the neighbors to do something about the barking.

It worked! The neighbors brought the dogs inside again, and we got a great night’s sleep, plus we weren’t awakened before dawn by yippy barking.

I was half-expecting to see dog poop in the courtyard again this morning, but nothing yet. We know that in a few days, the owners will put the dogs outside again, but our strategy will be to continue calling the police and asking them to continue giving “advice.” Stacy discovered a loophole in the lack of a nuisance ordinance. Even though the police can’t take official action, any time someone calls the police, the police are obligated to send an officer to investigate. We’re hoping that if we have to call repeatedly, that sooner or later the police will get tired of coming over, and will add weight to their “advice.”

Keep your fingers crossed for us.

A neighbor has a very yippy, barkie dog. He keeps it tied up outside his house, where it barks early in the morning and late at night, waking us up, keeping us from sleeping, and generally pissing us off. Taiwan is a very densely populated place, and the architecture of our apartment complex makes the barking echo. Apparently many people have complained to the neighbor, but he didn’t ever seem to care.

Finally, Stacy couldn’t stand it anymore, and called the police. They came by and gave the owner a warning. The next time someone reports him, the police will fine him. The warning worked for a few days. The dog was quiet, and we got to sleep at night and weren’t disturbed until the alarm went off at 6:30 in the morning. Bliss!

Apparently the neighbor was pissed, though, and (rightly) suspected that someone from our complex ratted him out. So he took revenge. Today he led his dog on a leash into the compound in our apartment complex, and had the dog take a dump in the middle of the plaza. Then he led the dog back home and let it bark all afternoon.

The battle has begun.

One day last week, I was eating lunch with our project coordinator Kelly and a few other people, and the dessert course was what Chinese people call “pudding” 布丁, but what is actually flan. Kelly said that Chinese people like this particular food because it’s “dwi dwi.” This was a new word for me. The heavy nasal sound indicated that it’s a Taiwanese word. In order to pronounce it correctly, you have to make the vowel nasal. Sort of like “dweeng” without the ending “ng” but with all of the nasal sound.

After a bit of negotiation, I figured out that “dwi dwi” means something like “bouncy.” The flan was sort of like gelatin in that it’s jiggly. That settled, we all continued eating our flan. It’s really good, especially the syrup at the bottom of the container.

I finished mine first, and was ready to head back to the office. That’s when I put my foot in my mouth. Eager to show off my new Taiwanese word, I said something like: “We have to wait for Kelly and her dwi dwi.”

Dead silence in the room. No one moved.

Kelly’s face turned white. “Professor!” she exclaimed. “What are you talking about?!”

Apparently “dwi dwi” means one thing as an adjective, and something quite different as a noun. Since Kelly refused to explain, I assume that “dwi dwi” as a noun means something related to the “naughty bits,” to use a term from Monty Python.

Be warned. Use “dwi dwi” with extreme caution, and only as an adjective.

Stacy (upon entering the room and seeing Ian’s stuff all over the place): Ian, this place is a mess!

Ian: I’ve settled in.

Hilarity ensued (not).

All Fulbrighters were invited to a Thanksgiving dinner held by the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) 美國在台協會, the de facto American embassy in Taiwan. We took a bus to Taipei for the event, which was held on the Friday before Thanksgiving. They had five turkeys for us, plus the trimmings.

Everything was great, except the sweet potatoes. Not enough marshmallow fluff. The pumpkin pie was nice, though.

The ambassador did a ceremonial carve of the first bird, to start off the meal.

The event was held in the AIT’s reception hall, which is in the wealthy XinYi 信義 district (near Taipei 101). Very upscale and fancy!

I got enough turkey for the year, but Ian and Evan say that they want to make another trip to Taipei on Thursday for more. Now we have to find a restaurant that serves an authentic American Thanksgiving meal. Remember the last scene in the movie “A Christmas Story?” That’s how they “carve” turkey over here…

Ian: I just have to accept that everyone here is a nerd.

Evan: Happy Emo day to you, too.

“Alright youse guys, everyone stop screwing around, and get on the fu-kang bus already!”

But everyone who knows our story will get a kick out of this:

see more dog and puppy pictures

Evan’s school band competed in a county-wide music competition, and they placed first in the county! After this, they will proceed to the national level competition, which will be held in March. It’s kind of funny going right from the county to the national level. In the US, they would have additional levels, maybe a regional and then State level competition, before going to the national level. But we are in a small country of 23 million people that consists of 19 counties, so that’s the way it works here.

Anyway, we’re all very proud of Evan and his school’s band. Stacy got to listen to the performance, and she was very impressed with their hard work as they prepared. Everyone took it very seriously, and their hard work paid off.

This week we finished most of the observations (we have two more to go, but they will happen later this month). For each ETA, I sat in on one of their classes, then spent an hour or so giving the ETAs and LETs feedback on the teaching. There are many reasons to do observations. Of course we want to be sure that the ETA is allowed to teach, and that the LET and ETA are working together. We also want to give general feedback to the teachers on their teaching. As the TESOL expert for Yilan County, I was expected to provide some input on effective teaching.

As I wrote in an earlier post, I feel that I benefited from the process at least as much as I contributed. Viewing teaching in real classroom situations was a valuable reality check. Some of the classrooms are crowded and noisy. The back of a room crammed with 35 other students is hardly an ideal learning environment. For the teachers, facing students who come from troubled homes, and who come to class unprepared and with no motivation at all to learn, is hardly an ideal teaching environment.

Yet what I saw in almost every classroom was very encouraging. My ETAs were prepared for their classes, and taught with earnest. Even when their lessons were less than effective or their activities were not completely appropriate or well-thought out, they tried hard to do their job. And upon reflection, a few common themes occur to me.

The PPP model for lesson planning (presentation – practice – production), while seen as a bit outmoded in the US, is nevertheless a good model for beginners to use. It provides structure to a lesson, and encourages the progression to creative language use. A common flaw that I saw in many lessons is an over focus on teaching single words. In very few lessons did teachers encourage students to use the target language creatively. In classrooms that used a model that progressed to production, students used the language more.

What local teachers call a worksheet 學習單 is a very useful tool for large classes, especially at the middle school level. In Taiwan, the worksheet contains items like a word bank, cloze and sentence mix exercises to practice grammar, and homework instructions. The worksheet can help to focus students’ attention, serve as a reference while they are engaged in learning activities, and can be a more permanent record of the material that was covered in class. I think that I will do a workshop for my teachers discussing how to to prepare effective worksheets for their lessons.

Finally, giving effective feedback is a very time-consuming process. In addition to the face-to-face debriefing and feedback immediately after the lesson, I also prepare a written report that serves as a permanent record of the observation. We include a copy of the lesson plan, and a video recording of the lesson with the report. My written report includes an evaluation of the lesson, my own reflection on it, and suggestions of factors to consider when planning future lessons. Each report is about 2-3 pages long, and follows a standard format, but it still takes about an hour to write a thoughtful, meaningful report. I still have to write up reports for the last two weeks of observations. That will take most of my next working week.