ICLP and Chinese Culture

Many people probably wonder whether they can truly learn about Chinese culture while studying Mandarin Chinese in Taiwan. The answer, confusingly enough, has to be both yes and no. ICLP will definitely say "of course you can learn about Chinese culture and society here!" But I have strong reasons to believe the ICLP program is firmly seated in the Blue camp. The typical Blue supporter believes he/she is Chinese and dismisses the idea of a Taiwanese identity. The typical Blue supporter, when thinking of what is Chinese culture, thinks of Qing-era Chinese culture which the Chinese brought with them en masse when they fled to Taiwan in the 1940s. Chinese culture in Taiwan, overall, is much more rich and vigorous than Chinese culture in China, but bottom line...it is not PRC Chinese culture. So the answer is yes and no.

During the first week of class, two of my three instructors, made it pretty clear which camp they were in, and the lack of neutrality made me feel quite uncomfortable actually. I began to feel the same way at ICLP as I did in China. It was an eerie feeling having to self-censor myself all over again...quite scary, actually. One of ICLP's major textbooks, because it originated in the 1960s Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) era, reeked of KMT propaganda...excessive history of China, national Chinese identity...pushing the idea that China was theirs, even though it was they who fled as refugees to Taiwan after losing to the Communists in 1949. ICLP was not inclined to updating this textbook.

The majority of teachers in ICLP are Blue. When I thought about why, it made sense. Education, the way to control minds and disseminate propaganda, has historically been under KMT control. Because Chinese language had to be imposed on Taiwanese people, who was likely to teach Chinese language but the most hardcore of the Chinese? It drove me nuts to hear my instructor say "We Chinese" this and "We Chinese" that. I just wanted to scream, "Teacher, with all respect, you think you are Chinese, but you've never been to China. I've been to China and you are definitely NOT Chinese. You've been taught all your life to believe you are Chinese, but you were born on Taiwanese soil and have lived in Taiwan all your life. Yet you deny you are Taiwanese. Why, teacher? Why do you continue this delusion?!?!?!"

I highly recommend students studying Chinese language in Taiwan to take the opportunity to learn a little about Taiwanese history, people, and culture, too. Taipei is considered to be the Chinatown of Taiwan (the Chinese who fled to Taiwan mostly congregated in Taipei) so to learn a little something about Taiwan, one need only leave the city limits.

An ICLP Student Tip: Transportation

* When buying your MRT Easycard, remember to present a student ID to receive the special student rate MRT card. Don't pay adult fare if you don't have to!

* Riding the bullet train (HSR) from Taipei to Kaohsiung takes roughly a little less than 2 hours and costs 1490 NT. The HSR is predominantly filled with grouchy middle-aged men trying to sleep. Once you've taken the HSR, everything else just doesn't cut it. Riding the 自動 train from Kaohsiung back to Taipei, despite it being the fastest regular train, takes 5 hours and costs 845 NT. It is usually full and has all sorts of Taiwanese people riding on board.

* Taipei taxi fare starts at 70 NT.

The Student Lounge

Lately, when walking into the lounge to grab books from my locker, there have been scads of students sitting around tables, books open, chatting away about everything under the sun. I'm not really sure if any studying is actually getting done, but everyone who frequents the lounge could call each other a friend by now. Many of these groups end up planning trips to places like Hualien or Kending over the weekends.

The lounge has a sink, water machine, microwave, mailboxes, daily newspapers, and lockers, which makes it a central hub for everyone.

I spend more of my time in the library, typing these blog entries. Call me a geek. :)

ICLP Lecture #5 - Love Poems

Today, an NTU PhD student who teaches Freshman English at NTU came to show us samples of poems written by her students. I found it interesting just how the sheer "visuality" of Chinese characters lends itself to poetry. Unlike the English language, Chinese poets can utilize the vertical axis just as freely as the horizontal in visually structuring their poems.

The poems reflected a young Taiwanese perspective by the references to pearl milk tea, typhoons, and the internet. Their overall tone was innocent, romantic, and filled with insecurities. What a great way to understand the hearts and minds of the people who surround me on campus, but with whom I never speak a word.

ICLP Library

The ICLP Library is on the 4rth floor. Most students who come to this library use it as a study room rather than an actual library. I don't use any of the floor-to-ceiling books that line the walls, mostly because I really don't have the ability to read them and also because they intimidate me. I have been coming to this library a lot more often lately because 1) I really like the clean, open, and brightly-lit atmosphere and 2) it's convenient for my laptop.


many students like the rare atmosphere of silence found in this library

I had started out in the computer labs, but after a while，the air-conditioning, the whir of 20 computers, and the fortress-like walls of the carols began to get to me. In the library, I still feel like I can stretch out and breathe. Also, I can bring my laptop and plug it into the outlets. I couldn't find outlets in the computer labs and of course I prefer using my own computer to using someone else's.

EDIT: (8/05)
明高 informed me there are outlets embedded in the floor behind each seat in the main computer lab.

A university I attended in Beijing which had just launched its Chinese language program (and of which I was among their first batch of students) put us in a classroom where the wall paint was peeling, the flooring was from the 1950s era, our desks were one row long and made of wood and our chairs were wooden too. The teacher used a traditional slate blackboard and chalk (oh, the nostaligia!) and we came in our winter coats and gloves because the heaters hadn't yet been turned on and winter had already arrived. I don't think universities (especially like that of Tsinghua) have this atmosphere, but I admit, I did love that classroom. Its sparseness made my education feel all the more essential.

A Little Bit Tired

Over four weeks of intense Chinese and I'm feeling a little tired. Perhaps I threw myself into my studies with a little too much gusto early on. Language acquisition is lot of studying with no shortcuts. Encounter, memorize, use, internalize, express, rinse, repeat. On the brighter side, I do feel like the learning curve has leveled off even further! I'm finally getting into a groove and it's just too bad that I have to leave in four weeks time; I know if I stayed I would learn so much more.

For students planning to study for a year at ICLP. I would suggest the summer term as the first term because the classes are only 3 hours per day rather than 4. I can't begin to imagine what having 4 hours a day of class at this intensity would be like for a newcomer.

7th Day of Class at ICLP Completed - Stealth Vocabulary

By tomorrow I should be rather familiar with about 382 new vocabulary words. Tomorrow only being the 8th day of class, it sounds rather daunting doesn't it?

It's actually somehow not as bad as it sounds because we are always repeatedly encountering the new vocab in our texts and subsequent texts, in our classes, and our conversations (and I'm starting to notice them in my environment as well). The words are just kind of sneaking into my brain. And this is coming from someone who had trouble learning 30 new words every two weeks in a non-Chinese environment.

Now this is an indicator of a great language program.

Bus Routes to ICLP

The fastest walk for me to the ICLP building was from the bus stop by the Taida Gym. The walk was roughly 6-8 minutes as opposed to the 15+ minute walk from the Gongguan bus and MRT stations. There is ONE line which stops right opposite of the ICLP building but it didn't go through any section of Taipei I was familiar with and I've forgotten the bus number. Some people also got off and walked from the Technology Building station on the Brown line of the MRT, but I'm not too familiar with that route either.

The buses which stop at the Taida Gym are:
0
52
207, 236, 251, 252, 253, 280, 284 (goes on to Taipei 101), 290
311
505
642, 643, 668, 675, 676
907

This list is not all-inclusive.

Program Assessment: Peeve #1 - Cost

Regarding the summer ICLP Program at Taiwan National University (also known as NTU or TaiDa), my first impression actually hasn't been very favorable for reasons I will blog out in the next couple entries.

First and foremost is the cost factor:

Summer at ICLP
* 8 weeks of Chinese.
* 3 hours of class a day = 15 hours a week.
* Total contact time is 120 hours.
* Each day consists of 2 hours of small group class and 1 hour of 1-on-1 tutorial.
* That's 80 hours of small group class and 40 hours of 1-on-1 tutorial.
* Cost is $3,300 US dollars.
* Breakdown - $27.50/hour.

It all makes sense if you compare this to the US economy, but this is Taiwan, where the average salary is about $1000 USD per month. The $3,300 summer tuition is a little hard to digest just compared to the program's regular semester!

Regular Semesters at ICLP
* 12 weeks
* 20 hours per week
* Total contact hours: 240
* Cost = $3700 USD
Breakdown - $15.50 USD/hour

Huh?