My bus ride

The trip from home to the uni is about 50 minutes. I don't mind it if I can get a seat on the bus. There are many reasons why I don't drive. I can't be bothered to take care of a car, the way people drive here scares me, I have a poor sense of direction, to name just a few. The main reason, though, is I need the time on the bus to 'think'. You see - there is always something I need to do when I'm in the office or at home. Taking time off to do nothing but think has been a luxury for me. So the bus ride is actually a joy. Apparently, I am one of those people who get carsick reading on the bus (not on the plane, not on the train, but just on the bus). So I'm physically confined to that space, unable to do anything or go anywhere. What's on my mind during those two hours? Well, on the trip to the uni, I most likely will be thinking about what I'm teaching that day. On the trip home, believe it or not, I reflect on my teaching: did the class go as I had planned, what should I do next time to make it better, did students do or say anything interesting, and so on. Then when I get home, I talk about all this to my husband and bore the heck out of him. But hey, he does this to me too!

Accent

A friend told me today one of his students speaks with a strong British accent and that when he asked her how she acquired the accent, she said she had purposely learned it because it sounds classier than an American accent. This upsets me. Let me make it clear first that I am not pro or against the British accent. Looking back, I have probably acquired American, British and Australian accents at different stages while I was learning English. However, I never see any of these accents as classier or better than the others. Language is a tool, which carries the message you want to convey. The tool itself does not make you more or less classy; the message does. What difference does it make whether you speak with an American or British accent when your message is completely rubbish? Honestly, I am not surprised at what this student said. I’ve heard similar ignorant statements before, mostly from English majors, unfortunately. I hope these people will soon stop viewing English or a certain accent of English as an accessory they wear to make them look good. What English (or any other language) does for us is: it offers us more opportunities to understand the world. It's as simple as that.

Tricky problems

It was rather interesting to see the result of students' choices of the trickiest relationship problem. I picked the three letters for two reasons: one was that they were well written; the other was my curiosity to know whether there were cultural differences in people’s views on these issues. I had a hunch there were. Men not wanting to commit has already been more of a Western issue. I actually think most Taiwanese men are too ready to commit. I was only wondering if the new generation is the same. As for the worry about starting a relationship with a new roommate too soon (‘crushin’), as I had expected, got very few votes. It may receive more votes from Western students.


The result of the poll also shows a strong gender difference. Silly me! How could I not predict this? This is such a pleasant surprise, as my plan for next week will follow on nicely from it.

The campus

Three weeks have passed. I now know my way around the campus, although I still wonder why there are so many dogs in front of the library. I found the shops and eateries outside the university are small and traditional. It's really cool that the neighborhood can maintain its ‘village-like’ character in a city that is basically a jungle of tall buildings. However, it would also be lovely to have a couple more quiet cafes and restaurants in the neighborhood. Or perhaps these nice places are hidden in small alleys? I guess I should go explore more when I'm not snowed under with work.

New semester, new environment

This is my first semester at a new university. I'm teaching three courses, including one called 'Learning English with Corpora and the Web'. This course is going to be fun. In a couple of weeks, students will have their own blogs up and running. I'm very excited to see what they will be writing about in their blogs. I've always believed that the best way to learn English is to learn it through doing something you like to do. Let's hope this blogging activity will work and students will develop an interest in documenting some part of their life through writing.