Numbers

To me this is one of the hardest parts of Chinese. The numbers always seem to throw me off. I can say the 1-20 usually pretty quickly or with minimal thought.
The problem is with the big numbers. Essentially, from 1 – 9,999 the numbers are read similar to those in English. But it is at 10,000 where the problems start for me. There is a special word in Chinese for 10,000 (simplified Chinese is 万 and traditional Chinese is 萬).

For example, we read 20,000 as twenty thousand. Chinese and Taiwanese people read it as two ten-thousands. One million is read in Chinese as one hundred ten-thousands. 50 million would be read as five thousand ten-thousands.

This continues until you hit 100 million. In Chinese 100 million has a special word too (simplified Chinese is 亿 and traditional Chinese is 億). So 300 million is three hundred-millions.

In theory, all of this should not be overly difficult. My problem comes from meetings. For my work the smallest shipment we will send out is 100 ten thousands (1 million) but sometimes we send out quantities 250 ten thousands (2.5 million). At a quick pace in meetings, or in other settings too, it takes me a few seconds to process the amount or reply to it. When several large numbers like that are read back to back then I am usually done after the first 2 or 3.

One of the hard things about learning this language, I guess.

A Rant

I have bitched about the heat in Taiwan in some recent posts. Now here is a new gripe of mine. There are no restrooms in this country that are air conditioned--especially public ones. Even the one at my office is essentially a sauna with tiny window, urinal, and toilet.

Maybe the idea is to make sure people get in and out damn fast since if they are there for more than a few mintues they are already sweating profusely. If that is indeed the idea then it works.

I would just love to find a bathroom that has air conditioning or is not within 5 degrees and equal humidity to the outside.

Where Did All of You Come From?

When I first got back to the US and I was in LAX I noticed something strange. Most of the people were white (I had just had a meeting with a company that employed all Chinese people and sent a Chinese driver to pick me up). It had been months since I had seen so many white people. It was strange to me.

Let me explain. I am the only white person at my company. And on top of that all of my customers are non-white people. So during long weeks when I go to work early and come back late then see customers the only white people I see are in airports or in passing on the subway. On top of that all my friends here are Taiwanese after my old roomie went home.

But now I have noticed something else. For a long time the area where I live didn’t really have my foreigners who also lived there (I am the only foreigner in my building). Yet, lately the number of foreigners I see by the subway stop next to my apartment has really increased (note: that could be since I was actually in Taiwan on the weekend and not out on business).

Thing is I am not used to seeing a whole lot of other white people and it has actually been a little strange here to see so many of them. Am I turning Taiwanese or something?

I Need to Meet These People

These people are awesome.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-94JhLEiN0

Weekend Report

I had a pretty busy weekend. Hence, this is a long post.

I got back to Taiwan on Thursday afternoon and went to my apartment and then to the office. As you can tell based on the posts below, the weather has done the equivalent of kicking me in the groin since I’ve been back.

So I was glad that I had an AC unit in my room (and a big one in the living room). Then as I was about to go to bed the AC in my room stopped working. This is not happening (it was humid and 92 degrees in my room at that point). Since then I have been sleeping in the other bedroom and turning the big AC unit on to keep that other bedroom coolish. The parts for the AC in my room are on order—I just hope they get here before Wednesday since I have to leave for Cambodia on Thursday and if the parts don’t arrive soon it will be one more week until I can get the thing fixed.

In a terrible twist that must be punishing me for a deed in past life (after all there could be no other explanation), one of the two AC units in my office is also broken and my seat is already in the hottest area of the office.

No matter, on Friday night I decided to go check out a new bar I had heard about (at some point I will have to check out the new weekend after party—last call here is 4am and the after party goes 4am-8am—some day when I can stay out until 8am, which is never). The first bar I walked into was a little local lounge bar. The people there were all regulars, I was the only foreigner, I was by myself, and I immediately felt unwelcome. I had a drink and walked out.

In Taipei there are a lot of all you can drink bars. These places give you a cover (usually no more than $20) and turn you lose until closing time at 4am. Sounds like a great way to lose money, but there are so many of them that someone is making some money off the deal.

So the second place I decided to check out was—unbeknownst to me—was an all you can drink place. When I started talking with the hostess I requested no cover but a single drink and I could stand at the bar then leave. She looked at me like that the most insane thing anyone ever said to her. “You want to stand at the bar and have a drink?” she asked me. “Yes.” “Sorry you can’t do that here.” In lieu of that, I decided to check out a new club in town while simultaneously giving up on the idea of going home early.

The place was called Spark (http://www.spark101.com.tw/) and was a huge upgrade on the place that used to be there. There was also an incredible number of models there. I will be going back. Note: I got home at 4:30am.

The next day I went out and sat by a little secret outdoor pool. I would swim then sit outside for a bit and swim again. A lot of people did the same but during their breaks the guys there would light up. If I ever finish swimming laps then get out and say, “I could really use a smoke now,” then I deserve to be shot on the spot. After I got out for good, it started pouring for about an hour. So I talked with some people there and we laughed at the one lady who stayed in the pool despite the lightening storm overhead (if she got zapped I was not going in after her).

That night (Saturday) I ate dinner with two friends that I had not seen for a long time. It was great to see them. After that I met up with about 8 ND students who are in town to study at a local university for the summer. Along with some of their tutors we all went to a karaoke place (KTV). In Asia karaoke is extremely popular. You rent a private room by the hour with your friends and then order lots of food and lots of drinks (or sometimes they have buffets) and then sing. So after we had enough of that we all took off to a hookah bar until 3am.

Sunday I slept in and then got up for a special party. Taiwan has mandatory military service for males. A friend of mine just had a birthday and next week joins the army for his service term. So he invited about 30 people out to the Danshui harbor and rented a boat for a river cruise party. It was absolutely awesome. I had some good food, met some great people, and I was on a boat
Then as we got off people realized that today was my birthday and I allowed myself to be taken to another round of karaoke—even though I had work today (fun way to spend a b-day). I was the only white person in the karaoke room, and me being me I stayed there way way too late. I got home about 4:30am and then got up for work at 7am. After a lot of coffee this morning I was ok. But tomorrow is going to suck; I can already feel the fatigue coming on.

Still the weekend was fun.

Taiwan and US Differences

It is interesting for me to look back at the US from my life here in Taiwan. When I came back my coworkers could tell I hadn’t spoken Chinese for a while but I think I am catching back up now…or I hope I am.

I guess it is slightly disturbing, but in many ways it feels like I never left Taiwan. Still there are some differences I’ve been reminded of.

The first thing I noticed was the damn humid weather (see the below post). The other two things I forgot about when I was in the US were scooters and 7-11. Taiwanese people love taking little moped scooters. There are just swarms of them all over the roads and it can make driving (which I do miss) pretty scary. 7-11 since there are so damn many of them. No joke, you can stand at one 7-11 and usually see another 7-11 or similar convenience store from the one you are at. But the convenience stores are pretty…well…convenient. You pay your utility bills, credit card bills, and your phone bills there. They sell little lunch boxes and give you a place to eat. Not too bad, that is until you remember you are at 7-11.

The other thing I forgot about was that in Taiwan it is perfectly acceptable and for that matter terribly ordinary for cleaning ladies to walk into the men’s bathroom and just start cleaning while people are in there (they never close the restroom). I don’t think I will ever get used to being at a urinal and seeing an old cleaning lady mopping the floor behind me or being in a stall when they are cleaning the one next to you.

The thing I miss from the US is bagels, good ones that are easy to find. They are hard to find here.

Oh yeah, my friends from Oregon aren’t here. That sucks too

So How About the Weather?

Taiwanese history is replete with waves of invaders and mass immigrations/fleeing in terror from mainland China. I have to think that all of those groups had to have come to Taiwan in the fall or the spring. If they happened to come during the summer they would have simply turned around and gone back as soon as they experienced weather here.

Summer weather in Taiwan is like this: image waking up and having a wet blanket thrown over you and then walking into a sauna. That would be pretty similar.

The lows in the last week have barely dropped below 80 at night with some serious humidity and the daytime temperatures are usually about 94 plus that serious humidity. How people survived before AC is a mystery to me.

When I first came to Taiwan I people told me it would take 3 months to get used to the weather. After 3 months I was still sweating. Then I realized that “getting used to it” means getting used to sweating. If you don’t have the AC on at night and try to just turn a fan on you then you wake up sweating. When you take a shower you dry you left arm then the right and then the left again since you are already sweating. If you can be ok with that then you are as used to it as you will ever be.

That is also the reason I am writing this from a coffee shop. Save on my electricity bills by staying out of my apartment as much as possible.

Turning Japanese

I am in Japan for a few days before I head back to Taiwan. This is my first time in Tokyo and in Japan for that matter.

I had a nice conversation with a 19 year old Marine who was being sent to Japan for the next 2 years, which also happens to be his first time ever to be abroad.

My first night in town I was having dinner. I asked the waitress for a bill. She said something that sounded like a Japanese person trying to say bill. So I said, yes. She brought me a beer instead. I guess the two sound a lot alike.

Tonight I was out at dinner with a supplier. The dude is 80 years old and is a notorious drinker. My boss was talking to him about his drinking since he had an accident where he got drunk and fell and ended up with 13 staples in his head. My boss asked, "So did that make you drink less?" "Nope, I maybe drink more," he said, "and I am still smoking too!" Wow.

The annoying thing about Japan is the temperature. No, it's not all that hot. But in order to save energy all the buildings and indoor spaces (subways) are kept warm and not cooled. Inside most places really isnt hot; just uncomfortable enough to get on your nerves after about 10-20min or when you are hot from walking a long way and expect to have some nice AC when you walk in.

Home 2009

So I had an awesome two weeks at home. I saw almost everyone I wanted to see and did almost everything I wanted to do.

The bad part was that almost every day I was at home I was getting called by my office (it was a terrible terrible mistake to give them my home number). There were two times I was out at bars when my mom called to say someone from the office called and needed to talk to me. I was actually cool with it at first but after a week I was far from happy with it. But thinking of work I also got an international drivers license and a 1 year multiple entry Chinese visa.

Some impressions about the US after being gone for a year: Americans are fat, not all cars have tinted windows, it is strange to hear English and see all white people (I was seriously caught off guard in LAX when all the people were white and at Fred Meyer when I heard a little kid speak English). I was also very happy to see that cleaning ladies are not in bathrooms while people take care of business. Most of all, I was pleasantly surprised to see more that 4 kinds of beer on supermarket shelves.

Basically, I had a great time at home. I saw a bunch of friends and family. We saw some movies, had some great food, drank some beer, and had some great times.

Home

Well, I am back in the US. Back in Portland, Oregon for the first time in close to 13 months. It is nice to be home.

The problem now is that I have no cell phone.

Oh yeah, I got a bunch of vaccines this morning at the travel clinic so I can keep going to Africa.

Step 1

Well the first leg of my journey is done. I am sitting in the Tokyo-Narita airport for the next 4 hours or so until I catch my 9 hour flight to LA.

I guess it is also mildly ironic that I after I write this I have to send an order to a Japanese company. Then again, I also come back to Tokyo for a few days of meetings when my American vacation is over.

Heading for Home

For most of you reading this, be warned. For the first time in 13 months, my side of the world will also be your side of the world. I am heading home tomorrow. Now I warned all of you a few months ago to prepare your livers. I can hope you heeded that message.

But before I get there I have a bit of travel to do. Up at 6:00AM and to the airport before 6:45AM, flight at 8:45AM for over 2 hours to Japan, a 4 hour layover, over 9 hours to LA, a 6 hour layover in LA where I have a meeting with a not so happy customer, and then a 2 hour flight to Portland.

I am looking forward to it.

Oh yeah, I have no phone. Good times.

One Last Trip

So I am staring my vacation down right now but I still had a final trip to make last week. We are in a dangerous place with our largest customer. Recently, we have made a lot of production errors and combining with the fact that the customer is dropping suppliers in July we are on thin ice. That meant my boss and I ran off to Bangkok to wine and dine and have a meeting to convince our customer that we have a handle on things.

As the post below shows, I was dreading this. But the meeting went much much better than I expected and my last few trips paid off in building a personal relationship with the customers so that also helped this time.

Then we ran off to a series of meetings in Cambodia. And we spent a night there. I was able to relax a bit after a late dinner but the problem was we had an urgent price proposal to get to a telecom. That necessitated that I had several Skype confrence calls from 2 airports and had numerous text messages between me and Taiwan on Saturday to finish it all.

All in all, the trip was quite good. We are still in a dangerous place in Thailand but we have some promising leads in Cambodia.