So it begins

After much pestering by various friends I have finally decided to create a blog to tell of my experiences both as a teacher and as a South African living in Taiwan. This is the extension of a mass email I've been sending to family and friends over the past two years. This is an attempt for my stories, and indeed my experiences and accumulating knowledge, to reach further afield. Hopefully I can pass on information which will be entertaining, as well as helpful to some.

The first thing I must point out, living in Taibei, is that the English (or rather, the Western) version of the name is wrong. The name is formed using two Chinese characters, which are:

Tai, meaning of the Taiwanese people, and

 Bei, meaning north.

Thus the name Taibei, refers to a major northern city on Taiwan. There is similar naming for places like Taizhong (a city in the central part of the island) and Tainan (a city in the south of the island).

The spelling of Taipei with a "p" refers back to Western interaction with Asia and people creating their own spellings for the words they heard. Often Ps and Bs are mistaken for each other, as are Ls and Rs. At the mouth of the river flowing through Taibei is an area called Danshui. It was originally spelled Tamsui (I think by the Dutch) and then later changed to a more accurate spelling of the name. However, due to popular public opinion, the name has been changed back to Tamsui. Whilst being less accurate phonetically, this actually gives me hope. If the Taiwanese government is willing to listen to its people, then there may be hope for South Africa where the ANC went on a mad spree of name-changing to try and please an unsettled voting populous. With time the official names may return to the names that are actually being used by the people. But let me depart my soapbox.

After years of teaching, both in South Africa and at Taiwanese bushibans (cram schools) I have landed myself a job at a private school in the southern part of Taibei city. The school has a bilingual programme which has been running for only a few years. I am a homeroom teacher, sharing that position with a Chinese teacher. Together we look after our class (in our case, grade ones) and teach them various subjects. I have progressed from solely being an English teacher to also teaching social studies and maths. The students also receive maths lessons in Chinese, granting them a combined understanding of the material in both languages. I am quite happy with the system.