Staying smart, e-learning, and living in a foreign country

So having just graduated most students would luxuriate in the lack of material they have to process on a daily basis. After years of education and learning I was initially quite satisfied to be free from the world of education and curriculum. Having started teaching English I get to see curriculum from the other side and try and figure out ways to transfer the knowledge from myself to my students. However, teaching five year olds the basics of English pronunciation and grammar can become somewhat tedious after years of analyzing the history of ancient civilizations and the pantheon of human thought.

That being said I have a keen interests in staying active in my intellectual pursuits and sometimes all I really want is some English content which is a little more complex than the formulaic C movies they are so fond of playing on the television here. As such, there's a number of things I've been doing to stay in touch with acedemia besides developping my teaching skills. The most useful and vital point of access for me has been the internet and in particular the number of excellent podcasts available on the internet. As such I list my top 5 listens and give a brief synopsis of each.

1. TVO Big Ideas - an online discussion series free from the television of TVO to your headphones. The topics are quite broad and written for an educated audience who might not be familiar with particular technical aspects of the discussion.

2. Stanford Faculty Lectures - Similar to Big Ideas, although the sound quality is a lot more spotty and sometimes the lectures are not written as much for a public audience

3. This Week in Tech (TWiT) - An IT news and commentary show with the latest in news from a number of in the know journalists. Hosted by Leo Laporte from TechTV my favorite personnage on the show has to be the always grouchy John C. Dvorak

4. CBC Radio: The Best of Ideas - Similar to the TVO series of lectures I find the topics are generally of less critical analysis and will sometimes venture into the realms of fancy and speculation. Nonetheless, a good show for interesting talking points. The show hosted by Paul Kennedy is fond of issuing series of discussions including one on organic food, healing through mindfulness, and a history of leftist thought.

5. IT conversations - not one podcast but many separate discussions check out the Accelerating Change 2005, and Globeshakers with Tim Zak. It's a part of the Gigavox Media network.

As a side note you may want to download an RSS feed reader which is a program that downloads many of these podcasts. Myself I use iTunes to manage my audio files and RSS feeds but there are many other sources available online.

Taipei Photoset 1

I went for a walk through Taipei today. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Graffiti 1

Construction

Windwheel Market

Taipei City Buildings

Living and Teaching in Taiwan: One month later

So it's been a little over a month since I got here in Taiwan and what was once a dream has increasingly become a reality. After one month almost two in fact, I'd have to say that the life of an expat is a mixed bag. For me a lot of things that other people expressed concern over have been a non-issue such as the legality issue, teaching material qualities or finding edible food. You definitely should develop a taste for asian food if you plan on living here unless you plan on cooking your own food all the time or eating at Burger King or McDonalds for most of your meals. Movies and television are readily available and if you'd like to see an English movie they tend toward subtitles for English a real bonus for the movie buff. The club scene is there for those who are interested but if you're like me a place where you can chill out and drink a beer or two your best option is often the local 7/11.

Teaching is a mixed bag, I would have to say that the curriculum at our school is quite solid and our staff is quite professional and decent about informing us about upcoming events. We always know well in advance of any upcoming events as well as any work we'll need to prep for it. The kids are generally decent and the work is usually pretty simple. That being said the simplicity is sometimes frustrating and your ability to recall petty details is a lot more important then giving a consistent and whole description of the children. Our trainer is also somewhat caught between worlds, between teaching us and trying to discipline the teachers. There hasn't been any problems yet but he is constantly waving threats above our heads about not talking to him enough which is really a case of his generally surly attitude. I've heard some similar stories about Directors at other schools and the simple fact is that most people who wind up directors are not usually professionals but more often those who have devellopped their skills teaching at the schools for a great deal of time. The negative aspect of this is that their theoretical and leadership skills can be somewhat weak but they've always maintained an excellent degree of professionalism if not always an open dialogue.

As for social activity I have been dividing my time between going for language exhcanges, resting and working out. The language exchanges have not been as fruitful as I had originally hoped. I have been doing Language Exchanges consistently for the past month with little to show besides some numbers and a handful of pronunciations. They have been good opportunities for meeting other people and talking about general stuff, I imagine they will prove more fruitful once I start Mandarin classes properly in November.

I miss home at leastonce every day, my friends, my family, and the cool air of Canada funny enough to say. I miss wearing jackets and sweaters and seeing people going about their day in Toronto, the MRT here just doesn't have the same feel to it as the good ole' TTC. I miss having conversations with the people back home. But I think this has been a good experience, an eye opener and I am constantly finding new things out about myself. It changes you I think and I hope that when I go home the people I care for will still be relatable, I think that's thing that concerns me most that when I go back I won't fit there anymore then I feel I do here.

Moon Festival/Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!

It's the moon festival right now in Taiwan and I have been receiving a number of small cakes and presents from my students in the last couple weeks. Life has been settling into a normal routine at last and I must say I am getting used to living in Taiwan. Life is less hectic and I think I'll be staying in the same appartment for the time being. I have met a lot of new teachers staying in the School's appartment. It has been interesting to meet the sort of people who are willing to come over here and teach English leaving behind whatever for a life in a foreign land. Aside from expats I've also met a number of Taiwanese who have been very friendly who are interested in learning English and making friends. I'm still getting used to their work attitude which is a lot different from the people I knew in university.

As for the Moon Festival it's a lot like thanksgiving back home, with the major premise being getting together with family and eating a large meal. Today my roommate and I visited Taoyouan just outside of Taipei with one of our Taiwanese friends, we visited his family
and ate a number of BBQ'd foods. I was going to take some pictures but my phone died on me before I could take any of them. There was some really good bean noodles, roasted pork and squid-ka-bobs I'm still feeling stuffed. It was really nice weather wise and we have a few days off till wednesday.

I'm going to the beach tommorow. I'll be sure to take some pictures of that as well.

Holidays are hard when living abroad not being with family and all that. I miss my family and wish I could be home for thanksgiving its one of our bigger traditions at home and I'm sad I'm missing it. Once, again. Happy Thanksgiving!