Taichung or bust

I really good friend of the family, Kin Sun Wood invited me out to her hometown, Taichung. So here I am.

This is not Asia Minor. People speak Taiwanese here, or Mandarin, but for the most part, not English. So I am desperately trying to learn enough Mandarin such that I can be polite, and it isn't so bad. You learn to listen for both tone and syllables, and you get used to not remembering anything anyone says to you.

I can pick out thank you, hello, mister, miss' and a few other things. The numbers really mess me up, however.

For a good time, find someone who speaks Mandarin. Tell them to say this phrase:

"4 is 4. 10 is 10. 14 is 14".

Then try to pick out what is going on. All of those words sound the same (sort of like shzuu), they just have different tones. So it is incredibly entertaining to hear someone say these.

I tried to say "Hello, Mister Chang". It is pronouned like this: "Chang Shzie-en tsung, nee how", with the how dropping in pitch. He kind of laughed and said hello (actually the whole table kind of chuckled, he was playing some game with a few other people). Who knows what I really said, perhaps I can get some points for trying.

I am a little worried about these things though.

One time, when I was younger, I spent some time with a Vietnamese friend of mine. His parents were first generation, and they didn't like white people to put it mildly. One thanksgiving I had nothing to do, and he invited me home (we were and are to this day really close). Later he told me that his parents told him not to bring white people to the house again.

Anyway, I am hoping that isn't the case here, but if it is then such is life. The man of the house is very successful and I doubt at all threatened by me but who knows. Different cultures respond to things differently.