Hear in Taiwan

This is the most confusing English sign I’ve ever seen in the last 20 years that I’ve been in Taiwan. A parking lot across from the National Taiwan University has these lit up signs of which red ones read “deadhead” and green ones read “lorryload”. Since there’s the Chinese character “滿” which means “full” or “occupied” under the red sign, I take it that “deadhead” would mean the parking space is occupied, but “DEADHEAD”?? Why? Never have I in the life of me seen a parking-related sign using the word and what does “deadhead” mean here anyway?

Likewise then, that “lorryload” in green means “here’s a parking spot available”?? Where did they get this word “lorryload”? And to think that they used such high tech as to install one of these signs for every two parking spots! They probably think that they’ve spent good money on very classy installations, not realizing that they’ve embarrassed themselves by trying too hard to use ”sophisticated” English words. Wonder if they seeked advice before they had them made?

I did see a couple of lorries parked in the back, but I don’t suppose the signs had anything to do with those trucks??

Internet shopping is a very popular way for girls to waste money, er, shop in Taiwan. This is usually done on a variety of ebay style sites catering to the voracious better half of the human species.
The popularity of this activity has  two reasons
1) Clothing in Taiwan (perhaps because of its proximity to Vietnam and China?) is very cheap. It can range from 1 to 6 US if the female in question is good at her game.
2) One day delivery- or less. Taiwan is small, so you can get your stuff almost faster than a shopping trip would at times.

This leads to closets stuffed with clothing and people with no money for lunch.

In this past week’s Hear in Taiwan, we talked about the best restaurant in Asia. Guess where it is? Right here in Taiwan! According to the US-based food website The Daily Meal, the dumpling restaurant Din Tai Feng is the No. 1 restaurant in Asia, beating other big names on the continent. Many other Taiwanese restaurants also made it to the website’s “101 Best Restaurants in Asia” list. Find out more here.

How do the Taiwanese people look at China and do they look at themselves? Do they want unification with the giant neighbor? Do the Taiwanese consider themselves Chinese? A recent survey will answer all those questions. Read the story here.

What’s the secret to longevity? A centenarian in Taiwan says learning does the trick. Learn some tips from her here (story in Chinese).

To listen to this past week’s Hear in Taiwan, visit the RTI English website.

(Photo courtesy of Din Tai Feng)

 A woman from Chile made Taiwan her home.  羅美智 met her Taiwanese husband who was working as a chef in Brazil. She thought he was a very nice person, so they fell in love. They were 10 years apart in age. She didn’t know a word of Chinese, but she decided to come back with her husband to work at the Wan An Temple in Changhua county. Together they have two sons. She’s already been in Taiwan for 25 years now.

Unfortunately, her husband passed away some time ago. The temple staff  however allowed her to continue to take care of the temple. Now she is fluent in Mandarin and Taiwanese. Besides stinky tofu, she just about loves every dish in Taiwan, like beef noodle soup and pearl milk tea. Just one more year and she will become a permanent resident on the island. She loves Taiwan and considers herself a Taiwanese.

photo courtesy of uforadio.com.tw

We saw this sweet arrangement of tong flowers on a walk in Nanchuang, Miaoli.

The flowers were everywhere – on the rocks…

on the railings

and on the leaves.

What’s the thanks I get for ignoring my Dutch Amaryllis for a couple months? Four beautiful blossoms.

It turns out that these flowers (known as 孤挺花 or gu1 ting3 hua1 in Mandarin) are very good at storing water. That means that busy (lazy?) people like me can go for extended periods of times without watering them.

I have to admit that I feel a little bad about the fact that I ignored the plant for so long, only to have it pay me back with such kindness. This is the most that it’s ever bloomed, too. In the past, there would only be one or two blooms in the spring. And now four? Hope it’s not because the Chinese word for “four” is a homonym for “death.”

Nah~~~ that’s reading a bit much into it. Although perhaps I’ll give it a sip of water while I’m thinking about it.

There’s really no shortage of bizarre translations here. The other day I saw this sign in a park, and was amused by its conflicting desire to be at the same time a bit more reserved/euphemistic and be so graphic in its description (yeah, scoop it up!). Little gems like this one that are pretty much everywhere really lighten up my day

Time takes away many things- and sometimes it leaves behind things we never thought we needed. Those things we can make into historical monuments.  That is the lesson I learned when visiting Keelung.

In this past week’s Hear in Taiwan, we talked about animal psychics. Can they really communicate with your dead pets? There seems to be only one way to find out — get animals to work under cover. Read the story in Chinese here.

The world is getting more crowded now that there are seven billion people. Do you know that of these seven billion people, more than half are living in a corner of the world? See this map.

What? Taiwanese products are not on the list of the world’s ten most delicious instant noodles? Do you know that instant noodles were invented by a Taiwan-born inventor? The people here believe that the judges’ taste is dubious. Read the story in Chinese here.

To listen to this past week’s Hear in Taiwan, visit the RTI English website.

In Taiwan, there is a unique way of waiting in line to get what you want. The hospital that I visited recently does not start processing  registration for outpatient care before 8:00 am. For early birds, however, it just doesn’t make sense if all of them have to “physcially” take their place in a queue. So, they come up with a great idea. Some use water bottles or unbrellas, others use handbags or simply a piece of paper to represent who they are and who should be served first. It’s quite civilized, isn’t it?