Bike Trek Photos

Bike Trek Part 1

Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall Day 1 

Day 1 at 7:00 AM

If you haven't heard by now I was able to see the fantastic country of Taiwan by bicycle. The entire journey started out on December the 4th and ended on December the 12th. The nine day adventure included biking everyday and countless sights, sounds, and smells. I owe great gratitude towards my Rotary club who sponsored the event and District 3520 for organizing it. I was accompanied by over thirty Rotarians few of which were my age. Speaking of age, I knew physical fitness for elders was highly valued here but I didn't know seventy five was an okay age to bike around the island. My definition of old age has been revolutionized. I dream of the day I might be able to prove my strength at that age and makes me think could my dad do that?  

The bike travelers gathered early Saturday morning at Chaing Kai Shek Memorial Hall. Registration was accompanied by speakers blaring music. Soon all the bikers were grouped together and led through a stretch routine. After we were loose we listened to several speakers and were reminded of the real reason we were biking for nine days. The bike trek was formed to donate to charities. After plenty of photos we were lined up and off with a gunshot start. 

Language

I've heard Chinese is the hardest language to learn and I might agree with that statement. "Chinese" is a broad category though, not all "Chinese" is the same. The two major spoken Chinese languages are Cantonese and Mandarin. Hong Kong uses Cantonese and Taiwan and Beijing use Mandarin. I found it interesting that my Hong Kong friend speaks English with a British accent. The two major written Chinese languages are simplified characters which are used in Mainland China and traditional which are used in Taiwan. 

Mainland China changed to simplified characters to improve literacy rates, while Taiwan preserved the traditional characters. The Taiwanese are very proud of these characters and great importance is placed on writing them correctly. Each character is represents a word and is supposed to be a picture. Characters can be written from left to right, right to left and top to bottom. Many times I've picked up a book and realized the binding seemed backward. Its an odd sensation. Chinese characters written correctly are supposed to be "beautiful". The strokes  order of the characters are extremely important. In English we have the freedom to write our letters however we please. It doesn't matter. However in Chinese its extremely important. The direction and the order of the strokes have to be perfect and in a certain way. What I haven't seemed to figure out yet is why it matters so much. Only when someone is watching me can they tell if my stoke orders are right. Also slouching or leaning to the side is not permitted. Good posture is a must. All of this drives me up the wall. If anyone's read my hand writing they could attest to my chicken scratch. When I write, I write for content not for it to look pretty and quite frankly all of the strict structure makes me feel like smashing things with a baseball bat. However I've complied and taken the time to make sure my writing looks nice. 

Spoken Chinese is also rather difficult. On the plus side the verbs never change. Verbs are not conjugated for people of tenses. That is a wonderful thing, what's difficult is the tones. To start with Chinese phonetics are almost non existent in the English language. Its as if they have an entirely different alphabet except they don't have an alphabet. The phonetics give my mouth quite the workout. The language is very heavy on vowels which makes it tough for English speakers because everything seems blended together. On top of the heavy use of vowels in the natural words the Taiwanese like to make everything sound pretty which includes adding more vowels to words. "Ah" as in say "ah" is a favorite and used all the time. The pretty factor is probably the largest difference between spoken Mandarin in China and in Taiwan. Apparently the Chinese speak very harshly and is very heavy on "r". I even find some words funny when spoken by Mainlanders. The hardest part about spoken Chinese though is the tones. There are four tones. A flat high pitched tone that is almost in a sing song voice. A falling tone which often sounds like you're angry. A rising tone and a falling then rising tone. People cannot understand what I'm trying to say if I don't use the right tone. It seems ridiculous not to be able to recognize a word just because the tone is different but its a integral part of the word. Using the right tone often proves difficult especially when I'm attempting to ask a question because it's natural to raise my pitch and the end of a question. 

Although there is no alphabet, Taiwan has developed a phonetics system to help children learn. It looks like more characters except its phonetic symbols. It is not an alphabet however, because the written phonetic system does not create words. It just helps children pronounce them. The system is named "Bo Po Mo Fo". I personally don't like to use Bo Po Mo Fo, however many people would argue that its the best system to use because pinyin can not capture the phonetics of Mandarin. Pinyin is a system that uses the alphabet to help Western speakers learn Chinese. Unfortunately pinyin comes in multiple forms and has to create different rules to make up for the apparently strange pronunciations. Suddenly "Q" sounds like "Ch" and "X" like "Sh" and then my world gets flipped upside down. The pinyin I use the most often is in fact my own. I write down spoken words into my own pinyin style to help me remember and re-use words. 

There is a Taiwanese language but it is usually spoken by the older generation and it is closely linked to Mandarin. There is an even older language that exists in Taiwan and that would be Hakka. Most teens my age or younger can not speak Taiwanese very well and few people know Hakka. English pr-schools are every where here and plenty of people speak good English. My friend pointed out the other day that he chose Taiwan because Rotary Exchange students speak English everywhere in the world and only in Taiwan could he learn Chinese and English at the same time. Another interesting concept is that my Brazilian and Mexican classmates can converse with each other in Spanish/Portuguese without any prior knowledge of the languages. 

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