Taiwan vs. Cruise

At the end of the Spring semester I was presented with the choice between going to Taiwan and going on a cruise, with over 20 members of my family, since they were both in the month of July. I'll admit before that I was kind of skeptic between going on the cruise and coming to Taiwan. If it were not for the scholarship that MTSU provided for me, then I probably wouldn't have come. Now looking back, I do not regret my decision at all. From all of the food I've eaten, things I've seen and heard and most importantly the new friends I have made I do not regret this decision one bit. As of now, I admit I do want to go home a bit but would not mind in the least if I could stay another few days to truly say goodbye to my new friends here. As of now it is 6:25AM and class starts at 9:10AM. I am very excited to see what will happen during class today and at closing ceremony tonight. Dr. Jih wants us to do something special and hopefully everyone can deliver. I will do my best and I will be a lasting memory for everyone here in Taiwan in July 2010.

Multiple Languages

Many of the students here in CYCU especially in my Business class can speak 2 Languages and some even 3. I have been pondering this for a while now and have come to the conclusion that Americans are lazy when it comes to learning a second language. I have heard this joke from somewhere before and it's pretty funny.

What do you call someone that can speak 3 languages? ~Tri-Lingual

What do you call someone that can speak 2 languages? ~Bi-Lingual

What do you call someone that can only speak 1 language?.... ~American

Which is true, I am actually fortunate that I am Second Generation in America and can speak Lao but I can not read or write it. Another point I want to make is that, while Americans are lazy(maybe taking 2 or 3 years in high school learning a language they will only use in class and not immersed in it, which pretty much means no true learning at all), many foreign countries have a little bit more of an edge. A lot of my CYCU friends have told me that they start learning English when they are in what we would call Elementary school. Which is way early compared to high school. Also another thing that gives many foreign countries the edge is the fact that many products/services around the world are already in English. Whether it be convenience stores such as 7-11, family mart, to name brand foods such as KFC, McDonalds and Pizza hut to world renowned products such as Apple, Windows, GM, and Ford.

But what I really believe to be the ultimate advantage for foreigners to learn english is the internet/computer. You can look at any keyboard in the world and via a few exceptions all have the qwerty button layouts and 1 more thing, many popular internet sites such as msn, yahoo, google, etc all have to have english in the url. So many people especially internet savvy countries are somewhat immersed in English and not really knowing it. While I am glad that I was born in America, sometimes I wonder how things would've turned out if I had been born in another country. Regardless I have made it a goal in my life to become at least trilingual and hopefully read a 2nd language. Whether it be Mandarin, Thai, Spanish, or Japanese will be a matter of time.

Turn Your Uniqueness into Strength

I have less than a week now before I return back to Nashville, Tennessee. I am having so much fun here in Taiwan for so many reasons especially friendship. While the new friends I have made here at CYCU are awesome, I want to write about a different kind of friendship and that is with my Professors. Throughout all my of school life, I have this mindset of it's the students vs the teachers kind of mentality. Teachers were not people you were supposed to hang out with, they were supposed to be the one you despised because they gave you homework and hard tests. When I arrived at MTSU, I noticed that the Professors here seem to care more than what I was used to back in high school but I still never thought of the idea of ever hanging out with them. Sure I was nice and respected them, however never thought of them more than a teacher who assigned worked and gave us a grade.

This study abroad trip has really changed my mindset when it comes to Professors. I have 2 main Professors here at CYCU they are Dr. Jih and Dr. Chin. They are both really nice guys who are not only my teachers/tour guides but also a mentor and more importantly my friends. I have never spent so much time hanging out with my Professors before. Dr. Chin has invited us to his home and has been very friendly. Dr. Jih has been very nice and we would all run together in the mornings and sometimes eat together at night. While in the classroom it is still business as usual, however I don't feel the student vs teacher kind of feeling. After class or in the dorm whenever I see Dr. Jih(since we live in the same dorm hall), I ask him how he's doing, if he wants to play sports with us or get something to eat later. I feel comfortable as it is and don't think it's weird at all. Not only have I made memories with them that I will never forget, but I have also made 2 lifetime friends.

Comments about 7/20 Morning Lecture

Today's lecture was interesting especially about how there might be a double dip or another great world recession which is a scary thought. However when it came to the European Union being in trouble with Greece, Spain, and Portugal, I believe that the EU should have imposed higher controls or been more strict when it comes to regulating those countries economies. Ever since Greece defaulted or bankrupted, this will create a chain reaction with the poorer countries in the Union thinking that since the richer nations bailed out Greece, then they can get a bailout as well. Which leads to them not trying as hard to get out of debt and just kind let things go as they are. That kind of attitude will not help the EU or the world economy at all. Like I mentioned earlier it creates a chain reaction, Greece is apart of the EU which is I think the world's largest economy. While not one country is the largest by far, all of them together as one European Union have the a large if not largest part when it comes to the World Economy. As for the next few years being a double dip or another great recession, I am hoping for a slow but always steady world economy improvement but the way things are going, it is more than likely going to be a double dip in my opinion hopefully it won't though.

Sports in Common

While I may not speak the common language here, "Mandarin", I am still astonished at the similarities between Taiwan and the United States. For the past week and a half, my friends and I would go running in the morning at around 5:30 AM just right before the sun comes up. I am surprised to see the amount of people out on the school track at the time. There must be at least 30 people out there. They are mostly older runners around 40+UP, however it doesn't matter to me because I have been running ever since I was born and doing it semi-pro in High School and College for over 6 years. Most runners will run do their thing and be on their way. It's the same here in Taiwan and over in the states.

After morning classes we sometimes would meet up with the CYCU students to play basketball or volleyball in the arena area. The people there would speak to us in a somewhat broken but understandable english to any player. We can't speak Mandarin but sports are sports, even if you can speak the language but you can't play then they wont' respect you at all. So I'm happy that when we play win or lose, the other team smiles because we are all meeting together to play something we enjoy despite demographics and citizenships.

Taipei 101

Having visited the world's second tallest building and saying unbridled fun is an understatement. I have never been in a place that was so high up, besides an airplane but that doesn't really count because an airplane is way too high up. You can't really see anything in a plane except for clouds, the ocean and maybe mountains. The view was totally amazing at the top, my ears were popping and I could tell it was a little bit harder to breathe. After being at the top for about 30 minutes came back down to all of the wonderful shops in the tower. Someday if I ever become rich, I want to see what it would be like to live in Taipei 101.

Days moving along

It has been a week since I have arrived here in Taiwan. I must say that by all means each day has been an adventure in itself. From days filled with class to nice city tours all the way to nights with arcades and good eats. But there is always one thing that is always constant, and that is the CYCU Business camp people aka my friends. I liked the way Dr. Jih said that our camp is like a U.N we have people from all over the world with languages ranging from English, Mandarin, Vietnamese, Lao, Arabic, and even Hindi. While we all use English as our base level language it is nice to know that everyone is here to learn and make new friends along the way.