I have to apologize for not being as attentive to my blog as I normally am. Last month simply ran away from me. Our trip to Japan last month was awesome, but it meant I had loads of work to catch up on when I came back.

Last month, I was asked to teach the teachers at my school once a week. I’ve spent a lot of time preparing a curriculum based on their wants and needs. We’ve decided not to use a textbook since everyone is at a different level of learning. In addition to my own ideas, I asked everyone to submit some ideas for class. Almost everyone indicated they would like to learn about different cultures, which happens to be of great personal interest to me since my university degrees are in anthropology/sociology and religion. My lesson planning has taken on a mind of its own and I’ve thrown a lot of energy into preparing lessons that will be interesting, worthwhile and above all, helpful in improving their English. My first lesson with them is tomorrow. I’m excited, but also a little intimidated about teaching my co-workers.

I started taking Chinese lessons again as well. I meet with my private tutor twice a week. It’s been nice getting back into a course of study. I studied Chinese for three years when I lived in China but I haven’t studied much here in Taiwan. I didn’t realize how much slang I picked up in China until I arrived here. At first, no one could understand me when I used terms unique to Jilin Province. I’ve since figured out which words need to be dropped from my speech. Everyone thinks my accent is soooooo cute. Just yesterday, my tutor remarked again how special my accent is.

“Special as in unintelligible?” I asked.

He tells me, “No. Your accent is remarkably clear. I can understand everything you say, but it isn’t a standard Beijing dialect. It’s charming.”

Blech. I don’t want to be cute and charming anymore.

The other thing that has been frustrating is making the switch from simplified to traditional characters. I had accomplished quite a bit just before I left China. After moving here, I started to feel a bit down about my language accomplishments, but since I’ve started studying again, my confidence has renewed itself. This week, I realized I actually learned more than I thought I had while living in China. My tutor is a terrific teacher and I’m enjoying my classes immensely, although studying has occupied most of my time over the past couple of weeks.

So, that’s it in a rather large nutshell. I’ll try to stay a bit more on top of things this month.