by Jonny | Sep 10, 2011 | Travel
Today I went with my cousin and her boyfriend to a pretty nice BBQ! It was pretty nice. I guess I learned more Chinese, since everyone at the BBQ couldn’t speak a word of English. Although there was an old man there who had a electronic dictionary. Which translates English to Chinese and vice versa. I was in fact teaching them how to say words since their pronunciation was wrong. They also helped me with some Chinese words and helped me with my pronunciation.
I feel that living with my cousin and her boyfriend (Gary) will excel my speaking ability. I still need to practice the writing, which I consider to be the easier task, since I can do that all on my own, considering you purely just have to copy characters and memorize them. Although I am still a little confused with the grammar, but it doesn’t look at that hard. I believe English grammar is much more complicated, so once I gather more of an understanding of the language I will understand the grammar side of things.
Gym/health update
Haven’t talked to anyone but a gym instructor and the two people I am living with; my cousin and her boyfriend. I worked hard today in gym. I pushed myself on the weight lifting equipment. Hopefully I will be able to see a few more results from my working at the gym.
However I have put on 1 kg. I believe that is like 1 kg of muscle, since I have been working out a lot. Or if it is fat, then I haven’t seen anywhere on my body where there has been added fat. All I have seen is growth in my arm muscles and the toning of my breasts; they are both becoming rather large and more muscular.
I still I haven’t got the 6 pack that I am aiming to get. But in due time, I believe I can easily get there. I just need to do more muscle building exercises. I also still do need to lose a bit more weight. I am thinking in the region of around 3 or 4 kg and my body will look great. Though I am focusing on muscle building first, since I have heard if you try to lose weight, but also gain muscle, there are technical problems with that. I have already lost in around 3 and a-half months of training 10 kg. I think that is quite a significant amount of weight to lose.
Tomorrow I will go to the gym and do more weight training and also running. I’ve read that running helps loosen up your muscles, so when you do weight train, you won’t stretch any muscles or hurt yourself. I really want to go swimming, it seems more logical considering everyday the weather is around 30ºC. – Though I just don’t like the look of my body right now or don’t have the guts to show it publicly to people. I mean I don’t mind others in the shower room looking at my body, but in the open in public, it just seems more challenging.
Whatever the case, my exercise regime is going well. I don’t go everyday, like I used to, but I have definitely seen the effects of my weight loss. – I like much better and have had comments such as “have you lost weight?” these types of comments are very encouraging. However I’d rather people saying, “You look a lot stronger than before!” though I understand why someone wouldn’t say that, where the weight loss remark is sort of a general remark!
Since moving in with my cousin, I feel a sense of more freedom and being on my own in this world now. I always have them as back up, if things go wrong, so I am pretty content with the way things are at the moment. Though I always hate thinking about the future. I will eventually need to find a job and finding a job in Taiwan that doesn’t involve English teaching will be hard. I would like to do something more enjoyable and something more permanent.
by Jonny | Sep 9, 2011 | Updates
Recently I made a move to live with my cousin, who gave me a room in her apartment. She lives with her boyfriend here and they had a spare room. Since they live nearby to Feng-Chia University, it is very convenient and they have given me the room for free. Their apartment is really nice and in fact they had a small room with gym equipment which I can use. (Including a running machine)
The only issue (I don’t really see it as an issue) is that they don’t know how to speak English. However thinking about it, it will help me excel in learning Chinese, since all I can use with them is Chinese. So I am forced to use Chinese, as opposed to my parents who know English well.
I am just glad I have such a big family in Taiwan of cousins, aunts and uncles. – I am also equally thankful that the place they have is literally 5 minutes via walking to where I go to study Chinese.
So I am quite pleased at the moment. I also recently bought a nice laptop. I don’t have the specifications of it on me right now, but it is quite a powerful laptop even though it only has a 14” screen. However I didn’t want to spend too much, so I went for the 14” as it was considerably cheaper than the 17” or above laptops.
So how is my Chinese studies going?
Let’s just say learning Chinese is not a walk in the park. You have to study hard to get it and understand it. I cannot focus sometimes and considering I have ADHD (Or what I believe to be ADHD) I find it hard to focus in class and I always keep moving since I seem to have so much energy in me. But I am getting much better at Chinese, though I am not learning as fast I would have liked. When I did my course at college in web development, I found it very easy, while others found it hard. I guess learning actual said languages are hard for me as opposed to programming/scripting languages. Although if the course was computer-based via the use of typing Chinese, I think I would learn Chinese very easily. Things are going OK, at least or so I think, I am not the worst student in the class. I also had a test today which was fairly easy. Though I don’t want to jinx myself, but I believe I got nearly every answer correct. There is just one character I didn’t know how to write. So I was quite disappointed in not knowing that character.
by personal | Sep 6, 2011 | Fitness
For the past couple of days my weight has sat a steady 86kgs; however, today before I exercised in the gym I weighed myself and I now weigh 85kgs.
I feel I’;ve come a long way
I originally weighed 110kgs and possibly more if I had not taken action against the way I was living and eating. I now regularly exercise, go out and generally I am more concerned about my fitness and health more than ever. Even though I have been eating a lot lately my metabolic rate has increased which means I can eat a lot more without having to suffer the consequences of gaining overall weight.
But I am still not happy with the way my body looks. Although I have slimmed down and put on some muscle, I also want to lose a lot more fat. Or around 3 kg worth of fat. Or perhaps when I start to look good I will slow things down a little. Since I am going to the gym near enough everyday and work out 1 hour if not more in the gym; this is primarily how I’ve lost weight.
On another topic…
I applied very recently to be Taiwanese. With this comes the obligation that as a Taiwanese person, I have to do 12 months of military conscription. Although my Chinese sucks, it is still possible for a foreigner with bad Chinese language skills to do the conscription, or so I have heard. I still think it would be the worst idea ever to place a gun in the hands of someone who has no idea what army instructors are saying.
Considering I have to join the Taiwanese military somewhere this year and quite possibly this month, fitness is my main concern as well as learning Chinese. [Although learning Chinese is much more of a concern for me for obvious reasons; considering I live in a country where that is the main language] However, I just hope there are lots of people in the military who know how to speak good English. In fact, I was thinking of doing language exchange with a couple people in the military. Firstly, to help improve my Chinese and secondly to possibly make some really good friends.
by personal | Aug 12, 2011 | Opinion
I just want to post "bleh" since I have a really large migraine right now.
I have been phoning back and forth to the legalisation office (Foreign Commonwealth Office) to get small details that I am filling in to get 2 documents legalised. It will cost me £60 for both of these documents to be legalised. The cost of sending the documents I am not sure of yet. But the headache begins here. I need to then get the FCO to send the documents after they have been legalised and stamped to the Taipei Representative Office. I haven't done much posting before, so I am not exactly sure how to do all this perfectly without screwing anything up. I think I am doing things right, but there is always that feeling you are sending of documents which you'll never receive back, because somewhere in the process you screwed up.
Just obtaining the address in English, where I live was a pain in the butt, but I believe I managed to get the correct address. If not, the address will also be in Chinese. Anyway's after the FCO send the documents (Once they are legalised) to the Taipei Representative Office in the U.K, they need to stamp it. – They charge a fee, so within the envelope I send to the FCO, I will need to attach a few postal orders or bankers drafts to pay for the document to be firstly sent from the FCO legalisation office in Kent to London to the Taipei Representative Office. (I already paid the £60 online through the government website the FCO has, but that is just for the stamping and verification of said documents) Then I need to include a £28 payment in a postal order or bankers draft to the Taipei Representative Office in the U.K. to pay for their legalisation/verification of the documents. It costs £10 for each document at the TRO but then an £8 fee is charged to send the documents back to my Taiwan address where I am currently living.
As you can see, it is a little complicated. But that isn't the fact why I am getting a little pissed off. I am just scared I am sending these important documents off and they can easily get lost in the post and I can possibly never see them again. Then what the hell am I going to do? I won't be able to become a Taiwanese citizen which is what I want.
The other thing that I don't know about yet is when I will be conscripted for the army. Is it straight after I become a citizen or what? I was hoping they give a few months of freedom when just becoming a Taiwanese citizen and hoping they don't immediately draft you into the army. I am on a language course at a university called Feng-Chia and I want to do level 1 Chinese so I can at least understand and possibly communicate with others in the army. I also want to join the Taiwanese Marines, which I will probably need to know how to speak Chinese. But I really just want to join the Taiwanese Marines for the exercise and change in mentality. I want to do something hard and challenging if that makes sense and I want to be a hard worker.
I heard the Taiwanese military is especially easy for foreigners since the military drill instructors can't tell you to do much since they can't speak much English. Which causes a problem and they will leave you to do easy jobs. (Just what I have heard) – Which is not what I want to do. I want to do this military training for its purpose of making shrimps into hardcore motherf"&2kers. I feel I am too soft, which is a good thing, but it can also be a bad thing. I just want to bulk up and be honest with myself and I feel this can help me get through a lot of trouble. I want this to be a real challenge for me. But perhaps I won't be accepted into the Marines, which is OKAY, I think if I try hard enough in the army I can still bulk up, but I feel it will be too easy for me. I don't mind the waking up, being shouted at and the exercise which I do anyway's till I drop dead most of the time.
I am the fittest I have ever been in my life and I also putting on a lot of muscle at the gym. I think in 2 months time I will be more than ready to join the army. But the problem is not fitness, the actual problem is the language barrier. Perhaps in 2 months time I will be able to understand and perhaps speak basic Mandarin. But I really want an extra 3 months at Chinese, at level 1 Chinese at Feng-Chia University. I have been studying basic level 0 Mandarin, so I can read some characters and write quite a few, but I still suck at Chinese.
I think if they gave me the opportunity to study one more month, I could perform much better in the military and this would help them, since I think I would be able to understand these instructors much better. – The fact I will be conscripted into the army for 12 months makes this a big thing in my life, so I need to be able to at least speak to others who might not know English. There really is that element of worry.
by personal | Jul 17, 2011 | Updates
I am taking a deep dive into the friendship ring today by going out with a girl who saw my ad on a website called Tealit to do some language exchange and to hopefully make friends with her.
I have talked extensively over Facebook with her and I asked her if she would like to go grab a coffee. But I kind of made her choose the place and since she has a car she is picking me up. (I am very romantic :P) As you can tell.
I will bring my camera with me just to see where she takes me and hopefully it will be somewhere nice. The main purpose is for her to teach me a little Chinese and to test me for a test I have coming up on Monday. (I also have another language exchange person teaching me on Monday too) So hopefully I can learn this Chinese stuff fast. I already know bopomofo quite well. It was just the pronouncing of words and the 4 tones that I suffer with. So hopefully she can help me with that.
I am kind of scared or apprehensive as I have never done anything like this before, so I don’t know how it will go! I hope she likes my humour and I hope she can actually understand me. Hahaa! I talked to her on the phone and she kind of couldn’t understand me too well, but I think her level of English is quite good. My Chinese is poor — so it is good she can speak somewhat decent English and she types quite well too! 🙂
Just a random picture I took, when I went to this famous place called "Sun Moon Lake" in Taiwan!
Today I went with my cousin and her boyfriend to a pretty nice BBQ! It was pretty nice. I guess I learned more Chinese, since everyone at the BBQ couldn’t speak a word of English. Although there was an old man there who had a electronic dictionary. Which translates English to Chinese and vice versa. I was in fact teaching them how to say words since their pronunciation was wrong. They also helped me with some Chinese words and helped me with my pronunciation.