Formosan Exile

So during one of my blog hopping activity, I discovered this blog:

Formosan Exile

It's about this Canadian guy and his (Canadian?) wife teaching English in Taiwan. It's very well written and very funny. This is my favorite bit:

I left early for class, and had breakfast over in Neihu is a little hole-in-the-wall place by the lake. The prices are good, there is no view of the lake, and mind your head on the air conditioner on the way through the door.

Bacon and eggs and coffee are possible for breakfast now. “Egg” is “dan” (like the name), “one” is “yi” and “two” is “er”. However, just to bugger up the foreigners, you must add a “quantifier”. There are many different quantifiers to learn, but the default one is “ge”. You must say “liang” instead of “er”. The first part of breakfast is therefore “liange dan”. “Hao” means “I understand” not “how do you want your eggs done?”.

“Bacon”, amusingly, is “pagan”. It’s Sunday, I’m Christian, but I ate it anyway. “b” and “p” are very similar in Chinese, as are “k” and “j”. This is how “Peking” disappeared” to become “Beijing”—taking my favourite joke about Peking Tom (the Chinese voyeur) along with it. I don’t know the quantifier for “slice” so I just say “yige pagan”.

“Coffee” is a snap—it’s just the English word pronounced in a Chinese way. Caf?. Options are ‘bing” or “re” (ice or hot), and “shao, chung, or da” (small medium or large). Blast me if I can remember the quantifier for “cup”. Breakfast is therefore “liange dan, yige pagan, yige shao re caf?”.


I think the blurb was hilarious but my white hubby didn't care much for it. Perhaps you have to know some Mandarin to find it amusing. :)