Rewind a Decade
June 5th, 2006 by MarkI stayed over in Táibĕi last night, so I could get some things done this morning. Since I have less than a year left on my passport, I figured it was time to head over to the sort-of-but-not-really-a-US-embassy, otherwise known as AIT. While I was filling out my paper work, I bumped into none other than my TA from my first Chinese class at CU ten years ago. Geez, I feel old thinking about that.
Back then, I had a pretty rough time in the class. I worked pretty hard, but I still wasn’t one of the better students. There were WAY too many kids who’d grown up speaking Chinese and were just taking the class for an easy A, or to mollify their parents. Every semester, about half of the white kids in the class flunked out or dropped out, until it was just me, some guy who was already fluent (and literate) in Japanese, and an uber-student called Dan. I swear that guy had practically a crate of flashcards with him every class. He had an organized and efficient system for making he knew them all, too. Not being nearly as cool as either of them, I gave up on Chinese, and became a programmer. By the time I came to Taiwan three years ago, I honestly couldn’t understand more than about 10 or 20 words. If only I’d had my current Chinese background when I was 18!
The coolest thing about my passport renewing experience, though, was something completely tangential to it. I had to go get some photos taken, since my “passport sized” photos I brought were too small. Luckliy, there’s a photo shop right next to AIT that can develop pictures on the spot. While I was waiting, I ducked into the bookstore next door to browse around. I still can’t believe what I found. They had Chinese versions of one of my favorite fantasy books from my first year of college. The Death Gate Cycle in Chin-frik’n-ese. Somebody slow down my geeking heart before it races away.
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June 7th, 2006 at 3:46 am
Hi, Mark!
I noticed that your posts are under the sign of kind of “disillusionment”. I think it’s all perspective. For example native English speakers have wonderful opportunity (that some of them embark on) to work abroad just because of their language ability. And not only as “English teacher” but employers worldwide are thinking that having, let’s say, engineers with native English will benefit the company. ESL speakers envy this:-)
Excuse my curiosity, how did you become a programmer if you have a Japanese major?
June 7th, 2006 at 4:18 am
Vitaly, I think maybe you misunderstood. I don’t want to be employed for my English skills. I want to be like my old Chinese and Indian co-workers who got jobs in the US based on their tech skills, and had the opportunity to really immerse themselves in a second language (English for them). That’s the kind of opportunity I’m looking for. Since English is my first language, I’ll have to find place where I can work in a different language, hopefully Chinese.
I became a programmer in order to make the money to finish college. Programming had nothing to do with my Japanese classes. The way I got into it to begin with was by reading books and designing a 3-D graphics engine on my own. Then, I was able to use that as a demo to show video game companies and get an entry level position. After getting the first job, it was pretty easy to move on to better and better ones.
June 8th, 2006 at 8:48 pm
be sure to give me a ring this weekend; we should grab a drink somewhere.