Mission Statement

This blog is not for posting pictures. My wife posts a lot of family and scenic pictures on her friendster account. To be honest, I'm not even sure how to put pictures in a post. I may have chosen the wrong layout for that.

This blog is not for whining and complaining about things. I could talk about how people in the Philippines are gradually losing their ability to speak English or how people in Taiwan have trouble pronouncing consonents that appear at the end of words but these posts would be too negative and would sound like venting.

I'll leave posting of pictures and/or complaining about things to every other blog.

I suppose a post declaring "Chinese is difficult!" sounds like whining and venting but it was actually intended as ironic. Of course Chinese is difficult! Chinese people (here in Taiwan anyway) seem genuinely impressed if a foreigner can speak let alone read Chinese: they seem to think of reading and writing Chinese as something that a foreigner simply can't do. I am actually impressed and flattered by this attitude: in many countries it seems that locals expect visiters to learn the local language. I really appreciate how much Chinese people (here in Taiwan anyway) appreciate the effort I've put into learning Chinese.

So that's the way I want to try to approach this topic: me genuinely trying to learn Chinese and finding it tough and people around me appreciating the effort. I think this is a positive thing: I sometimes feel like giving up but the feedback I get from people really encourages me to continue.

But, that being said, I will try to avoid negativity. It's easy to fall into that trap.

Martin