...i had so much fun in taiwan. my best friends there were koreans and thai. where ever we go, shopping, photography session, etc...the few of us will be stuck to each other, and we shall wonder about kaohsiung city like some lost souls. my korean frens - rain, bae yung jun and chungja cant speak chinese. my thai fren, den cant speak chinese either. i speak little chinese, enough to understand that language, and so i thought.
this is a story of 5 good frens, 4 mandarin-less and one knows little mandarin and how they survived in a city of all MANDARIN SPEAKING fellas. (please ignore my bad romanise mandarin)
it all started when we decided that we should be in town to celebrate. hei, its kaohsiung and its our first time here. what the heck. worst is we'd get lost. but so what if we got lost. its alright. we have a map and money and i can speak "hua yue" a little. so, it began our journey to town. and we thought it was gonna be easy.
we wanted to take a bus cos its cheaper; about NT67 compared to a cab which is about NT150 each. then some taiwanese guy told us to get a cab; which cost NT500 for 5 person. its ok, cos that would be NT100 each. but, i do not even know how to call a cab. i asked one of the taiwanese guy, "cher li you taxi mar?" and i said taxi in english, with those little americanised slang. and he looked back at me and ask, "sher mo shi taxi?" i was stunned, u mean they do not know what is taxi? and later he told me, you mean "chi cherng cher?" i was like, what the heck is that? i know "cher" means car or something. and so i said, yaya, not knowing what if it is really car. and lucky, a taxi came. that guy helped us to call a cab. phew. and ya, it cost NT500.
we went to fongshan, some nite market shopping; which is the nearest from where we stayed. shopping was indeed difficult. we were at this stall and bae yung jun wants to buy something, so he pulled me to the stall and ask me to help him to bargain. then i ask that fella, "chi tor chien?" she then looked back at me, like she has just seen a ghost and said, "oh, ni shuo shi, tor shau chien sher ma?" i was like, yaya, "tor shau chien". from then, i know how to ask the price already. hmm, my mandarin sucks!!!
fred ask me to buy some sour plum. and when i saw a shop selling all sour plums, i went in and ask her, "ni you suan mei, mar?" she said, "you". doh what a question to ask. i remembered fred saying he doesnt like those sweet ones. and i was like wtf, how do i say that? so, i ask, "nar yi ker suan mei bu shi tian tian de?" then she said something like, taiwanese ppl likes the sweet ones, and its the trend now. so i ask her again, which one is the most sour among all the sweet sweet ones. and if you want to know how i ask that, pls check with me. then she showed me some sour sour ones, which is all black in color. then i said to her, "wo bu yao hei se de. wo yao nar ke, pai pai se de". what the heck am i talking about.
there are many more incident of my taiwan trip. worst being the time we need to order food. rain and bae yung jun was asking me, what is this and what is that; pointing at some stalls. u know, knowing how to speak mandarin is just not quite enough. you gotta know how to read a little. sometimes being a show off infront of those english speaking frens that i can read and speak chinese, not much but enough...but no....how wrong was i. when rain ask me what is written there, i was like, staring at the words and try to figure out the word; ended up saying, rain, i cant read chinese. and i have to ask.
yeap, back to ordering food. i cant remember how to say chicken and pork in mandarin. doh! "chi rou is pork and chu rou is chicken" or was it the other way around. yaya, it was the other way around. and rain wanted to eat rice instead of noodles. but noodles is so easy to order. i told rain, let us all eat nooldes ler. then he said he really wanted rice. so here goes, "ni you fan mai mar?". she said, "you. ni yao sher mo fan. wo zhi li you chi rou fan, you chu rou..something something which i figured it is roast pork" then i told rain, you want pork rice or chicken rice? rain wanted the roast port rice. then there is this occasion, when this guy spoke to me in hokkien, then i said to him, "ni ke yi ziang hua yue mar?" then he was also like so shock and ask, "oh, ni shuo shi kuo yue mar? hau. wo ken ni ziang kuo yue" and then he spoke mandarin to me.
so, after every shopping and stopping at every stall, i would tell them that this is my friend from korea and this is my fren from thailand. and i am from malaysia. and they all will say, i can speak good mandarin. my face were so red that everyone could see i was glowing in the dark. hahaha, the taiwanese praised me that i can speak good mandarin. i got their slang and they thought i am a taiwanese and thats why they gave me good bargains on stuff. wakakaz. there shoots up my ego.
other places we visited includes the zhongsan university, lots of nite shopping, ferry ride, some brittish collonial house, shopping complex, fo guang shan, etc. my most memorable experience in kaohsiung was sitting on the rock in zhongsan university, looking out at the sunset with 4 of my good frens; savouring every seconds of it.
there are many more occasion when i spoke mandarin all day. above is just a few embarassing moments i had. i have never spoken so much mandarin in my life before and just 7 days in kaohsiung has helped me improve my mandarin so much.
come find me to chat and i will tell you more stories about taiwan. i have 2000 over photos to show and chat. it is indeed a real good experience for me. come come find me for yamchar.
so, this is the story of 5 good frens from 3 different countries, 3 koreans - one rain, one bae yung jun and another upcoming superstar all beautiful people and a thai with me malaysian had our most wonderful time in kaohsiung.
(jang won seok) rain - got to know him in thailand 2 years ago, indeed a great guy. talked to him the most, shared alot of stories and life fitness, slimming and stuff with him. i like photography, and he likes to pose for my camera. so a great couple.
(lee kyung min) bae yung jun - was actually looking for rain and he wasnt in his room, but yung jun was. and we started talking. he is so much into camera and stuff and our conversation soon becomes of camera and angle and lights and stuff. and each nite we would share photographs, and he would comment which one is good and how i should improve. my photography guru. he taught me alot on skills and how to take nice pictures.
chungja-ko - beautiful korean girl, studied in singapore for 2 years, understands my manglish, speaks with lots of la. met her in korea 2 years ago too in seoul for some training session. she is stunningly beautiful and she looks so photogenic that yung jun takes her picture whenever possible. obviously i will tag behind yung jun and take the same picture from another angle.
den - a good fren from thailand. whenever i visit bangkok, he will be the one person to arrange all my accomodation and travelling and clubbing and eating and constantly meeting new people and etc.
and so, what's next? osaka, japan man. so these 5 friends made a pack to meet in osaka next and have a fun time running around japan. heck, i took level 1 japanese. shucks, gotta learn up some arigato gozaimasu already...
