Chinese tone

In last article, I was talking about we learn Chinese pronunciation by phonetic symbols in Taiwan. Now I am trying to explain how it works.

Chinese's pronunciation have 5 different tone, light tone, first tone, second tone, third tone and 4th tone, it's hard to explain how it sounds like, but as long as you practice the speaking and listening, you could understand how it works. Usually for foreigner the third tone is difficult for them to pronounce. I have join a Chinese for teaching foreigner spouse in Taiwan, the teacher use gesture to help them to understand the tones.

1. First tone: The same level sound.
2. Second tone: From the low to the high.
3. Third tone: From the high to the low and back to the high.
4. 4th tone: From the high to the low(stress sound).
5. Light tone: Light and short.

Still confuse? OK, let me use A as an example. Please watch the video and listen to the sound, maybe you would have an idea about the tones.
 

Start to learn Chinese

Have you ever thought about learning Chinese? I know, English is international language, but must population in the world actually speak in Chinese. Why? Because the population in China are more than 13 hundred million people, mostly of them speak in Chinese, besides, there are many Chinese live in different countries in the world, such as Singapore and Malaysia, Chinese still the main language in their own social life. I don't have experience in teach foreigner Chinese, but my husband is the only student I have. I know there are many way to learn Chinese, for me, I think Pin Yin is the best way for beginner try to learn Chinese. In Taiwan, we use our own phonetic symbols to learn Chinese, kids start to learn it when they are in kindergarten and elementary school, as long as you could remember what's the pronunciation for each symbol, then you could spell the sound really easy and quick, also could type Chinese in Taiwan's system. There are many foreigners are not use to this way to learn Chinese in Taiwan, but also many foreigners learning Chinese really well in this way. No matter what, learning Chinese is the future.

Although my husband is the only student I have, but I keep thinking how to teach foreigner Chinese since I never had the formal training. Maybe I might use the wrong way to teach, but I think I would get more experiences from the mistakes I made. I realize foreigners could learn Chinese really well as long as they try hard, because mostly of them are not afraid to speaks wrong. After all, the important key to learn language is speak and learn from the mistakes. Just like me, my husband is a nature English speaker and I am a nature Chinese speaker, although I know a little bit English, but I still make a lot mistakes when I talk to him, he and I used to it after a while, cause he understand what was I trying to say. Sometimes he try correct me about the simple grammar, that's why I could fix the mistakes I made.

Now, I am trying to teach simple useful Chinese sentence through SeekTaiwan.blogspot.com, and expect it could help you in your trip or somewhere, and maybe you could learn something as well.

Taiwanese Style BBQ Chicken

I never BBQ in Australia while I live in there, so I don't know how to do BBQ chicken in western way, but I do know how to make BBQ chicken in Taiwanese way. In mostly Asian culture, every part of chicken could be eaten, from head to the foot. I understand westerner not use to see the chicken head still there after BBQ, but it's a part of food culture in Taiwan, so please be confidence to read this article.

You could get BBQ chicken easily in traditional market or large supermarket, but sometime you just feel like that you want to make BBQ chicken by yourself. You can do it in traditional way; use burn charcoal to BBQ the chicken, or use metal bucket. Before smart Taiwanese invented the bucket for making traditional BBQ chicken, we use a bucket which was the container for oil, it's easy to get and also a part of recycle. Try to cut a big hole and make sure all the chicken could get into the bucket. How to flavor the chicken? In my family we just smear salt on chicken skin and inside the chicken, and put some spring onion and chili etc. inside it, and use bamboo slip make sure ingredients won't fall out when it's cooking.

Drill and small hole on the bottom of the bucket, we are doing this because we need to fixed the chicken by wire and nail on the bottom of the bucket. Time to BBQ! After fixed the chicken, leave the bucket on the ground. At the moment, chicken is hanging up on the bottom of the bucket. Before to burn woods, put a metal plate under the chicken, because when it's BBQ it would drop lots oil, it would be a part of sauce with BBQ chicken. Leave woods around the bucket, try to put them even.

Start to burn woods and adjust fire all the time, we don't want burn or uncook chicken, are we? Remove the burned woods( it's charcoal now) after 15-20 minutes, it's all depend on the fire.  Carry the bucket carefully because it's very hot at the moment, and also the chicken still fixed on the bucket. Get a big plate which could handle all the chicken, cut the wire. Now we got a perfect cook BBQ chicken. Sometime we leave sweet potato with charcoal, it would cook by the heat, it also taste good. I usually chop spring onion and chili make the sauce, mix slat, black pepper and the oil from BBQ chicken. Although it looks oily, but it really taste good with chicken. Would you like to try it??

Sticky Rice Balls

Have you ever seen such a big Sticky Rice Ball?

Living in Taiwan, you could experience many different cultures, no matter it comes from western or eastern countries, you can get any food that you want/like.

I was work for a small company, although it's a small company the people who work there are very kind. One of my colleagues who's from Vietnam and married to a Taiwanese man, is one of my coworkers. Because I have been to Vietnam many times, I like to talk about Vietnam with her. Vietnamese food, cities in Vietnam, we always have fun when we're chatting. I really miss one thing about Vietnam which is Vietnamese food. After we talked about this, I knew she is good at cooking traditional Vietnamese snacks. I asked her if she could show me how to cook a home made Vietnamese dish. She was surprised that I want to learn how to cook Vietnamese food, but she still said OK with a big smile.

After a few days, on a Monday morning, the Vietnamese lady had an odd smile and said that she wanted to share something with me. It really surprised me, and I asked, 'What is it?'. She said she made Vietnamese Sticky Rice Balls at home and wanted me to try if it taste good or not. Well, the Vietnamese Sticky Rice Balls really impressed me because I have never seen such a big Sticky Rice Ball in Taiwan, and it also looks cute. She tried to explain to me that Sticky Rice Balls in Vietnam are usually served with cold soup ( if you have ever tried it in Taiwan you would know Sticky Rice Balls are usually served with hot soup), because it could make the sweet flavor taste better. I asked her what the stuffing is made of, she wouldn't tell but wanted me to try by myself to see what's the difference between Vietnamese and Taiwanese Sticky Rice Balls.

It's tea time, now! And I remember that I have two big Vietnamese Sticky Rice Balls. I put a cold Sticky Rice Ball into my mug,  I try what the soup tastes like... It tastes very sweet, made from ginger and brown sugar. Next would be to try the Vietnamese Sticky Rice Balls. First bite; the stuffing is salty green bean, very different than the Taiwanese style. The stuffing of Taiwanese Sticky Rice Balls is usually made from either red bean, sesame or peanuts.

I never use too salty a stuffing inside Sticky Rice Balls but with sweet soup. I felt weird about this flavoring, but when you taste it together, hmm, it's very balanced. I asked the Vietnamese lady again, is the Vietnamese Sticky Rice Ball really that big? She just smiled at me and said:  'No, I am a bit lazy, I might have to make many many Sticky Rice Balls if I make it too small, but if I make it bigger, then I don't have to spend so much time for make it.'.

Well,  I don't know what to say about this.

The traditional Taiwanese Sticky Rice Ball usually is without stuffing. Fried Chinese mushrooms,  dried shrimp and julienne of meat, and you could add some flavoring like soya sauce, salt etc.; then add soup-stock until it's boiling. Add Sticky Rice Balls to be boiled in the heated vegetable soup until it's boiling again, finish.

This would be the traditional way to cook the sticky rice balls,  but there are many different ways to cook it as well.

Besides the salty flavor it also good for taste as dessert. In a Taiwanese wedding, usually you could see a dish which is deep fried, small Sticky Rice Balls with peanut powder mixed with sugar, it means completely happiness.
No matter what kind of way to cook Sticky Rice Balls, it's important food in the winter solstice day. Chinese use to cook a pot of sticky rice balls soup, it means that you a year older after you eat the sticky rice balls.

In the Chinese calendar, the winter solstice day has longest night in a year, and it also have a tale about the weather of the winter solstice day: If it rains in the winter solstice day then it would be sunny day in Chinese new year, but if it's a sunny day in the winter solstice day then it would be a raining day in the Chinese new year. Now I wonder what's the weather in this Chinese New year, because I don't remember what was the weather in  the winter solstice day. But anyway, I still hope it will be nice weather during Chinese new year.

Introduction Of SeekTaiwan

Have you heard a country names Taiwan? Or you always confuse about Taiwan and Thailand? Believe me, many people made a mistake like this? I married to an Aussie, my mother in law thought that I'm from Thailand until I show her a map, and she realized Taiwan is an small island beside China. When my husband talk about Taiwan with other Aussie, they still thought he was talking about Thailand.
Yes, Taiwan is a small island beside south China, long time ago Portuguese call Taiwan "Ilha Formosa" which means "An beautiful island". After that, Formosa is main name of Taiwan to Euro countries before 1950. When I was travel in Mykonos, an island in Greece, I met a restaurant owner also a fisherman, he asked me where I from. After he heard Taiwan and he said "Formosa" to me, I was very surprised. Anyway, if you still wonder about Taiwan, maybe you should visit my blog, come and check the information of Taiwan, and see what's new in this small island. Of course, any message would be welcome to me.
I am qualified English tour guide in Taiwan. Although I am not in tour business, but I love  and would love to share information of Taiwan to anyone who have interested in this island. Travel, culture, food, people and language, because I got passion in travel things, that's why I try to build up a website about where I born and grew up. Also, it should be more people to know the beautiful of Taiwan, and hope more traveler around the world would love to visit my blog.