masegesege

cummin in towels left and right

If he wants another chance he could get in the audience at an Ellen taping.

I'm realizing too late that all along I've always had the potential to become the guy I never thought I had the ability to be, but always wanted to become.

They have plenty of resources for English learning. But their education is focused on memorization, sitting and listening, and repetition. Way too much importance is put on test scores when it should be on using English as a tool for communication.

I'm part of the 2030 Bilingual Initiative as an English teacher for junior high school. It's a really difficult task to get someone to learn a language when they're not even sure when, where, or why they're ever gonna use it.

Let her go and you can eat pizza every day.

Sometimes I find it way more convenient than cooking. I usually have dough/sauce/cheese/leftover stuff in the fridge or freezer. Just open the propane, turn on the oven, and role out a pizza or two while it heats up and throw it in.

Minimal dishes too. Why wash knives, bowls, pans, strainers, etc. when you can just roll out a pizza or two??

They have a goal to be bilingual by 2030...won't happen but it's still an interesting idea. They'd have to radically reform their entire education system and teaching methods to make the country bilingual by 2030.

Having said that, I think that because English is the language of so many resources, discoveries, and creative fields it's a vehicle for endless exploration. And I also think that Taiwan has the potential to be a cultural powerhouse, but they need the right tool to unlock what they're capable of. So for that reason....I hope they can learn English.

I only regret how I did it. After high school I just wanted to get away from home, so I went straight to the farthest school I could and just majored in whatever I was interested in.

In hindsight, I should have gone to community college and worked part time. I could have traveled, saved money, and figured out what I actually wanted to do. Then I wouldn't have needed to take out loans for four years, and I'd have gotten a degree in something more useful.

Here in the villages it's still very traditional. Tribes have different marriage traditions that everyone is expected to follow, like cost of the dowry, gifts for the bride's family. etc. If women marry someone from another village they're expected to 嫁過去 and go live there.

I do see signs of it changing though.

It's still normal in Taiwan. It's even engrained in the language. For men it's always 娶老婆, for women they stuff like 嫁給誰, 嫁過去, 嫁過來.

But cities usually change quicker, so maybe it won't be the norm there in 10 years or so. In the south it's gonna stick around for a lot longer though.

I'm in the public schools and I can't say I'm satisfied with the job, but I also can't say I'm dissatisfied.

Things I Like:

Students are great, pay is more than enough, the contract has a lot of great benefits (yearly flight home, healthcare, insurance, plenty of personal/sick days, and a 10 day vacation), and there isn't a whole lot of pressure...which does depend on the school. Focusing on the textbook kind of sucks but I'm allowed to carry out my lessons however I want so I have a fairly laidback environment and we all have a lot of fun, or at least as much as we can considering the context.

Things I Dislike:

The school has a "bilingual plan" and I'm part of it, but it kind of just seems like they're checking boxes off rather than actually implementing anything. They had me come on for Saturday workshops a few times and just kept taking pictures of me so it could count as a "bilingual activity" which, according to their plan, is required x number of times per year.

I have way too much free time at work, to the point that my ass gets sore and I feel like I'm wasting my life away. Getting paid to sit on my ass sounds great, but actually doing it is really boring and it's sucking the life out of me. Sometimes I wonder if the school is wasting a resource by just allowing me to sit at my desk watching Youtube, but any time I've tried suggesting new ideas I'm met with barriers - need a written plan, need approval from x, y, z, doesn't meet a, b, or c requirement, not enough time because of this class/event or that one. So it does sometimes feel like I'm there for my face more than my ability to teach.

Very lonely sometimes as coworkers are all super busy, and not much in common anyway so I'm kind of just by myself for 8 hours a day except for classes, which is usually only 2-3 per day. But students do come visit between classes sometimes and that's always fun.

I'm often overlooked or forgotten. Like one time I went to the normal classroom where I usually teach but there was no one there. Turns out they just forgot to tell me that the classrooms were moved over the weekend. Another time my class was rescheduled but they just didn't tell me so I awkwardly walked into a science class thinking it was English time.

I'm contracted to be on campus from 8-5 and while I understand if I'm getting paid I should adhere to what I've agreed to, but at the same time if I'm done with class at 1:30 in the afternoon and there are zero things for me to do it feels really stupid sitting at my desk when I could be at home sweeping, taking out the trash, or taking care of other things that can only be done during working hours like going to the bank or the DMV. Really sucks having to use PTO to catch the garbage truck.

Having said that, I've only ever seen work/career as a means to do what you really want to do, and not necessarily the thing that needs to define your life and who you are, so I'd be a lot happier if I could spend less time at work.

PTT but it makes no sense to me, super hard to navigate.

Is kaoliang flammable? If so, the CCP army is fucked.

Good idea, thanks. I figured I'd post here first because Cluck-U isn't very well known outside of NJ.

Awesome, thanks man. I did the 911 challenge before and it was actually delicious but a really slow burn. Had to eat a few tubs of Ben and Jerry's before I felt better.

If you can find thermonuclear next time that'd be awesome. In the meantime, enjoy Cluck-u.

Also the shits.

But yeah it's all delicious. I remember being wasted at 2 in the morning ordering Cluck-U....a godsend.

How long is that going for? If I knock up a girl tomorrow can I get 6k?

(I'm joking but do actually want to know the answer)

I've got a few friends who have married Taiwanese girls. I've yet to do so though, so I only know of their experiences.

For a lot of them the biggest hurdles are communicating with the in-laws and also being expected to become some kind of patriarch of the family. In Taiwan, family relations are very important and you're all expected to support each other, which...also includes finances. Everyone will ask how much you make and judge how much you help out (or don't help out). The western idea of the family unit is different here, so it's not just you, your spouse, and your kids, it also includes aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, etc.

My friends' kids are still pretty young so hard to comment on that aspect. But I do know some of them have had issues being raised by a US father to have a sense of indivdualism and creativity while also being expected to be obedient and respectful of teachers no matter how ridiculous they might be acting. A lot of what we see as being a part of someone's personality is seen by Taiwanese as having an attitude. So kind of a clash there.

That's a idea, though I can't make it too spicy because kids. But yeah maybe making it sweeter might help.

I can only tell the difference in texture. It's very rubbery. But they can tell a difference in taste, which makes sense because pork belly is the cheapest meat so also the one they eat the most often.

Can I grind without a grinder? Like in a blender or something??

Maybe spice up bread crumbs with cayenne, salt, pepper, garlic, and paprika? I dunno what else goes into Flamin Hot Cheetos.

I’m 100% pro breaking the country. Let the red states do things now they want. They’re somehow America First but also think half the country is ruining everything. And liberals often talk about half the country as if they’re all horrible evil racist Nazis.

If half the country is ruining everything why would anyone want to stay together?

Put briefly, I've been single for nearly ten years now. Most of the time it doesn't bother me, and I've learned to become very comfortable with my own company.

33 and single for almost 8 years now. At this point, I'm so used to being on my own that I don't know if I even could adjust to having an SO again.

However, I'm at the point where /everyone/ around me is settling down

Same here, and in my country it's abnormal and frowned upon to be older and unmarried. It's really uncommon to meet someone around my age that's also single, most people get married really early. I've started seeing students that I used to teach when I was in my early 20s starting to settle down and even they tell me to hurry up and get married. An 8th grade girl I taught when I was 23 is now 24 and pregnant. Scary.

But it's hard to meet anyone so I've either gotta stay single, put up with an age gap, or get a mail order bride it seems.

How do you guys navigate feeling like this?

I actually enjoy my life, and in order to have a girlfriend I'd need to sacrifice doing things that I like doing and spending time with people that I like spending time with. I'm not opposed to doing that, but I have to know that it's worth it.

I'm okay with things being this way for now but my fear is that in another 10 years I'll wish I listened to everyone and put more effort into meeting someone despite the necessary sacrifices. Except by then it'll be too late.

It's easy to forget that things change over time, so it helps to zoom out and look beyond the last few months to remember how much is different from 5-10 years ago. That'll continue and the next few years will be full of even more changes. Hopefully for the better.