Ed Murphy Planning, Development and Land Use Consulting, Oregon

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www.edmurphyplanning.com

Ed Murphy and Associates is a land use planning and development group centered in Portland, Oregon. Ed Murphy has handled projects throughout the state of Oregon and is connected with key players in the planning and development field.

Whatever your project; he's the man to get it done.

A foreigner's perspective of Taiwan

I've been asked (repeatedly - and forgotten several times - and now am under strict moral obligation to finish) an article about my impressions of Taiwan. It is due at the end of the week, and although I'm very sleepy, I'm going to go ahead and write it.

There are many reasons people come to Taiwan; but I'm willing to bet that most people's are as random and unplanned as my own. Unless you have family in Taiwan or some previous connection here, foreigners thinking of going to Asia will probably go to Japan or Korea (if they want to teach English) or China (if they want to learn Chinese). Taiwan is, for most Westerners, a place that sounds a lot like 'Thailand' and makes a lot of cheap plastic toys.

After living in Italy, I was suffering from the claustrophobia of a stint at my parents' house and dating a girl that had studied Chinese. Although I'd planned on heading to Japan, I got a return email from someone in Taiwan who said they could offer me a job right away; and thinking that I could (romantically) 'pave the way' for a co-escape from America, I bought a ticket and left.

That was six years ago. I remember my first meal (and many more to follow) from 7-11; the loneliness of being a foreigner during Chinese New Year while everybody else is with their family; the strong and exotic flavors of the local food; and trying to remove the plastic top from my first cup of tea instead of poking it with the straw.

My 'job' turned out to be an agent, who passed me onto another agent, who took me to Chiayi and from their to even smaller towns. Although I had no intention of working or living so far from Tainan, which I'd specifically chosen for its size and culture, I did a handful of 'teaching demos' for schools; I remember feeling the absolute panic and embarrassment of standing in front of a group of children with a book and having no idea what to say or do. Like many foreigners who come to Taiwan, I'd never taught English before.

Eventually I found a job and stuck with it for a year. After that I found another. Although teaching English lures many people to Taiwan, they soon learn that Taiwan has its own gifts to offer. Being a foreigner is a lot like being a movie star in Taiwan. People stop and stare. Kids point. Girls giggle. If given the opportunity to talk with you, people will feel happy and confident that they've made a foreign friend. If you're lost, someone will probably volunteer to be your personal tour guide, get you to where you need to go and then invite you home for tea. If you go to a restaurant, you'll probably receive free samples of all their famous dishes.

At least twice I've run out of gas and had the mechanic give me his own scooter so I can go and get more from the station.

Why am I still here? I've gotten so comfortable with my life in Taiwan I'm not prepared to go anywhere else. I can work very little and afford good food and a nice place to live; I can go shopping and buy anything I need at any time of day (or night); the Taiwanese are insufferably kind, helpful, smart and friendly; and there is always plenty to do.

I'm usually so into my routine that I forget its a 'foreign' culture; luckily there are reminders - like the old man who sells cotton candy from a rusty old cart at 3am; the flashing disco ball set outside cell phone shops to attract new customers; the days when traffic all over the city shuts down to make way for a throng of worshipers carrying their gods from one temple to the next; the sudden, house-shaking firecrackers that go off some mornings at 5am.

There's a tantalizing mixture of tradition and modernity in Taiwan that just doesn't get old...

Ok, lame ending I know. How'd I do so far?

Studying in Taiwan: Losing Face

When I came to Taiwan I was a cocky young kid; I was sure I understood the concept of 'face' enough not to make a big deal about it. "It's just about being polite and respectful; we have the same idea in Western Countries." But today I'm thinking about face in a whole new light...

I consider myself a respectful person. I am cautious, slow to speak, and choose my words carefully. I almost always try to send a balanced, polite email when I request something. But my requests are often ignored. Maybe it's because I'm always seeking external confirmation ('am I doing this right'?) and asking for help when I should be doing things on my own. Or maybe it's because I'm asking questions that I shouldn't.

In Malta, they raised our tuition fees by about 30% one year. That's a hefty hike. And since Maltese students don't pay tuition (only international students), and since the quality of the education hadn't improved, I felt that they were taking advantage of international students to fund private domestic affairs - and I was outraged. I send a scathing letter to the dean, the board, all the top brass, asking 'where is this money actually going??' Basically I was a small thorn trying to empower myself with rights which I didn't have.

I haven't changed much. Now I'm in my (4th year) Master's of Foreign Languages at NCKU in Taiwan. Last semester, after I had been accepted in the PhD program, someone at the department counted up my credits and found out I was short. This was entirely my fault... although I didn't do it on purpose, I must have miscounted. It is a shame that nobody at the university looked at my credits earlier, but I understand it isn't their duty. (Ie... it isn't in their job description). I'm not bitter, or jaded, or angry at anybody - at least not with my rational mind. But this year I'm taking the extra semester I need to get the final credits I need to graduate, and I'm a little worried.

Now I know that nobody else is going to be looking out for me, holding my hand, helping me select the right courses, which brings me to the very practical fear that, at the end of the semester, I will again be told that I got something long and still cannot graduate; at which point, I will be extremely upset at the lack of support of my department. Sure, strictly speaking, it isn't anybody's responsibility, and sure, even though the courses are in English, and a lot of the supplementary materials, forms, and information is in Chinese, it isn't their fault that I can't speak Chinese.

However - most universities or support staff that have international students do take care of them. They are quick to anticipate needs, and make the already complicated transition of studying abroad easier. Sadly, not so with my department.

Here is where the concept of face comes in: maybe it's true I ask for too much help. Maybe my imperialistic sense of entitlement is overbearing. I'm already pretty sure my nagging has alienated the faculty of my university. (I wouldn't nag if they would just answer my questions). But at the same time, I'm freaking sick of being in school, being off scholarship (for my second year), a little peeved that I'm not starting the PhD program as planned, and horrified that I'm playing some nightmarket game, tossing darts blindfolded, and that at the end of the semester they're going to hand me a cheap toy and say "You lost! Want to play again?"

So I've sent them an email voicing my fears and asking them to help me check my credits. This should not be a big deal - if they were friendly and helpful in the first place, I wouldn't feel that I'm overstepping my position. Am I being rude? By voicing my fears about the end of this semester, I'm calling attention to what happened at the end of the last semester, and implying indirectly that - if only they had helped check my credits before - I wouldn't be in this current crisis (which is TRUE - but by bringing it up even indirectly, am I causing them to lose face? Does 'losing face' just mean making people feel bad in order to get what you want? If I were Chinese/Taiwanese, would I just 'accept my fate' as bad luck, and stoically persevere?)

I feel like the culturally correct thing to do is pretend I don't need any help, check all my own data 10 times, make sure I have everything... or maybe ask my school classmates to do it (which I've done for most of the past 3 years.)

My main problem I guess is that I try to improve everything I'm involved in. This is the way the system is - but the system runs without care or concern of its students. This is Taiwanese culture, where individuals are supposed to work hard to keep up with the (frivolous) demands of the organizations; the organizations become stagnant dinosaurs, propped up by reputation rather than sheer innovative quality. I either want to grab the wheel, and make things better, or I want to get the hell out.

What do you think about this? Am I a whiny nuisance?

Surgery for better English.

Oh. My. God.

"Speaking English with a native accent has become such a status symbol that some parents reportedly put their children through the clinically questionable surgery of snipping the thin tissue under the tongue to make it longer, helping the children to pronounce the "R" sound better."

I wonder if this actually works. I'm going to guess 'fuck no'. Asians who grew up in America or other English speaking countries speak perfectly. Their little Asian tongues haven't kept them from reaching full linguistic capacity. Which means that this news only confirms how terrifically, horrifyingly weird and bizarre Koreans can be.

See the article here:

http://www.21stcentury.com.cn/story/23727.html