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给 你 们 介 绍 一 下 － Jason from California

Introduce Yourself 自我介绍
#1

Hello everyone!

My name is Jason and I live in the Bay Area, California with my wife and daughter. My wife is originally from Taiwan and we are experimenting with Mandarin home immersion for our daughter who is about 14 months old at the time of this posting. We both speak to her in Chinese and thank goodness for me the vocab is limited at this point to "小心!“ and “你在做什麼?!”

I took a couple years of Chinese in college but that was a long time ago, and I’m looking forward to learning alongside my daughter and staying one step ahead. This looked like a great place to grow with like-minded Mandarin-learners.

Our family is traveling to Taiwan in February so our daughter can meet her distant relatives for the first time. Best of all I get to spend my 40th birthday in Beitou my favorite place on the planet so far. If you have any suggestions for our trip please let me know.

Thanks and best regards!

Jason

1 Like
#2

Hi Jason,

My family is also going to Taiwan, specifically Beitou, in February. Depending on what part of February you go there is a good chance we might see one another. Our daughter is 16 months old and this will be her second trip visit her wai po and a-gong.

We love going to the public hot springs next to the Hot Springs Museum. Can’t beat the price(40 NTD I think?) and ambiance with all the local character (my mother in law goes there just about everyday). The Hot Springs Museum itself is nice to visit as well. Also, if you keep walking past the public hot springs and head up the road past the very pricey hot spring hotels you’ll find the Beitou Museum (formerly the Taiwan Folk Art Museum) which is housed in a beautiful Japanese style building and is worth a visit as well. Other nearby attractions include Yang Ming Shan for hiking and cherry blossom viewing.

Your family might also enjoying riding the Mao Kong gondola to the Taipei Zoo. We plan on going to the zoo this visit. Last year we took the gondola to Mao Kong and had wonderful meal at one of the many lovely tea houses that have great views of the city. Mao Kong is a must visit if you like tea (Ping Lin is great for tea lovers too but it’s further away). If you take the gondola it’s worth the wait for one of the “crystal cars” that have a glass bottom.

Hope you guys have fun.

Randall

#3

Welcome, Jason!! Your family sounds so sweet and lovely!

#4

謝謝Peggy! 我們的女兒絕對－個 披著羊皮的狼！

#5

Dear Randall 謝謝那麼多很有意思的建議！ 我們會認真烤爐－下！

40th birthday party in Beitou Feb 3, 2017 － drinks on me!!

Jason

#6

Hi Poddies,

Gwilym and I actually live in Beitou! We love it. Been living there for almost four years now.

Quite a few restaurants have opened up near and under Xin Beitou MRT station. All very family friendly.

You can also rent a bike (I’ve seen many parents with bikes with kid seats attached) and cycle up to Guan Du or even Tamshui from Beitou.

If you like chicken, you should defiantly try “半嶺桶仔雞”. Pop that into google and it should give you plenty of reviews and a google location. It’s a mountain roasted chicken. My meat eating days are behind me, but I do highly recommend and the veggies they serve are great so I never feel left out.

If you want a nice walk with your family you can also check out 農禪寺 temple (by 奇岩MRT). It’s one of the most elegant buddhist temples I have ever been to.

http://gd-park.org.tw 關渡自然公園 Guan Du Nature Park has fun activities for kids. Probably better for 5+ too but! Get to know local birds and do some arts and crafts (nicely airconed building). I often take my dad there for a coffee. Nice walks around the park. After some strong weather it can look a bit in tatters, but lovely on a sunny day. I’ve seen a lot of cool birds there. If you are lucky, the water buffalos come out!

We should do a Beitou chinesepod meet up!

Fi

Not in Beitou, BUT…For poddies with kids 5+, I also highly recommend the Paper Museum (way more fun than it sounds). You can sign up for the tour, make your own paper and kids get a fun and informative talk on how paper is made. http://www.suhopaper.org.tw/en/en_museum.html

#7

I love walking around Beitou library at sunset (although you have to watch out for Pokemon players these days :wink:

There is also a relatively new cafe/craft beer place that has it’s own brews. It’s just at the entrace of the Beitou park, opposite KFC.

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#8

Jason, thanks for the invite! But we aren’t arriving until February 22nd. :frowning: Will you still be in Taiwan at that time? Oh, and that picture of your daughter is super cute!

#9

Gwilym, it’s great that you mentioned that new craft beer place as the craft beer scene is one of the things I want to check out on this Taiwan trip. I definitely enjoy the crisp clean flavor of 台灣生啤洒 (which I typically can only find at the Carrerfour near Beitou Park), but I’ve found most of the other brews to be just average. The 水果啤酒 is interesting, it’s more of a novelty :slight_smile: Any other craft breweries you would recommend?

I would be thrilled to do a Beitou chinesepod meet up if others are available!

Randall

#10

For some local beers, you can check out Taiwan Head Brewers (which sells some in Carrefour) as well Taihu Brewing:

#11

Dear Randall I wish we were staying in Taiwan that long. Unfortunately we will miss you on this round, but again many thanks for your suggestions! The great thing about photographing your children is the selective memory that it enables.

#12

Dear Gwilym & Fiona I can’t believe you live in Beitou! Thank you for all the recommendations. Perhaps you and other team members and/or poddies can be lured from your pod-casting caves for a midday coffee/beer meet-up on Friday, Feb 3, 2017. People in Beitou don’t work on Fridays, right?! Settle details closer to the date if you are in town and available during that day :wink: Jason

#13

Hi Jason, I’d love to hear how that immersion goes. My wife and I are also thinking about doing the same once we have kids. However, I’m still very much a student and my wife’s Chinese isn’t perfect (she left Taiwan when she was 4), so I’m a little worried we’d be doing our children a disservice. But we do have family nearby who speak better Chinese than we do so that helps.

My sister-in-law’s kids are growing up with both Chinese and English spoken in the house. They understand Chinese perfectly fine but don’t really speak it at all. The Chinese have a term 哑巴英语. Well I guess they’d be 哑巴国语. Still, I think it’s a great foundation so that if they wanted to learn to speak as adults, it would be very easy for them. I think this would be the best-case scenario for my future kids.

I’ve haven’t been to Taiwan yet but I’ve been dying to go (if only to raid the bookstores!)

Peter

#14

Dear Peter you hit the nail on the head. Every week there are moments when I believe I am wasting my time. First off I am not confident that I mastered English, my primary language. Secondly I am of average (my wife might say below average) intelligence. Add to that the humility of coming home from work and reading children’s books about pandas. Yeah it doesn’t add up but I’ll let you if I’ve done more harm than good in 5 years :slight_smile:

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#15

Hi @Jason, we would love to meet in Beitou. Saturday 4th Feb lunch (1pm?) works for us if that’s cool. I suggest the cafe/beer place just outside Xinbeitou MRT station, next door to Sushi Express, across from the park.

If there are any other stray podcats around that area, you’re also welcome to join :slight_smile:

#16

Sounds good I cleared with my wife and it’s on our itinerary for 1 pm, Sat Feb 4. We will look for said cafe/beer location, looks like it’s called 55th Street Cafe based on your pic above. Looking forward to meeting you and other listeners!

Jason

#17

So @Fiona and I will be sitting in this place this coming Saturday at 1pm if anyone wants coffee/beer/cake, meeting with user @Jason. All welcome to enjoy the lovely area around XinBeitou library/park.

Google Map Link

#18
#19

Hi Jason.

I’m new to ChinesePod so I just read your introduction from 2 years ago. My wife is also originally from Taiwan, but has lived in Phoenix most of her life. We have family in Kaohsiung and visit every few years. Our next trip is planned for 2020.

I’m pleased to hear that you’re teaching your daughter Chinese. We didn’t do that with our 3 sons or oldest daughter, mostly because I didn’t speak Chinese. We adopted our youngest daughter last year from China and since she was already 3 1/2, I decided to learn Chinese so she wouldn’t lose her language.

I’d love to hear how dual-language is working out for your family and your daughter!

#20

That is so great that you guys adopted and you learned the language to help her continue to learn the language.

Kaohsiung is a fun place! I’ve been there a couple of times. I said hello on your input on ChinesePod and it’s changed. Welcome again to ChinesePod!