This course is the second part of a three-quarter sequence designed to equip students with the basic language skills needed in everyday life situations. We will cover topics such as telling time, making a phone call, ordering and enjoying delicious Taiwanese cuisine, transactions at a post office, shopping for groceries and clothes, and traveling in Taiwan. The focus is on speaking and listening, not on reading and writing. For this purpose, we will study Taiwanese by using romanization system, and the Chinese characters are for your reference only.
Each meeting begins with an introduction of a useful phrase, Taiwanese idiom, a video clip, or a part of Taiwanese culture. As part of the virtual tour of Taiwanese life and cuisine, we'll be watching "Eat Drink Man Woman," by the director of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Ang Lee. We will also be watching "A City of Sadness," a film entirely in Taiwanese.
The picture shows a Tainan dandan noodle shop in Taiwan, with the chef in the show kitchen. See "Travel in Taiwan," the official travel magazine, for more details:
http://www.sinica.edu.tw/tit/dining/
