A foreigner falls in love with small dishes in Taiwanese night markets.

Good-looking Bougis, a very special foreigner in terms of his favorite food, loves oily braised pork rice, stinky tofu, and chilly hot pot, as well as having a language talent to speak native-like Mandarin and is really fond of Chinese characters. He comprehends at least 80% of the contents of the journal Shinning Taichung. He is a really a special foreigner.

Super Taiwanese, favoring Braised Pork Rice

Discussing food in Taichung, Mr. Bo opens his eyes widely and becomes very spiritual. Braised Pork Rice in the small restaurant on ChungChing Road meets his high demands completely. Braised pork rice with sour cabbage is always superior to Macdonald’s pork hamburger; that with bamboo soup is pure happiness. Some other localized food, such as stinky tofu, fried chicken, and hot pot, seems modified to fit Taichung flavors.

He loves pearl tea most, and is a demon expert in the features of pearl tea provided by different chain tea stores in Taiwan, acting and eating as a “localized” Taiwanese. Mr. Bo loves to go shopping and enjoys small local dishes with Taichung people rather than getting together with his American friends. He is really accustomed to the life of local people.

Shopping in the business circle around Taichung First Senior High School

“Sunny boy” Bougis has a very special Chinese name, Bo, Ya-Shan, in addition to his outstanding language talent. The business circle around Taichung First Senior High School is his favorite shopping spot. It is the top choice shopping area for foreigners, because many youngsters and students bring young atmosphere to the area, as well as a modern “open feeling”.

Further, his favorite recreation stop is the TaKeng mountain area. Coming from Florida, Mr. Bo can feel nature in TaKeng, a true natural feeling. Some special restaurants along Tongshang Road are also very attractive for Mr. Bo.

Loving reading, Mr. Bo likes to hang out in libraries where service personnel are always friendly to foreigners and maintain good quality service although English books or journals are not plentiful.

Everyday, Mr. Bo rides his motorbike, but also enjoys cycling in downtown areas, especially districts around the Science.

Speaking Taiwanese Mandarin intonation

Mr. Bo graduated from the University of Florida on August 1st, 2004, and was soon invited to work as a teacher in an English teaching institute in Taichung City but knew no Chinese words or sentences at that time. During the past 3 years, he has been hired by Viator High School, Taichung First Senior High School, MingDer High School, and LingTung College to teach English because of his humor, responsibility, and instructive teaching methods, and became very popular with the students, especially girls. The full day time schedule caused him to complain about his busy life.

Mr. Bo desires to know more about Chinese culture and history, and has become industrious in learning Chinese. He writes any known words on cards which are added with pronunciation and English notes on the other side, and tries to remember them by repetitive practices.

In order to test his own Chinese capacity, he takes out Taichung Monthly journal and shows his 80% reading comprehension rate. As for speaking, he always practices with sentences to intimate a Taiwanese accent. He is very impressive and admired for his language genius.

Chinese pronunciation characters help finding roads

“I love Taichung. It’s not like the high-speed in Taiwan. I can enjoy convenience and leisure in metropolitan cities”, said Mr. Bo. He also mentions that Taichung people are quite friendly to foreigners, and he never feels lonely, but warm and fascinated, when teaching here. Compared to the USA, Taichung, for him, is more comfortable and relaxed; however, he is still not accustomed to the “crazy traffic”.

Mr. Bo mentioned that the road signs marked in Chinese with added pronunciation characters would be really helpful for finding his way, and Tongyong Pinyin (pronunciation) is more suitable than Hanyu Pingyin (pronunciation).

Being humble, the basic attitude to learn languages

Mr. Bo is very humble and knows how to write it in Chinese. He is in fact multi-lingual, speaking German, Spanish, Latino, Chinese and Russian. He suggests that the important attitude to learn languages is modesty. Always consulting people in surroundings, and being humble keeps him efficient in traveling all over the world. Chinese, he believes, is very hard, but would not be so hard if the right methods are used, remembering whole sentences instead of word by word, and having strong motivation.

Teacher Bo is a volunteer translator for his foreigner friends, helping people is happiness for him. You can call him a very special foreigner.