I’ve been in Taiwan for over four months now so am nearly halfway through my time here. It’s taken me by surprise at how quickly the time is passing now. I’m planning to write a bit about my Christmas experiences in Taipei. The big annual holiday in Taiwan is Chinese New Year in February, however, the language centre gave us a one-week holiday for Christmas. It was also interesting to see Christmas celebrations in Taiwan.
Shilin Christmas Market
Christmas market:
A few days before Christmas, I visited a German Christmas Market in Shilin district with one of my classmates. This was actually my first time going to a large Christmas market so I thought it was funny that my first experience of this was in Taiwan. The market only had vendors that sold German food as opposed to gifts or anything else. The food was delicious; it resembled a cross between Taiwanese street food and European dishes. Most of the vendors were Taiwanese however there were also many German expats.
Christmas party:
My language centre organised a Christmas party for us a few days before Christmas. We all had to bring food and snacks, including both Western and Taiwanese food. We also had the opportunity to make TangYuan – Glutinous rice balls served in syrup. They sound a bit strange when you explain them in English, but TangYuan is a really common dessert in Taiwan and quite tasty. This was a really fun experience and it was great to learn a lot of Christmas-related Chinese vocabulary.
I spent Christmas Day with my university classmates in Taiwan. It was a quiet but lovely day and very different to my previous Christmas experiences. We also went to Raohe Night Market – our favourite – in the evening. Christmas felt less important this year because it’s not so important for Taiwanese people so I wasn’t always thinking about it.
As it’s now 2024 and my time in Taiwan is going by so quickly, I’ve started to think about my goals and intentions for the rest of my time here. My Chinese, especially formal Chinese, has improved so much recently but I have now set three main goals for the next few months:
1. Improve my tones and pronunciation
2. Practice speaking more idiomatically
3. Learn 5000 Chinese characters (I currently know about 3500)
Thanks for reading my report!
我來台灣已經四個多月了，在這裡的時間已經過了快近一半。時間過得真快，我完全沒想到這點。我打算寫一點我在台北過聖誕節的經歷。台灣一年一度的大節日是二月的春節，但是語言中心為我們放了一週的聖誕節假期。看到台灣的聖誕節慶祝活動也很有趣。
聖誕市集：
聖誕節前幾天，我和一個同學一起去看了士林區的德國聖誕市集。這其實是我第一次去大型聖誕市場，所以我覺得很有趣，因為這是我看聖誕市集的第一次體驗。市場裡只有賣德國食品的點心，沒有賣禮品或其他東西的。這些食物非常美味，就像台灣街頭小吃和歐洲菜餚的綜合。大多數商販都是台灣人，但是也有很多德國外籍人。
Christmas Eve dumpling dinner!
聖誕派對
聖誕節前幾天，我所在的語言中心為我們舉辦了一個聖誕派對。我們都要帶食物和點心，包括西餐和台灣菜。我們還有機會做湯圓–糖漿做的糯米糰。用英語解釋聽起來有點奇怪，但湯圓在台灣是一種非常常見的甜點，而且相當美味。這是一次非常有趣的經歷，我學到了很多與聖誕節有關的中文詞彙。
我和台灣的大學同學一起度過了聖誕節。這一天很安靜，但很放鬆，跟我過去的聖誕節經歷有點不同。晚上我們還去了我們最喜歡的饒河夜市。實際上，今年的聖誕節並不那麼重要，因為聖誕節對台灣人來說並不那麼重要，所以我並沒有總是想著聖誕節。
現在是 2024 年，我在台灣的時間過得很快，因此我開始思考我在台灣餘下時間的目標和打算。我的中文，尤其是正式的中文，最近有了突飛猛進，但我現在為接下來的幾個月設定了三個主要目標：
1. 改善我的語調和發音
2. 練習說更多的成語
3. 學會 5000 個漢字（我目前認識約 3500 個漢字）
感謝您閱讀我的報告！