PearlD's posterous http://pearld.posterous.com Most recent posts at PearlD's posterous posterous.com Wed, 03 Mar 2010 16:13:00 -0800 Research post- with 50% more research! http://pearld.posterous.com/research-post-with-50-more-research http://pearld.posterous.com/research-post-with-50-more-research

Well I decided to go around stalking some Taiwanese people and bugging them about customs that foreigners wouldn’t know. Along with the exasperated looks, I managed to get some tidbits of information.

Here’s a list of what I got from cursory research

Gift giving: When receiving a gift, refuse it at least twice before finally accepting. Otherwise you’re going to be seen as greedy. Always make sure you gift wrap it carefully with auspicious colours and keep in mind that odd numbers are considered unlucky.

Research: I decided to find out the historical basis for most of these things. I ended up reading a bit in Confucianism. This took me to a book called, “Place and Spirit in Taiwan: Tudi Gong in the Stories, Strategies and Memories of Everyday Life” by Alessandro Dell'Orto. I still have to read it- I just got through the first few pages. 

Food: Don't stick chopsticks into your rice and leave them standing there. I got some more- but I need to verify some of the stuff.

Something that’s not really connected to food but I’ll list it here for now- When greeting someone, Taiwanese ask "Did you eat?" rather than "How are you?"

Research: Well, for the “did you eat?” greeting, this seems to be a well known thing to do. The person in the video uses this greeting in his speech- so I’m assuming- not an unknown custom. Have you guys heard of this greeting before?

Technical stuff.

Intro and outro music- I was definitely thinking of an oriental themed opening. Something to give you a hint of what the podcast is about. A fast paced one would definitely fit better than a tranquil one. Haven’t found anything concrete yet, but will have something up here by the end of the week.

Sound fx- Again loads of oriental sounds that give listeners an immediate association with my content especially when I try and create scenarios to introduce certain customs. So far, I’ve found dishes clanking for the food customs scenario and even a couple of festival sounds.

Authentic Taiwanese speaker- Have found willing participant who will record actual Taiwanese dialogues/phrases for my podcast scenarios. I only had to use a coffee bribe.

This entry is not really complete and will be subject to edits as I find new things.

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Wed, 24 Feb 2010 17:25:00 -0800 Research Process- Bits and Pieces http://pearld.posterous.com/research-process-bits-and-pieces http://pearld.posterous.com/research-process-bits-and-pieces

I decided to convert my mini-language lesson podcast idea into something more narrow. My podcast series will deal with “Customs that you need to know if you’re traveling to Taiwan”. The title is subject to change and a lot of cutting, but the content is final.

Why Taiwan?

I’ve never been there. So I won’t have any preconceived notions of what’s the right thing to do. I’ll be depending on actual research to find content. So far, I’ve found this good website which has helped me search. This gave me a cursory overview of existing customs. I still need to find credible sources from the library that deals with the topic.

I also have a Taiwanese friend, who I can ask for personal opinions and for any Taiwanese voice clips.

Why customs and not language?

The customs reflect certain ideals that you need to follow so that you don’t insult anyone during your trip.

Plus introducing a custom for certain situations is definitely easier and makes more sense.  

There’ll still be bits of language in there- mainly just to give an authentic feel when I introduce the situation where the custom must be used.

Possible format

I listened to The Lowdown Podcast. While it’s not exactly a great example and a bit long, it did give me some ideas of what I need to talk about/use in my own podcast.

1. A huge chunk of my podcast will be an acted out scenario that demonstrates the do’s and don’t for a certain custom. If I use an authentic Taiwanese speaker, the change in voice will keep it from being too monotonous

2. I’ll add in other tidbits of information like

-         How did this custom come about? A brief look at the history.

-         Why is it so important? Is there some sort of religious significance?

-         What do you do if you have done a mistake? This will include what phrases to use to apologize.

3. Interview – question people to see what they would do in the situation? What would people want to know?

Breakdown of podcast series

1-     Gift giving customs

2-     Business customs

3-     Dining customs

Tools/ Resources 

I came across www.archive.org that allows you to download different kinds of audio for free. You can search for sound effects here, in the Open source Audio section. My favourite part of the site has to be the 78 RPMs & Cylinder Recordings- even if it has nothing to do with my topic. 

 

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