Taiwan Social Savvy Ep3: Taiwan's Ghost Month.

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Ghostmoney

Shownotes
0:05- Introduction
0:35- Possible scenario you might see during ghost month
0:59- What is Ghost month
1:14- What's the difference between west and east
1:23- When is ghost month? And what's the history behind it?
2:08- Why all the food?
2:24- The afterlife- why burn money?
2:49- Superstitions during ghost month
3:20- What not to do.
3:31- What about celebrations?
3:47- Concluding remarks
4:05- Outro and signing out

Credits
Information
1- Ghost month

2- Wikipedia entry

Image from here

Music/ sound effects.
Intro and outro- Asian Adventure by Sonic9019 at Newgrounds
Background music-Ambients of Asia by Wolfguard at Newgrounds


Filed under  //   podcast   taiwan social savvy  
Posted April 2, 2010

Taiwan Social Savvy Ep2: Eating Customs

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Po6b

Show Notes

0:02 Intro for the episode topic
0:35 What kind of food would you find in Taiwan?
1:18 Brief note on gift giving when invited to dinner. For detailed information on Taiwanese gift giving go here.
1:36 What to do when you're at the dinner table?
1:56 Why you need to know how to use chopsticks. (for information on how to use chopsticks go here)
2:16 Chopstick language and manners when you use them.
3:09 What to do when you get served a lot of food?
3:35 Drinking alcohol at the dinner table.
4:41 Hook for next episode and outro

Credits
Information
1- Popular food culture in Taiwan
2- Taiwan local customs at virtualtourist.com
3- Taiwan food

Image
Popular food culture in Taiwan

Music/ sound effects.
Intro and outro- Asian Adventure by Sonic9019 at Newgrounds
Sound effects from SoundBible.com

Filed under  //   podcast   taiwan social savvy  

Taiwan Social Savvy Ep01

 

381

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Yay! The first episode- done and uploaded- even after running into minor obstacles (dodgy slow-poke internet connection, twitching fingers and a lack of chocolate).

I hope my podcast was informative.
Enjoy


Show notes

0:01- Introduction about podcast topic for the week

0:32- Levels of etiquette 0:48- Receiving a gift (short skit)

1:15- How to properly accept a gift with a brief mention of history.

2:00- Giving a gift (skit at 2:19)

2:31- How to properly give a gift- modesty on the price

2:44- Colours in gift giving.

3:15- Food as a gift for a dinner party.

3:34- Flowers and even numbers

3:49- Bad gifts to avoid vs. good gifts to give.

4:20- End comments

Sources
Information
1- Taiwanese customs
2- International gift Etiquette
3-
4-

Image from  here

Voice addition
Taiwanese/ Mandarin voice over- Tiffany Chen

Music and sound effects
Asian Adventure by Sonic9019 at Newgrounds

China Town by pheel at Sound effect from Newgrounds

Background/ambience from Internet Archive

Sounf effects from FreeSFX.com

Filed under  //   gift giving   podcast   taiwan social savvy  

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.

Filed under  //   podcast   research  
Posted March 3, 2010

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. 

 

Filed under  //   podcast   research  

Interview? Of Course I did!

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Here's a link to Tiffany's brainstorm blog entry in case you're interested:

Recording Process

We booked one of the study rooms on the top floor of the library. When we got to the library room Tiffany and I spent a few minutes going over our questions and answers. We then did a practice run of what our interview would sound like. It went great and we were eager to record.

I placed the recorder on the table and pressed record.

We heard the beep and I started talking. I didn’t make it past “Hello my name is…”. Yes, I forgot my name. We laughed. And then I forgot where we were. We laughed some more. And somewhere along the way I forgot what I wanted to ask- even though I had some points jotted down in front of me. You see where I’m going with this?

But we persevered and got through the first run. We played it back and found a lot of long silences, thoughtful hmms, joyful aha!s and tons of laughter. It helped us realize what worked and what didn’t.

We gave the recording another try.

I remembered my name and questions- but it felt too awkward. Our voices were too stiff and it sounded like we were complete strangers.

The third attempt was a huge success- perfect conversation tone, minimal laughter. But the people in the room next to us got noisy during this particular recording and ruined it.

Thankfully our fourth attempt went off without too much trouble.

Editing Process

Listening to yourself on audio during the editing process is just too odd for words- especially when you have to hear yourself say the same thing over and over again.

First I listened to the interview searching for any awkward pauses and long umms and ahhs. Not that many, so then I decided to look at our conversation- did we repeat phrases while talking? I removed those repetitions to make the conversation more fluid.

I also added some pauses in between places where we seem to interrupt each other. After all the content was edited, I decided to work on sound quality. Noise reducer was really helpful. I cleaned it up as best as I could- but at some points it sounds as though I have echoes.

But you can still some voices in the background, from people outside the room- that sound like low EVPs if you listen carefully.

I tried listening to it on different computers- but there’s only so much I can pick up after listening to it so many times. So if you guys hear some problems that I may have overlooked, I’d love to know about it.

Filed under  //   interview   podcast  

Podcast Possibilities- A brainstorming session.

1- A day in the life of… 

A pod cast that follows someone around for a day (or a certain period of time during the day) and then highlights major events that occurred – like tripping down the stairs or something bigger. It would work as an observational mode. I could interview the person I’m following.

How this could work

- it’s interesting if I find the right person. Maybe someone with a fun job/hobby.

- I’d probably have to follow the person for more than one day to get my information.

- Some potential people- a secretary, vets, transit bus driver?

- maybe I could follow my group project for one of my other classes? We’re doing a re-design project and we have weekly meetings.

How this would fail

- how strong would a podcast be if it was just filled with observations of what a person does. Even though we’d hear audio of the person- it seems rather odd.

 

2- The Artist’s corner

A podcast that deals with digital art and artists. It could be a mix of observational and participatory with interviews. Seems to follow the idea of the first idea in a way.

How this could work

- could include commentary about equipment used to produce digital art i.e) Programs like photoshop

- Could observe how an artist creates part of an art piece- would people be interested in that?

How this would fail

- without a co-operative subject it could end up being just a commentary of different products that are used.

- Just commenting on what an artist does when they’re creating something wouldn’t be strong as using actual visuals.

(Edit: Added new idea that came along)

3- Learning a new language

A podcast that's almost like a mini-language course- one language per podcast most probably. Or at least a few essential phrases to survive when you need help in a foreign place.For instance:

"Does anyone here speak english?"

"Are there any english TV stations I can watch?"

"This tastes funny. Is this really chicken?"

"There's a huge spider in my room, I'd like a different room please."

"Look over there! A three-headed monkey."

And many more for various situations, obviously.

How this could work

- I could ask native speakers of different languages to participate by giving the correct pronounciation and translation.

-I could also give tips on certain etiquette in different places. For instance different hand signs may mean different things in different cultures.

- Pick up lines in different languages would be amusing.

- I could ask country-specific/stereotypical questions and get those translations. Eg: Something about wine and snails in French.

How this would fail

- could I squeeze helpful phrases within a few minutes without making it seem too rushed?

Filed under  //   podcast