Yesterday in our culture class we
discussed the “strawberry” generation, which is what the young adults here in
Taiwan are known as. The reason for such a name is because strawberries are
easily bruised, and the young adults do not want to undertake such hardships
and do not have the same work ethic as their parents did. They are taking
longer to decide what they want to do with their life and have jobs that do not
exact the return on investment from their education. Usually people equate any
university degree with a high paying job. This perpetual problem among the
young adults in Taiwan is becoming a huge issue. Many adults upon turning 18
have to take a test if they want to go to university and do so. If they choose
not to, they also have to participate in a mandatory one year military service.
For the most part though, they have different aspirations than what is
typically found in their American counterparts. In class, apparently most would
love to open their own small coffee shop and partake in that. I was kind of
surprised to hear that.
In the states, at least in my
personal academic environment, we are all ambitious in some form. We all pursue
a relentless amount of jobs, extracurricular activities, research positions and
classes just to make ourselves unique among the hundreds of other applicants
for either grad school or full time entry level positions. At the same time
though, we as the young adults are labeled either the “now” generation as Cody
mentioned in class or the “millennial” generation which has been associated
with words such as lazy, entitled, impulsive, and impatient. Honestly, the same
kind of dream popped into my mind. If I had enough capital, I would be
interested in opening a small café of sorts. It’s Plan D on my list of back-ups
if all else fails.
So globally speaking, is every
young adult between the age of 18-27 (or up to 30?) plagued with the same
problems of undirected ambition and goals? Because we view work and life in a
different way than our parents, how will that affect our future?
I wonder also is there enough jobs
for those university graduates in the first place? In class, there was some
mention of how workers from other countries were coming to Taiwan to take
certain jobs, but do those jobs even require higher education? In our room, we
talked about the job market here, and the salaries for an occupation such as
housekeeping. Supposedly housekeepers here can make up to $30 an hour, which is
more than $60,000 a year, which is definitely more than I would make in an
entry level position. The money is enticing, and the work though tedious, is
not difficult.
The same issues with the value of
college education and post graduate jobs plague the U.S. What is stated in the
media does not always match up with reality. The value of a college degree is
constantly scrutinized given the rapid rising costs of tuitions at private and
public universities, with the tentative fear of a student debt loan bubble. Why
invest upwards to $60,000 (tuition, room and board) for private universities,
only to be able to find jobs that pay around $30,000-$40,000?
Decimal Places
I
appreciate how prices are calculated here in Taiwan. Tax and/or tip is already
calculated into the final price (unless it’s a large party/ nice restaurant,
then a 10% gratuity is added). But it’s nice having to pay only whole numbers
instead of something like $1.06 (6%) tax in MD, and ambiguous tipping usually
suggested at 15% but some people go as far as not tipping at all.
Learning
how to say decimal places in mandarin was a whole other system. I was so
surprised at how elaborate it was, for lack of a better word. The use of “measure
words” which isn’t found in English to that extent. On one hand, in English we
do have certain words that go together to signify “one thing of this” such as “a
slice of pie” or “a piece of fruit” but for the most part, it’s more
interchangeable I feel like. We learned between the uses of phrases such as “yi
ge [one thing]” or “yi ben shu [one book].”
Last day of class at
Level 1, Tuesday
I was
paired with a Viet girl, who did not speak English, except for “No understand.”
That was interesting to get through. She had a Southern accent, while my
parents speak with a Northern accent. Both are very different from each other,
with different emphasis on certain letters and completely different words not
found in the other language.
Unintentionally
while trying to find out more background info about each other, she kind of
gave me a guilt trip. She asked me questions like “Why am I here?” “How do I
know Vietnamese” and “Do I know how to read Vietnamese?” The last question I
shook my head no because my parents felt that formal learning for Viet wasn’t
necessary. She silently judged me. It makes me rethink about some of my resolutions. During school, I don't really have time to just do something outside of work and class. But in five months, I'll soon no longer have to take classes. I still want to learn, so this course is making me want to pick up another language seriously and brush up on the ones I do know.
Wednesday:
We visited the Tamsui campus of Tamkang University and took more guided tours.
Pictures:
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