I Want to Practice English

初訪，再也不會去！問老闆「你會講中文嗎？」然後老闆就開始發飆了！什麼東西啊？有事嗎？這是禁語嗎？我英文不好只會講中文先跟你確認一下是有冒犯到你？還是全世界都要知道你會講中文？自以為是什麼東西啊？老外很屌？

講完態度再來講環境，一進門油煙味重到爆炸，衛生也不ok環境也不怎麼舒適整體也很髒亂。

酒很多種類？不好意思我本身就喝精釀的我還真不知道你有什麼稀奇的東西，一櫃大識貨，不知道在跩什麼？我去過的酒吧餐酒館至少五百家，這家我直接給最後一名！沒有亮點又臭又囂張！

更新，目前最後一名被碳烤鐵人搶走

店家的回應還真是高姿態喔zzz

This review left for my restaurant is bullshit and libel, and racist crap. I do not normally respond to reviews, but I did for a change. I wrote: "This is racially motivated hate speech." I tagged the review above as offensive. Google actually removed it. I want to hold on to it for reasons of my own.

The writer starts his ramble by suggesting I asked him about his English ability -- if he could speak English. That is a lie. I never do that. In fact, I often tell Taiwanese people who insist on speaking English to me that I am French or something else, just to get out of answering the usual stuff or for efficiency. Then my interlocutor claims I shouted at him. Again, a lie. I was joking loudly with my friends at the end of the counter, on the other side of him. I spoke to him, and his group, once. I had one verbal engagement with them all night. He said he wanted to practice English with me. I said to him: "I already speak English fluently, so I do not need the practice. My wife Shufang and her friend Sally, she's sitting next to you, love to speak English." He rounds out his review by asking: "Are all honkies (foreigners) such dicks / assholes?"

I was busy cooking because that is what I do when customers come into my place. I cook. These four men sat down across from me and started to yammer: "Look. It's a foreigner. Hey boss! We want to practice English. Do you like stinky tofu? Etc." Why not rock out the practicing with the Taiwanese people in my place? Lots of Taiwanese people enjoy practicing English. A native speaker has no need to practice English. Or, if you really want to learn English, just sign up for a class in a school or take one online. Hire a private teacher. Travel. Get someone with qualifications, not a cook in a hole in the wall, to help.

These four men were after me from the get go. I was busy. It was Friday night. Why did they write that review (above)? I was not anything to them. I had never even met them. Would they conduct themselves like this at any other restaurant in the neighborhood? Would they harrass the owner of the chicken fry shop down the way to practice a school subject with them? There is a place a few doors down from The Hammer, a restaurant that makes traditional Taiwanese soup. It is sour, with sticky meat balls that are savory. The soup tastes great, especially with vinegar. Why not bug the owners of that place instead of me? Go perch up inside their restaurant and have a go at the boss. I have a feeling they would not harrass one other boss around here in this way.

I Opted for AZ Astra Zeneca

As an outsider biding his time in Taiwan, I am concerned about a pandemic spread out of China a year and a half ago and repercussions, the sloppy and hypocritical behavior of the government here, a virus that seems like it was designed in a lab, and so on. The first six days of the initial lockdown here in Taiwan, in mid May, 2021, the police visited my restaurant five days in a row. Government officials took an interest in my place -- they dropped by on the fourth day of that first lockdown, Tuesday, May 18. Officials did not pester the businesses around us. Not once. Both 7/11 and Family Mart were open and full of customers. We were the emptiest joint on the block; we were the only ones catching it from the cops. Since The Hammer has been open, almost nine years ago, we have been visited by the police four hundred times. No other establishment on our block has been visited, to my knowledge, three times. I talked to my wife. We know additional harassment is headed our way. We will deal as usual, because what else can we do?

*****

I Opted for AZ

Shufang declared: "I have owned a business in Taiwan for close to a decade. This virus has yet to infect me, but it has crushed my business."

I signed up for the Astra Zeneca vaccine three weeks ago. I got my first jab on Wednesday. Shufang is next Wednesday. I got my jab because I was open to Astra Zeneca. Some of my friends signed up for Moderna. They regret their decision now. Taiwan lacks Moderna shots. I was lucky to get AZ. 

Thus, I went to Cardinal Tien Hospital in Yonghe last Wednesday to get my COVID-19 shot. The man working the door told me to head to the second floor. I found chaos up there on the second floor. A line spread down the corridor and spiraled down the stairs, into the road. There was no concept of social distancing. I asked the nurse for help. I went from nurse to nurse. None of them had any time. They said "hold on." I could see how much stress they were under. I finally figured out this was the Moderna station, not mine.

There is a convention hall (or maybe a church) outside the Cardinal Tien Hospital, to the back. They are practicing social distancing inside. I spent five minutes filling out the application, 1.5 meters from my fellow applicant. I got my jab a few minutes later. No jab recipient is allowed to leave for fifteen minutes. There is a feeling of peace and dreams in that room of socially-distanced people sitting on those carefully placed chairs. For those seeking Moderna, no chair seems to await. You get what you sign up for. We leaned back to stare at the ceiling in that tomb, contemplating "what God wrought when He made the world so sad."

Have I Got a Deal For You

Taiwan has been fairly locked down for around a month now. We can still go out, but the schools are online now and most offices are doing the same. On Monday, we were informed we could only go to market or a supermarket every second day. It depends on one's ID, you see? If the last digit of one's ID is odd, one can visit Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Even numbers get the other days. By law, people in Taiwan are not required to produce ID when asked. Most people I have talked are unaware of this law. While North America is opening up, we are going in the opposite direction. I think part of the problem is complacency; for example, people in America were getting the jab and we in Taiwan were busy patting ourselves on the back for managing to sidestep, relatively speaking that is, for more than a year. We complained and complained we did not get respect or congratulations on virus control. Now there is no herd immunity. Less than five percent of the population has been vaccinated.

The Hammer https://www.facebook.com/thehammertw, our restaurant, is still open. We can only do take out order. We have had to get more creative. We are offering new dishes and additional specials on drinks. My wife took this pic of one of the beers we are offering. The view is off our bedroom's balcony. The washed backdrop is the street that leads down to the Xindian River in Yonghe. 

Lalu Island

I noticed from a higher place that Lalu Island, in Sun Moon Lake, is actually moated. In Chinese, Lalu (拉魯) means "marinated," but it seems more likely the word comes out of the Thao Aboriginal (邵族) language and is along the lines of "do not forget this spirit-fested place." Most of the Thao homes and temples in the area collapsed on September 21, 1999, as a result of a 7.3 scale earthquake. Whatever structure(s) existed on Lalu Island then does not now. The Thao have also closed the island to visitors.