the jimmymac attack!

I've been in Taipei, Taiwan for one year. It has been an amazing experience. Many Taiwanese people ask me how I like it. My standard answer now is 'the people are nice and the food is delicious'. Most people do not want to hear my comments about their politics or other criticism so it's best to just say nice things. If they care I will go on. One of the first things a foreigner learns here is the different ways they have to convert Chinese to English. There are not just 2 or 3 ways to do this. They actually have about 4 or 5 ways to do it. China with 1.3 billion people has settled on the pinyin system as the one and only way to translate Chinese into English. Taiwan with 23 million people cannot simplify things. But that is typical of Taiwan. If some people want something 1/2 the population will disagree just out of spite. So I live in Banqiao or Banchiao or Ban-Chiao... and I really don't care if there are other ways to spell it. I choose to use the pinyin system. It's a sensible system and if over 1 billion people are using it I'll go with the majority. Thank goodness some people here are also using it. Significantly the City of Taipei and their MRT (subway) system are using pinyin. There is hope they will get organised one day. However the post office officially uses another system. This is no small thing when you consider the mail is one of the major forms of communication that relies on accurate written instructions. My first 6 months and several attempts to send and receive mail were very frustrating. Some mail I anxiously expected never arrived. Now I have given up on the post office here and seldom send any mail at all. Telephone and e mail are dependable and I don't really need to send anything.