I’m trying to stay connected with my extended family and Facebook is great for that, but it isn’t that effective if I can’t read the Chinese posts. I remember back in my Chinese 1a and 2a (the accelerated elementary Chinese class) days at UCLA, I was kicking serious butt. I got As both quarters and had the best pronunciation. If I had my final exams, I’d scan them so you could see I actually used to write paragraphs in Chinese. Yet, during my last visit to Taiwan in January, I could barely speak to my family because although I could understand must of what everyone was saying, I was grasping for words.
Well, one of the best things about these troubled economic times is that it forced me to cancel my DIRECTV account a few months ago. This was serious. Ever since my parents finally agreed to order cable when I was eleven, I’ve never lived anywhere that didn’t have cable. That’s twenty years of solid cable devotion. Now, I just have one pair of rabbit ear antenna and two digital converter boxes. When I move from one TV to the next, I take the antenna with me and plug it in to the converter box.
I thought the DIRECTV cancellation would be really painful but it wasn’t AT ALL. I was shocked to discover that I was okay with missing shows I thought I HAD to watch or else I’d DIE or something.
A little less than two weeks or so ago, in my effort to relearn Chinese, I plugged in my $9.99 CVS antenna to my kitchen TV, and tuned in to channel 18.8, a channel I never accessed before because, as far as I know, it’s only available as free digital TV. Considering how Madison the mermaid learned to speak human-American-English by hanging out at an electronics store, I think it’s reasonable that I could regain my mandarin expertise the same way. Channel 18.8 is awesome because it’s ALL mandarin programming, especially from Taiwan. Well, I instantly got sucked into a mandarin comedy/drama soap opera, Destined to Love You/Fated to Love You.
I didn’t understand what was going on completely, but I could tell I was getting in kind of early on this show understand enough to get addicted. That’s what happens with soaps, right? By the way, Asian soaps, as far as I know, are terminal. They usually last for a few months, unlike American soaps that last indefinitely.
On Saturday, upon some research, because I needed to get some background on the story, I uncovered a wealth of knowledge. This show was originally aired in spring 2008. Most importantly, it’s available online, with ENGLISH SUBTITLES. That got me super excited. I watched a couple hours on Saturday and I’m already thinking and dreaming in Chinese. Wild, huh?
Stay tuned because I’m going to post this CRAZY love scene from the show. It’s pretty ridiculous.
AmyRottencore 