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Foreign students share stories in Mandarin contest

A Japanese student fell in love with the "strange" food in Taiwan. A German student enjoyed his time at an Aboriginal community. And a South Korean student was determined to have oyster pancakes in Taiwan, as 80 foreign students from 25 countries shared their Taiwan experiences during a Mandarin speaking contest yesterday.

The speaking contest that started yesterday was part of a Chinese-language competition co-organized by the Ministry of Education and Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall.

"During the past 34 years, we've hosted the speaking contest every year," said memorial hall official Su Ling-yu (蘇玲玉). "We've decided to add more disciplines this year."

The new disciplines were a ball-point pen calligraphy contest, a traditional character typing contest and a karaoke contest, she said.

The first three contests were held yesterday, while the karaoke contest will take place tomorrow.

"I had no idea what Taiwan was like before I came here in 2004," Maximilian Kalkhof, a student at National Taiwan University's Language Center told the audience in fluent Mandarin with only a slight accent. "But once I set foot in the country, I fell in love with it."

Kalkhof came to Taiwan as a volunteer at Pingtung Bethany Home for 10 months for his substitute military service. But what attracted him the most was Taiwan's Aboriginal culture, he said.

"I stayed with a Paiwan host family. Although they lived in Pingtung City, we often went to Dewen Village [德文部落] where they originally came from during weekends or holidays," Kalkhof said. "I really enjoyed the culture and the atmosphere, which was so different from big cities like Taipei."

And when Kalkhof -- now a Chinese and political science major at Germany's Heidelberg University -- had to choose a place to sharpen his Mandarin earlier this year, Taiwan was an easy choice.

Fujima Tamoe, a Japanese student at Tunghai University's Chinese Language Center, said she has fallen in love with the "strange food" in Taiwan.

"I like chicken feet, which is something we don't have in Japan," Fujima said in Mandarin. "Chicken feet looked scary when I first saw them -- but I thought it would be a waste not to try them."

After the first try, she fell in love with them, she said.

A similar scenario occurred when Fujima first tried stinky tofu.

"A lot of foreigners are scared of stinky tofu, and it's really stinky -- but I fell in love with it the moment I first tried it," Fujima said. "I'd like to open a stinky tofu restaurant in Japan."

Hur Eun Soo, from South Korea, said one particular objective she had when she came to Taiwan for a one-year Mandarin program at National Normal University was to have oyster pancakes.

"There were many scenes in the Taiwanese drama Corner with Love that I watched in Korea where people cook oyster pancakes," Hur said. "After seeing it, I felt so attracted to it, and decided that I had to have some when I came to Taiwan."

Her "dream" came true at the Shihlin Night Market (士林夜市) in Taipei. Hur won third place in the contest.

"Everything is so amazing in this country," she said.
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