Most expats in Taiwan have a pretty hard time mastering Mandarin, although with time and effort it can be done. Many foreign residents do succeed at it, and some have even learned to write in Chinese, publishing newspaper articles and books in Mandarin.
But learning to speak in Taiwanese — fluently — is a horse of a different color. Meet Jason Brzozowski (白毅明) and his brother Jared (白念祖).
Jason Brzozowski was born in Kaohsiung, the son of American missionary parents who first came here in 1981, and he has resided in Taiwan, off and on, for around 18 years.
He and his elder brother now appear regularly on a cable TV show called Zaidi Yingwen (在地英文), where the entire six-person cast speaks Hoklo (commonly known as “Taiwanese”), English — and very little Mandarin. The show, which hit the airwaves in January, runs twice daily on Channel 100, according to the producers. Jared plays “Jeff” on the instructional part of the show, along with a Taiwanese teacher named “Thomas,” played by veteran actor Yong Shen-chung (楊伸崇), while Jason retains his own name for his character who portrays a houseguest staying in a local home with Ah Hong-bei (阿紅伯) and his daughter Xiao Hong (小紅), played by actress Wu Yi-zhen (吳易蓁), 25.
When asked how he and his brother learned to speak fluent Hoklo, a feat that few foreign residents here master, Jason explained how it happened.
“I spent most my life growing up in Kaohsiung where Taiwanese is basically the local language, in addition of course to Mandarin,” he said. “Especially during childhood, when you are a kid, you learn fast. But when it came to Taiwanese, I wasn’t quite as good my older brother Jared, who really picked it up fast and naturally, much faster than I did. He’s the only American in Taiwan, to my knowledge, who can speak Taiwanese as well as the local people.”
To illustrate his brother’s proficiency in Hoklo, Jason tells a story: “I remember one time when Jared was talking to some friends in Taiwanese while walking into a convenience store, and a local taxi driver overheard my brother speaking fluent Taiwanese. The cabbie froze in his tracks, looked back in disbelief and muttered, ‘I must have had one too many drinks today!’”
The cable TV show, sponsored by the Presbyterian Church but without any religious content in the show itself, runs in half-hour segments. Its purpose is to teach English to Taiwanese people.
Brzozowski said he heard that the show is being aired in Los Angeles now, too, where some Americans are watching the show to learn Hoklo. Although this was not the original intention of the program, the producers are delighted it has been picked up in a novel way by US viewers.
Jason noted that three years ago his Hoklo proficiency was not up to snuff, especially compared with his elder brother’s fluency. But when he was asked to appear on the Zaidi Yingwen show, the director, Ah Pao (阿炮), who plays the father in the cast, pushed him to learn Hoklo better.
“Tsai Ming-yi (蔡明毅) is Ah Pao’s real name,” Jason added, noting that he’s been a TV actor for almost 20 years.
“Ah Pao was the spark who turned me into a more or less fluent Taiwanese speaker,” Jason said. “In the beginning of the show, I had to learn and memorize my lines in Taiwanese, and it was not easy at first. But after three months of training by Ah Pao, I did it.”
When asked how the unique TV show came into being, Jason said that New Eyes Television (www.netv.org.tw) got the show off the ground on cable.
“It was Chen Tien-le’s (陳天樂) idea, and he played an important role in putting things together during the beginning stages of NETV, and at the same time he was trying to think of a good way to promote the Hoklo language on television. His idea was that if viewers could see foreigners speaking fluent Hoklo, this might encourage local people here to better appreciate the language, and might even help some Taiwanese to want to brush up on their own Hoklo skills. And, at the same time, of course, it would be a wonderful way to help people learn English as well.”
Brzozowski also credits Wang Shu-wei (王旭暉), the producer of the show and now vice-president for programming at the cable TV outlet in Taipei, as being part of the brains behind the show, which began airing nationwide this January.
In addition to Jason and his brother Jared, the cast also includes longtime Tainan resident David Alexander, who teaches theology at Tainan Theological College, a Presbyterian school.
“David, who is called Ya Da-wei (亞大偉牧師) on our show, has been in Taiwan for over 25 years, and he speaks Taiwanese like a pro,” Jason noted. “In fact, he speaks more Taiwanese than [Mandarin].”
And there’s a girl in the show, too. According to the show’s backstory, the character Xiao Hong, a young Taiwanese woman, became acquainted with “Jason” when she went to study English in the US. When she returns to Taiwan, she invites Jason to visit her home. The show takes place in her father’s house, most of the time, with some location filming outside the studio as well.
The show is filmed inside at NETV’s state-of-the-art Taipei studio. “The studio started out in the basement of an old unused church building, but now we have a new studio, which is the headquarters for NETV,” Jason said. “In the beginning, when we first started making the show, we worked from 8am to as late as midnight sometimes, completing in one day, at most, maybe just two 30-minute shows. But, as things progressed, we can now make two or three a day in an 11-hour shift.”
Jason, who is based in Kaohsiung, travels to Taipei a few times each month for the studio work. However, the other cast members, who work in the instructional parts of the show, have different schedules, he noted, adding: “In the end, though, the final result is a very well-made cable show, and it’s gaining popularity with both locals and expats around the island.”
Brzozowski, who says he has plans to write a book one day about his life in Taiwan, is now in the process of putting together a new TV show for NETV, to be called Jason Xinfu Beibaoke (幸福背包客) (“Jason, the Blessed Traveler-Backpacker”).
“We’ve already shot two shows, but we have another 11 to go before the station can begin to air it as a series,” he said. “It will allow Taiwanese viewers to see how a foreigner like me travels, plays and mingles with the local people here, and we’re having fun filming it.”
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