Earlier this month we entered into a grant contest that is offered by the company Intuit. This grant competition is called a “hiring grant” and the December winner will win a grant that can be used to expand their business. Our New Year’s resolution for next year is that we plan on expanding Multilingual Mania to include additional writers as well as content that is tailored to readers’ interests. We also hope to be able to expand our language classes for children and parents in the local community.

A couple of weeks ago, we asked for you to share a little about yourself and your interests in a survey so that we know what you enjoy seeing on Multilingual Mania and what you would like to see more of. We promise that if we win the grant that we will use it to create content and services that you are asking for!

Please take a moment out of your busy schedule to vote for us in the competition, and briefly share why you think that Multilingual Mania should win! The contest is over in a few days!! You can vote here:

Thanks for supporting us!

Our seventh student essay was written by Mariel Padilla, an eleventh  grade student in Richmond, California. As a reminder, all entries will be posted “as is” without any revisions or editing by Multilingual Mania:

I have many idols and heroes but the one at the top of the list will always be Jose Pedro Infante Cruz or better known as Pedro Infante. Pedro was a famous Mexican actor during the golden age of Mexican cinema.

First of all, I consider Pedro an important contributor to society because he brought a whole new meaning to the movie making of Mexico. Pedro made many films some like: Tizoc, Nosotros los Pobres y Ustedes los Ricos , and Los Hijos de Maria Morales. Pedro mostly played the role of a Mexican Rancher but worked out for him very well because he soon became one of the best actors of his time along with Jorge Negrete and Maria Felix. Pedro worked a lot with these two actors too. For me Perdo Infante was a great actor though he was far off from my time era I grew to love him because of his extrordinary work and his aspect of being the perfect gentlemen which in these days we have a slight lack of.

Second of all, one day I want to be as famous as he was and hope to have fans that admire me throughout the centuries. For me I grew to love Pedro when my grandparents would watch those old black and white movies that at first bored me but when I actually paid attention to them I started to like them. Though the one I liked the most was Pedro Infante. His movies not only made me admire them but somehow brought me closer to my family and my grandparents especially. Many people know how hard it is to interact with grandparents because they grew up in a time much different than ours but yet there are always little insignificant things that end up tying us together.

In conclusion, Pedro Infante will always be the best actor and singer for me but most of all my role model that will help me accomplish my dreams. Though I never knew him and though we come from very different time eras I admire his work and life career that he worked so hard to accomplish. This is why Pedro Infante is the person who impacted my life.

Stay tuned for additional student essays!

Our sixth student essay was written by Lexus Arendiz, a fifth grade student at Calmeca Academy for the Fine Arts and Dual Language in Chicago, Illinois. As a reminder, all entries will be posted “as is” without any revisions or editing by Multilingual Mania:

She is 34 years old. She almost taught me everything. She has helped me through thick and thin. And her name is MOM!

(Why I picked her as a hero)

I choose her as my hero because we been through so much. She helps me when I have problems. Also because… she loves us with all her heart. Whenever we sleep over our friend’s house for like a couple of days. She will call us and say that she wants us home because she is bored without us and because she misses us. I am so glad she is my mom because to me I think she is a good mom. She tries to get us what we need. Also she will always choose us first.

(What me and my mom been though)

My mom means the world to me. But sometimes we have our ups and downs. Sometimes I will get mad at her because she yelled at me or because she did something that I didn’t like. But then she will apologize. But even though I get mad at her I will always love her! Me and my mom use to see who said they loved each other the most. When I was small I use to bang on the windows and kick everything and everyone and cry really loud because my moms use to leave to go to work. Also every night I would want to go sleep with my mom. This one time my dad told me” no” that I couldn’t sleep with them so then I started to cry for like an hour. So then my mom went to go sleep in my bed. I don’t know what I would do without my mom.

(How she does stuff for use)

My mom will do anything for us. And to get whatever we need. She will work extra hours just to get extra money. But the one thing so will not do is ask for money from our family or from anyone. Because then she is going to have to pay them back and because they will bug her about it. Well anyways this one time we had nothing for school and there was only 2 weeks left to go back to school. So she asked her boss if she can work extra hours and so told him why then he said yes. Then when she had the money she took us shopping she had a little money left and she was going to give us it for being good. But then I said “no I don’t want the money. Keep it buy yourself a cake before you go to work tomorrow or something”. “Thank you“my mom said. She does so much for us. That I try to say I love her and thank you for doing so much for us.

(How she is caring)

My mom is caring. She will help you if you lost your job or if you need money (just you have to pay her back when you have a chance) whenever we need anything she will work for it. Like this one time my mom’s friend daughter needed a job. She had no money and she has a daughter also. She was still living with her mom. So my mom gave her a job where my mom works at. Now my friends daughter has a job and gets money and also she has her own little apartment. Also my mom is caring because… one day I had lost my volleyball game and she knew that I was mad so she said. “You girls all need help so your next practice I will help and for all our other practices. And I will ask your coach if I can be your accident coach”. “But mom you are pregnant” “I don’t care”. This is why my mom is caring. She will do anything to help me.

So know you know why my mom is my hero. And there are more reasons. I just want to say to the other students to be nice to your mom because you don’t know who long you are going to have her then when she is gone you are going to feel bad and cry because you treated her bad . And also that I love you mom. You have done so much for me and you mean the whole world to me. I don’t know what I will do without you.

Stay tuned for additional student essays!

Our fifth student essay was written by Verylin Matias, a fifth grade student at Calmeca Academy for the Fine Arts and Dual Language in Chicago, Illinois. As a reminder, all entries will be posted “as is” without any revisions or editing by Multilingual Mania:

I have selected my mother as my strongest impact in my life as a student and in society as well my mother has been a role model, emotional, supporter  and has given me a great place to live in I will explain how she is such a good impact in my life.

My mother has given me emotional support since day one. My mother always trusted me due to the fact she has thought me right from wrong. By her teaching me such, I have been able to make better choices as a young woman. She has encouraged me to do my best at everything I do and to never give up that by me giving up will show that I’m not strong enough or smart enough and my mother has always told me that I could do anything I put my head into it. She is also the best person to me when I’m down she shows me so much love that it brightens up my day no matter how cloudy it has been my mother is real understanding on gives me the best advice I can get that’s why I think my mother has given me the best emotional support I can receive. My mother has also been the best role model for me. She has thought me not to worry about what others think or say about me, as long as I’m doing the right thing. She has shown me that being humble and warm hearted could win more love then being filled with superficial materials. She also teaches me to stand up for what I believe in no matter what the case is. She has though me that no mountain is high enough. Those are a few reasons why she is an excellent role model in my life….

My mother has always provided a roof over me and my sister’s shoulder she has given us a warm place to sleep and has provided us with everything we need to succeed in our school and daily life she has made sure that we have a warm plate of food for those long days of school. I really appreciate everything my mother has done for our family to be able to live our life peace-fully and motivated for the next day.

These are some of the reasons of how my mother has impacted my life and I also said that she has made an impact in society because my mother has also taught me that one person in the future. By being a veterinarian it will give other the hope and desire by saying it I can do it so can you. All at this has come from one special person who has given me love and support since the day I was born.

Our fourth student essay was written by Pablo Tellez, a fifth grade student at Calmeca Academy for the Fine Arts and Dual Language in Chicago, Illinois. As a reminder, all entries will be posted “as is” without any revisions or editing by Multilingual Mania:

Shakira’ life

Shakira grew up in Colombia in a place where people didn’t have hope. Some people sniffed glue or drug’s to forget about the hunger and the cold.

Shakira’s Career

Shakira is a singer and she is an activist artist. Shakira started her singing career at the age of 18. Shakira is about 32 years old , and she has had a singing career for 14 years.

Los Pies Descalzo’s Foundation

Shakira was not told to the foundation, she just wanted to do the foundation for poor people. Shakira thinks’ that education is the key to someone’s future and that everyone should have an education. Pies Descalzo’s started in Barranquilla on the Columbian Caribbean coast when Shakira was only 18 years old. Shakira did this for the poor people.

Why Did Shakira Do The Foundation?

She did this because 100 out of 1 million get a full education. Shakira thinks’ that if we all get together and help other’s we can make a difference.

Stay tuned for additional student essays!

Congratulations to all of the students who submitted essays for our student essay writing contest for Hispanic Heritage month!! We received entries from students in grades 4-11, and we can’t wait to post them for readers to read and vote on. Over the next couple of days we will begin posting all of the essays online. Once all of the essays have been uploaded we will then have readers vote on their favorite essay. The winner will receive a $75 Visa gift card and the teacher of the first prize winner will receive five biographies of famous Latina/os for their classroom library.

We will be posting all of the essays online “as is/as submitted”, meaning that we will not be making any edits or revisions to the original essays if they were submitted with errors in spelling, grammar, and punctuation.

This is our first writing contest and in the future we plan on expanding the writing contest to also include resources for teachers and students that will help students with the prewriting, organization, revision and editing of their essays. Stay tuned for our next writing contest, because this is just the first of many that we are planning!

We would really appreciate it if our readers would leave an encouraging comment for the students, so that we can continue to motivate them in enhancing their writing! Stay tuned!

Tomorrow, October 20, 2010, will the last day that we will be accepting the Hispanic Heritage month student essays. We will accept essays by email up until midnight Pacific Standard Time. The first place prize is $75, and the teacher of the first prize winner will also receive five biographies of famous Latino/as for the classroom library!

We have received a small amount of submissions, so if you are interested in submitting an essay, you or your students have a good chance of winning! You can find out additional information about topics and other information by clicking here. Good luck!

Tomorrow will be the last day that we are accepting candidates who are interested in becoming a monthly contributor for Multilingual Mania. If you would like to join our team, check out our previous post about monthly contributors. In the near future we will be expanding our blog to include a Spanish section. If you are interested in being a future contributor in Spanish, please let us know! Thank you!

Please note that we are in the process of moving the blog over to another server as well as a new blog layout. Please excuse certain parts of the blog that are under construction over the next few days=)

Here is the ritual greeting that takes place in Taipei when I pay the fare to the taxi driver, order a latte at a Starbucks, or pay the bill in a restaurant.

• How much is it? ????

• NT$100. Are you Japanese / Overseas Chinese / Korean? 100???????????????

• I am from Japan. ??????

• You speak Chinese really well. ????????

• Thank you. ??????

• How long have you been here? ?????

• 5 years. ????

• That’s awesome! ?????

If I am talking with a person over 40 years old, this question pops up.

• Why did you choose Taiwan? ?????????

• Because… ??…

And then I always pause. Each time, an internal voice whispers I still don’t know, followed by But I love being here, that’s for sure. I say things like “Because Taiwan is a great country with great people and great food” (which is all true, by the way). I get nervous thinking the person in front of me might suspect I am merely trying to please her, which makes my response even more robotic and suspicious.

I can list things that make Taiwan/Taipei great. Inexpensive yet tasty food. Relaxed atmosphere. Mild-mannered people. Near-flawless public transportation. Unbelievably cheap and sophisticated medical care.  A modern city with accessible nature in its backyard.

But none of them hits the bull’s eye. I had access to all of them back in Japan, except for the inexpensive food and relaxed atmosphere. Food prices never affected me much. So is it the ability to relax more? No, a critical factor is still missing.

One weekend, while riding on a train and looking at the streaming landscape, I got it. The clue has been there all along, right in my view, like in these photos.

There is nothing photogenic or remarkable about these scenes, to be fair. Miniature balcony jungle flourishes inside an old apartment. A golden temple shines brightly inside an office building. A makeshift playground replicating Gulliver in Lilliput lies in front of a memorial hall. If there is any theme in them, it is that there is no theme at all—what we see is only the co-existence of unrelated objects. Yes, they are what makes Taipei, Taipei.

Wait, hadn’t I experienced it in Japan, a place more famous than Taiwan for accepting weirdness? Well in Japan, every foreign object must go through a “transforming” stage before lining up in the stores or being introduced in a media outlet, its cuteness exaggerated and any threatening element de-emphasized. In other words, foreign stuff must be assimilated and sanitized. That’s why Japanese cultural items are always, er, Japanese. Might be peculiar at times, but always safe.

In Taiwan, things exist more as they are, not falling into sameness under the “Taiwanese” label. That same principle applies to people, or expatriates in this case. Looking back on my five-year experience living here, one of the most remarkable things is that I’ve never had to compromise my identity to be like someone else. I do not say I could always do what I wanted to. But no one forced me to behave like someone I am not, either. In fact, I already wrote about that experience in expat+HAREM.

The Taiwanese view me as “Laowai”, a foreigner. Not Japanese, more like Overseas Chinese. I act the way that feels right to me, and the Taiwanese view me the way that feels right for them, and we both feel fine about not understanding each other’s point of view.

I am like those odd objects in the photos. I am alien to the local culture, and also part of it. Folks, now I have the answer to the original question; why I have been sticking to Taiwan—and the whole story, which has taken me five years to figure out, has taken you three minutes to read.

P.S. It is time for me to take a nap at lunchtime in the office—an important part of the Taiwanese business culture—and I safely close my eyes and bend my neck toward the ceiling (opening my mouth is optional), against the proper manner of burying one’s head into the arms, like my colleague sitting next to me.

About the Author: Isao Kato is a nomad Japanese technical writer living in Taiwan, melting technology and communication in the Asian pot.