People often ask me, they say: "Mike how do you keep so well informed of what's happening in the US?" (Actually no one has ever asked me this question.) Here in Taiwan there are newspapers, radio, TV and the internet.
Newspapers
We have two daily newspapers published in English. The "Taipei Times" is the paper sympathetic to the DPP, the Taiwanese Independence Party. The other, older paper is the "China Post", they are more sympathetic to the KMT, the China Nationalist Party. I usually go with the the "Taipei Times" but sometimes they are sold out and I have to buy the "China Post". They are both good papers for the expatriate community and they cover the US scene and actually cover world news better than say the Seattle local papers. Both are always 20 pages in length!
Everyday I read one or the other, both cost 15 NT($.50US) and are sold at the 711s or mini marts. They both sometimes have feature stories in both English and Chinese for those learning one language or the other. Here's a big story from some time ago.
On the same day as above the "China Post" appeared as:
Radio
There is one English radio station in Taiwan, ICRT. It plays pop music but some of the programs at night on the weekends are good. It has hourly news broadcasts that are good too. Also traffic Taipei traffic reports. They have a half hour of BBC news from 7AM to 7:30. I use this as my alarm in the money. Even though it's the BBC, most of the airtime is given to what those crazy Americans are doing.
I also have my short wave radio with me, even on the first floor of the dorm I can listened to VOA, BBC, Radio China, Japan, Russia, Germany, ...
TV
In my dorm we have cable with about 100 channels. The channels in English are:
CNN, BBC, Discovery, National Geographic, Travel, and some movies in English with Chinese subtitles.
Internet
Because at one time or another I subscribed to the
New York Times
Seattle Times
Seattle Post Intelligencer
I have internet access to their websites and they send me daily web alerts of breaking stories as well as summaries of daily events. I keep up with with the comic strips:
Dilbert
Chickweed
Bizzaro
And of course I listen to NPR on line and have access to their website.
Like everyone else I have too many options and not enough time.
2 comments:
You are better informed about events back home than people living there! I get all the news I need from home (Bellevue) on the weather report. Here in Tucson, we subscribe to the local paper to see what's going on. It's an easy way to check on where the speed traps are for the day. There are moble units of radar detectors and cameras. I still like reading the news on real newsprint. The local NPR stations are good. One even has classical music, unlike the Seattle area. We have cable TV and have access to news all the time. It may be my imagination, but there seem to be more newscasters over 50 than in Seattle. I appreciate that. Sometimes for fun I watch the Spanish chanels. They have the same talk show topics and sensationalism as the English channels. If I really want to find out what is going on, I go across the street and talk to neighbors Helen or Bud, who are closely tuned in to the neighborhood.
You are well informed. I need you to be back to keep me informed :)
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