The article from Taipei News(http://ecommerce.taipeitimes.com/ecom/eservice)

Market ABC
Leisurely market shopping for foreign visitors



Do you know where tourists like to go most when they come to Taiwan? Do you know what their impression of Taiwan is? According to a survey by the Ministry of Transportation and Communication's Tourism Bureau, the biggest favorite of most visitors (59 percent) to Taiwan is its night markets, making them even more popular than Taipei 101. In addition, their most favorable impressions of Taiwan are that the food is delicious and that people are very friendly. Both these opinions are the results of visits to Taiwan's night markets!
The Ministry of Economic Affairs' Department of Commerce wants to make it easy for tourists to experience Taiwan's unique night market culture and enjoy its delicious food even though they may not understand Chinese. It has specially created a “Night Market English” handbook to teach tourists and night market stall owners how to say all the different kinds of food in Chinese and English. It is also working on aesthetic restorations for commercial areas and night markets throughout Taiwan to give visitors a comfortable and bilingual environment so that they can communicate in English.

So that's what everyone says, but are Taiwan's night markets actually friendly? Can foreign visitors really use English to order food? Let's take some visitors to a bustling night market to find out!

“Oyster noodles!” calls out stall owner Yen Chen-jung in basic English as she beckons to our two foreign visitors. “Lots of international travelers come by, including Japanese, so I think employees have to speak a little bit of extremely simple English to boost business,” she says.

Watching as the two tourists easily finish every last morsel of the noodles, it is obvious that Taiwanese aren't the only ones who love the flavor. Next, let's try a traditional Taiwanese favorite, braised pork rice, to check out the owner's English and see how friendly she is!

“Hi! Welcome! We have lots of different dishes, like braised pork rice!” she says, explaining the Taiwanese foods to our visitors in English with a Taiwanese accent. They nod their heads excitedly, so it seems communicating is no problem. But when it comes to traditional Taiwanese fare, sometimes a bit of misunderstanding is unavoidable. Nevertheless, the US tourist Scudder still gives the stall owners two thumbs up. “As far as friendliness is concerned, I think they score a perfect 100 percent!” he says.

Even though our visitors have given their approval to the night market English, it's important not to start lowering our standards for creating an English-friendly environment. Wang Pai-por, director-general of the Department of Commerce, says, “In the future, we hope to have this sort of Chinese-English information and print pictures of Taiwanese foods alongside the information. But this isn't just about night market food. Commercial areas all over Taiwan are also devoting themselves to improving their English environment so that foreign visitors will not just be able to enjoy the delicious food, but also take Taiwan's unique culture home with them!”

2006 English Carnival

Nice to see you

I am going to meet my friend tonight, we will eat together in China town.
That's her first time visit in Adelaide .We've meet each other in Sydney last year,we were studying at the same school.She's been travelling around Australia after finishing her English course. I'm looking forward to see her tonight, I think that we'll happy to see each other!!

A special day in my country

The dragon boat festival is one of the most important days in Taiwan.
People who join the dragon boat competition become more and more popular. Some
foreigners love this activity, especially famous universties from different countries, for example, Oxford Universty.

On the other hand, the majority of families are peparing special food such as
rice tamal.The smell is very good because people are using bamboo leaves to package
the stuffing.The method of making rice bamboo evolved long ago.
There was a patriotic poet who jumped into river and people were looking for him, so
they rowed a boat and now,today, the dragon boat competition represents this searching.At that time people also prevented the poet's body from being bitten by fish by throwing rice balls into the river. Until now,people commemorate the poet so every family cooks rice tamal. Also the smell is very good and can drive out some bad insects.

I recommend that you travel to Taiwan and join the dragon boat competition!!