First trip to the go salon.
Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2012 10:34 pm
Sorry in advance for the novel, but I thought some of you might find it interesting.
I moved to Taiwan in the fall to teach English and learn Chinese, and pursue some other sinophile interests like calligraphy, drinking great tea, and, of course, go. Unfortunately, its been very tough to find people to play with, largely because my Chinese is not great and I've been trying to find someone who also speaks English. In general, it just seems like go is not that popular. Everyone here knows what it is, kind of, but it is always known as "that game that old men play in the park" and often, they are actually playing shan qi.
Last week I finally gave up in using the internet to find somebody to play with, and headed off for the taiwanese go association. The office is on the third floor of a rather dingy building (most buildings here are dingy), but on the inside, the room was great. A large room filled with beautiful tables and sets. Two friendly ladies came over and in our mixture of bad English and worse Chinese, they gave me the address to a go salon, as well as a copy of the latest go publication, which of course featured Joanne Missingham on the cover.
I headed out for the salon, wondering what kind of strength I would find there. I was anticipating people that had been playing for a while, but were these people that seriously studied, or just played for fun? In my experience, people that never study and only play as a past time often plateau as a ddk, but my experience isn't that experienced.
When I got there, it was about how I pictured it would be. Maybe ten old men playing, drinking tea, people watching other games, go mags and books everywhere, the smell of a place that until recently you were allowed to smoke in. I tried talking to the receptionist, who didn't speak a word of English, told her I wanted to play, wondered if anyone spoke English, and then if it was alright if I just watched. Being a very tall foreigner, of course, I was getting a lot of looks.
After a few minutes of watching a game, a big Taiwanese version version of Wilford Brimley stood up and asked me if I wanted to play (in English). I excitedly said yes as everyone stared. He invited me over, and then began to ask me if I was a k or a d. I said k and he didn't quite believe me. I said maybe around 12 k and he said I was being modest. He explained that everyone in the room was a d, and that most of them were around 5d. I wasn't quite sure if I should belive that, after all, that would mean that every person in the room was better than the best player I'd ever talked to in person, a 1dan in portland. I watched him and a friend finish their game, and then he invited me to play.
At this point I was made to pay, which is pretty funny, as there must be some law that makes it so that you can't charge for go, because the woman brought over a tea that I had to purchase for around $6 US, which is quite expensive here. Altho the tea was quite nice.
He gave me 4 stones and slaughtered me. He was nice about it, playing soft, and letting me putz about long after it was clear that I had lost. For the record, I played terribly, perhaps too eager, and also partly because I hadn't played a face to face game for maybe 4 months.
Of course, it is hard for someone of my level to judge his, but suffice to say that the men in that room were all much more talented than I had expected. After the game I asked if he was interested in teaching, and he very strongly said no, but that his friend that he had been playing might. His friend, who apparrently speaks ok English, agreed to a teaching game, perhaps more expensive than it should be, but I'm excited nonetheless. The game is actually in about an hour, so I should go, but I thought I would share that before I go.
On a related note, I am trying hard to retrain myself to call it weiqi, partially because im in a Chinese speaking country, and partly to avoid the horrible accidental puns like that of the previous sentence.
I moved to Taiwan in the fall to teach English and learn Chinese, and pursue some other sinophile interests like calligraphy, drinking great tea, and, of course, go. Unfortunately, its been very tough to find people to play with, largely because my Chinese is not great and I've been trying to find someone who also speaks English. In general, it just seems like go is not that popular. Everyone here knows what it is, kind of, but it is always known as "that game that old men play in the park" and often, they are actually playing shan qi.
Last week I finally gave up in using the internet to find somebody to play with, and headed off for the taiwanese go association. The office is on the third floor of a rather dingy building (most buildings here are dingy), but on the inside, the room was great. A large room filled with beautiful tables and sets. Two friendly ladies came over and in our mixture of bad English and worse Chinese, they gave me the address to a go salon, as well as a copy of the latest go publication, which of course featured Joanne Missingham on the cover.
I headed out for the salon, wondering what kind of strength I would find there. I was anticipating people that had been playing for a while, but were these people that seriously studied, or just played for fun? In my experience, people that never study and only play as a past time often plateau as a ddk, but my experience isn't that experienced.
When I got there, it was about how I pictured it would be. Maybe ten old men playing, drinking tea, people watching other games, go mags and books everywhere, the smell of a place that until recently you were allowed to smoke in. I tried talking to the receptionist, who didn't speak a word of English, told her I wanted to play, wondered if anyone spoke English, and then if it was alright if I just watched. Being a very tall foreigner, of course, I was getting a lot of looks.
After a few minutes of watching a game, a big Taiwanese version version of Wilford Brimley stood up and asked me if I wanted to play (in English). I excitedly said yes as everyone stared. He invited me over, and then began to ask me if I was a k or a d. I said k and he didn't quite believe me. I said maybe around 12 k and he said I was being modest. He explained that everyone in the room was a d, and that most of them were around 5d. I wasn't quite sure if I should belive that, after all, that would mean that every person in the room was better than the best player I'd ever talked to in person, a 1dan in portland. I watched him and a friend finish their game, and then he invited me to play.
At this point I was made to pay, which is pretty funny, as there must be some law that makes it so that you can't charge for go, because the woman brought over a tea that I had to purchase for around $6 US, which is quite expensive here. Altho the tea was quite nice.
He gave me 4 stones and slaughtered me. He was nice about it, playing soft, and letting me putz about long after it was clear that I had lost. For the record, I played terribly, perhaps too eager, and also partly because I hadn't played a face to face game for maybe 4 months.
Of course, it is hard for someone of my level to judge his, but suffice to say that the men in that room were all much more talented than I had expected. After the game I asked if he was interested in teaching, and he very strongly said no, but that his friend that he had been playing might. His friend, who apparrently speaks ok English, agreed to a teaching game, perhaps more expensive than it should be, but I'm excited nonetheless. The game is actually in about an hour, so I should go, but I thought I would share that before I go.
On a related note, I am trying hard to retrain myself to call it weiqi, partially because im in a Chinese speaking country, and partly to avoid the horrible accidental puns like that of the previous sentence.
