I was surprised to find this in my email inbox today:
[color=darkblue]Mr. Derek XXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Hillsboro, OR 97124
Dear Mr. Derek XXXXXXX:
With reference to your e-mail dated April 19, 2006, transferred from our Bureau of Consular Affairs in Taipei Taiwan, I am writing to thank you for your valuable feedback. And would like to extend a sincere apology for the unfortunate experience you had at our Seattle office.
It is always our goal to serve every applicant well. Please be assured we will make suitable adjustments to better improve our consular affairs employees ability and service attitude. What you experienced was unacceptable behavior and, we hope, an isolated incident.
Enclosed please find the most recent and updated list of approved Mandarin Learning Centers in Taiwan. Please feel free to contact me if you have any further questions or suggestions.
Thank you again for your time and understanding.
Yours sincerely,
Yuchi YIN
Consul
Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Seattle[/color]
After reading the email, I checked my mail box outside. Sure enough there was not only a letter from the Seattle TECO and the list they spoke of. I am glad that I received such a positive response from a Taiwanese Government Agency. This gives a bit more confidence that perhaps the system is improving. Perhaps there are a few in the system who really do care and take an earnest effort to ensure that their job is done right and taiwan is reflected in a good light from their good efforts. Not all things in Taiwan are broken, and not all things in regards to visas are hopeless.
I hope that I can continue to have positive experiences and learn from the not so positive ones.
For those of you that need the information for visa purposes: I have updated the list of approved schools in the Learning Mandarin forum, according to the list that was sent via mail and email to me today.
And yes, I am back…
Thank you Toasty and the others who gave me a more positive light on forumosa. And thank you ModLang for the sincere apology. I hope to stick around forumosa, perhpas with a bit more caution on what i say and wearing a thicker skin, but with the intent to learn, laugh, and be inspired.