上班族必備軟實力

*Richard is an American who does it his way, on country roads. Take me home.

Years ago, I lived in Japan, and when I would go into a snack bar, someone would usually come in and sing badly and loudly until I got a headache. That was called karaoke, and it is extremely popular in Taiwan.

A karaoke machine connects up with a stereo and a video screen. It has inputs for several microphones and controls for pitch and reverb. Some machines contain hundreds of songs that can be chosen remotely out of a booklet that lists all the songs and assigns numbers to each one.

You can find karaoke anywhere in Taiwan.

• You can find it at family gatherings: Family members will sit around the TV and sing along with their personal karaoke machines.
• You can find it at a KTV place: Friends can rent a room and sit around the TV and sing along with the karaoke machine. You will be able to order snacks and drinks.
• You can find it at a karaoke bar: Bar customers sit at tables around a big TV screen and take turns singing along with a karaoke machine

Karaoke books list the many songs to sing.

Most karaoke today is on video. There will be some scenes playing on screen and the words to the music will scroll across. The video that plays usually has nothing to do with the song being played. Usually it is some kind of travel documentary. It will show old buildings in Europe or boats on the water scenes.

Personally, I am very bad at karaoke. I have a hard time making the pitch of my voice the same as the music being played. Different strategies I have tried include trying to hear my voice as it comes out of the speakers and changing the pitch accordingly, or relying on the vibrations in my throat. I do seem to get better as I drink more beer.

Karaoke is not yet popular back home. It is hard to find a place to sing it there. I am pretty sure that it will catch on one of these days, but until then, there is always plenty of karaoke in Taiwan. Thank you for reading and please keep on singing.

【作者介紹】

Richard 是一位台灣女婿，在台灣生活15年，喜愛台灣文化，以風趣幽默的文筆，細膩獨特的觀點，介紹在台灣生活的趣事，一起跟著Richard探訪外國人的台灣世界吧！