This week we returned to a topic we discussed in class last year, which was the question asked to foreigners: “What is the wackiest thing you have seen in Taiwan?”
The topic was the view of Taiwan through a foreigner’s eyes, and the view of foreigners through Taiwanese eyes. The most interesting part of the discussion came from a story I like to tell about two fresh arrivals to Taiwan when I lived in Tainan.
The story goes like this: When I was living in Tainan in about 1992, two Canadians arrived in mid-July. The day they arrived they had been travelling for about 20 hours by the time they got to their new non-air-conditioned ‘home’ on the 5th floor of an older (elevator-free) building. It was a hot day, as usual, and by late afternoon, drenched in sweat, they had finished lugging their heavy bags up to their rooms and were and about to pass out. Just then, they heard some music coming from the street 5 floors down. They hurried and grabbed their coin purses and ran down the 5 flights of stairs, excited to get their treat! Of course when they got to the bottom, they didn’t find the ice-cream truck as they expected, but the garbage truck instead. Depressed, they slowly climbed the stairs back up to our hot apartment, to my amusement.
After I told this to the class, one of the students told an equally funny one about a Taiwanese living in the US. This student had just moved to the US and did exactly the opposite- he heard the music coming from the street and carried out 3 bags of garbage- only to find the ice-cream truck! He didn’t know when he could get rid of his garbage, and thought it was the same in the US as in Taiwan.
The expectation of the ice-cream truck in the first story and the garbage truck in the second shows that culture cues can be misinterpreted so easily when traveling or living abroad. Actions of others might be misunderstood, or misinterpreted and consequences will result- hopefully only humorous ones like the above.
Foreigners living in the south of Taiwan have seen some really interesting things, including: blind people riding bicycles, entire families plus a dead pig together on a single motorcycle, exploding whales, and more. Up here in Taipei, we aren’t that luc
ky to see such ‘interesting’ sights.
Many of the things people in one culture take for granted are most striking to visitors not familiar with the ‘ways’ of that culture. As one lives longer in a culture that person also becomes immune to the shock visitors feel. For example I also suffer from ‘when in Rome, do as the Romans do’ when I return home. I find myself not giving the proper amount of personal space when in public in the US. I find myself lining up very close to the person in front of me- getting too close and making the other person uncomfortable. Also, I notice my aggressive driving style when I get behind the wheel in the US.
Culture and how it affects the way we see things is a very interesting topic, I’m sure there will be more discussion about this in the future!
The topic was the view of Taiwan through a foreigner’s eyes, and the view of foreigners through Taiwanese eyes. The most interesting part of the discussion came from a story I like to tell about two fresh arrivals to Taiwan when I lived in Tainan.
The story goes like this: When I was living in Tainan in about 1992, two Canadians arrived in mid-July. The day they arrived they had been travelling for about 20 hours by the time they got to their new non-air-conditioned ‘home’ on the 5th floor of an older (elevator-free) building. It was a hot day, as usual, and by late afternoon, drenched in sweat, they had finished lugging their heavy bags up to their rooms and were and about to pass out. Just then, they heard some music coming from the street 5 floors down. They hurried and grabbed their coin purses and ran down the 5 flights of stairs, excited to get their treat! Of course when they got to the bottom, they didn’t find the ice-cream truck as they expected, but the garbage truck instead. Depressed, they slowly climbed the stairs back up to our hot apartment, to my amusement.
After I told this to the class, one of the students told an equally funny one about a Taiwanese living in the US. This student had just moved to the US and did exactly the opposite- he heard the music coming from the street and carried out 3 bags of garbage- only to find the ice-cream truck! He didn’t know when he could get rid of his garbage, and thought it was the same in the US as in Taiwan.
The expectation of the ice-cream truck in the first story and the garbage truck in the second shows that culture cues can be misinterpreted so easily when traveling or living abroad. Actions of others might be misunderstood, or misinterpreted and consequences will result- hopefully only humorous ones like the above.
Foreigners living in the south of Taiwan have seen some really interesting things, including: blind people riding bicycles, entire families plus a dead pig together on a single motorcycle, exploding whales, and more. Up here in Taipei, we aren’t that luc
ky to see such ‘interesting’ sights.Many of the things people in one culture take for granted are most striking to visitors not familiar with the ‘ways’ of that culture. As one lives longer in a culture that person also becomes immune to the shock visitors feel. For example I also suffer from ‘when in Rome, do as the Romans do’ when I return home. I find myself not giving the proper amount of personal space when in public in the US. I find myself lining up very close to the person in front of me- getting too close and making the other person uncomfortable. Also, I notice my aggressive driving style when I get behind the wheel in the US.
Culture and how it affects the way we see things is a very interesting topic, I’m sure there will be more discussion about this in the future!
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