Category: Taiwanese culture
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Redefining convenience
When we explained to a Taiwanese friend that small towns in the UK and Europe don’t have 7-11 convenience stores, she was shocked. “How do people eat?”, she asked.
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Non – ce n’est pas un dish cloth
Arriving somewhere new, it’s normal to find many things that are unfamiliar. But some are totally incomprehensible. Dogs on scooters and dish driers, for example.
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Your spaceship is arriving at platform two. The sounds of Taiwan
After the church bells of Switzerland, the first sound we noticed in Taiwan was the lyrical tune announcing the arrival of the recycling truck each evening.
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It’s raining. You need a banana
‘A table is not a relationship’, I hear myself saying, a sentence I’m almost certain I’ve never said before.
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You won how much for doing what now?
It took us a long time to work out why shop assistants always looked at us like we were crazy.
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Learn talk not gibberish
In Hong Kong and Singapore we found paying tax was pretty much pain free. Austria was a bit more complicated. Switzerland was the worst. Taiwan was best of all.
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Moving to Taiwan aged us 11 years
It’s not just the date that can be confusing in Taiwan, and which makes everyone seem to be 11 years older. Numbers are different too. Is a 20 ping apartment for 4 wan good?
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Repeat after me: Bu hao yi si
Words and actions are what makes the Taiwanese social machine run smoothly. The use of courtesy umbrellas when it rains is great too.