The Problem with (some) Taiwanese People
I was talking with my buddy who also visited Tokyo, Japan in the last month, and he mentioned something that I could not agree with more. The standards and etiquette of Japanese people are on average much higher than those of Taiwanese people. This is a fact. In the title of this post, I am referring to (some) people who grow up and live in Taiwan their whole lives… not those who immigrated to other countries and adopted other cultural practices.
I think the bottom line is that (some) Taiwanese people lack a proper set of principles. Here are a few examples to back up my argument:
- Blatantly cutting in line. This is a perfect example of trying to take a shortcut to achieve something (practiced by many Taiwanese people actually). Just spend a good month or two in Taiwan, and you will experience a few of these incidents in places like fast-food restaurants or the postal office. The keyword here is ‘blatant’. Usually it is an older citizen who tries to take advantage of his/her seniority…
- Pedestrians have right of way? Forget it! If you’ve ever crossed the street at a busy intersection in Taiwan before, you know exactly what I’m talking about. Cars will go as far as to weasel past you with a mere two inch margin if they can achieve it. Sometimes you really feel like you might get hit as you cross the street. Most of the time, you’ll have to slow down or stop while walking across the street to allow fast cars to turn first. Something about this seems …not right.
- Mandatory service in the army has a reverse negative effect on male citizens. I’m assuming that mandatory service in the army for male citizens is to build integrity and discipline in a person. I’m all for this. But… service today is nothing like it was 10 years ago. Many citizens know how to trick their way out of service and do simple b***h work for a year or so. Not only this, but most male citizens dread going to service during their childhood. So let’s look at this combination: 1) they dread going to service, 2) they end up doing b***h work for about a year of their life. Is there any good to this? 10 years ago, army service consisted of learning to fire a gun, push ups and sit-ups galore, discipline, etc. Not today. Is this doing any good for male citizens?
- Taiwan politics (fights in legislature –literally). Watch this video (no explanation necessary):
They say not to blog when you are emotional. I wrote this post after a lady cut in front of me in line (for like the 6th time in three months) at the post office. I was uber close to telling her off, but kept my cool instead. ;)
In conclusion, Taiwan has many things to be proud of. It’s truly a great city in many ways. However, once you live here for a decent amount of time, you start to see some very inexcusable flaws that need to be fixed.
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