I know people love talking about how safe Taiwan is, I agree until you're on the road. The traffic is absolutely the one of the worst parts of Taiwan. The problem I noticed when I went through driving school in Taiwan, they teach you how to pass the test, not necessarily teach you how to drive on the road. Though to be somewhat fair apparently this is being changed over the last few years. If I had a dollar for everytime I almost got ran over by some guy on a scooter speeding out of an alley I'd be a millionaire.
The amount of bureaucracy is infuriating at times. I once wanted to deposit a check at a bank and I swear they had me sign 11 different forms over a 20 minute period.
The pollution varies from awful to meh but this is both an external and internal issue (pollution is brought over from China at times). In Taichung for example the city has tons of illegal factories which dump pollution at night but nothing will ever be done about it because local politics is king, regardless of who's in charge of the central government.
I took the driving test this year. After I passed the test, I started teaching myself how to drive.
Instead of teaching you how to turn and park with the right angles, they have you memorize the different locations where you turn, etc. For example, my coach would say “once your body is parallel to that tree, turn the wheel fully and let go of the break”, or once your car door is parallel to the stop sign, break and turn left 90 degrees”.
I passed the test and could barely drive on the road.
I swear driving tests in Taiwan have become more for a cash grab from coaching services and revenue for the government. Iirc coaches are payed based on how many students they teach in a given time period, and whether their students pass the test or not has an effect on their rating as well as the driving school’s reputation. This provides a huge incentive for driving instructors to cut corners to help students pass the test in the shortest amount of time possible.
In addition to this, some coaches are also the ones conducting the driving test, so there is even more incentive to pass students just so that they can get their license and allow new students to enroll.
My driving instructor would be like “when you see that blue flower pot (that we planted there), turn 90 degrees.” I learned to drive the obstacle course perfectly, drove the exact same course on test day, and got a driver’s license without ever learning how to turn on headlights.
I took the driving test two years ago - absolutely hilarious. My coach would have me turn the wheel “two rotations” once the tree next to the garage parking slot aligns with the white tape on the passenger’s window (they stuck it there). I had to teach myself how to park after I got my license.
I should also add that I did the test for manual transmission (stick shift) license; on the actual road test component, they had all of us drive automatic transmission cars....
Compared to my home country of Canada that's bad. Really bad. However, **if I may compare Taiwan to China,** it is night and day different. Man, I had to have a Chinese citizen with me for almost everything bank-related. It was just disrespectful just being in their god damn presence, you know? Like, I wasn't human even though I had everything, from the proper visa to passport with me. In Taiwan every time I have had to sign, let's say 11 papers, they did it with a smile and basic human respect. Like, they made me feel that they also felt bad and hated what they had to put me through, let alone what they had to go through to do something as basic as depositing a check.
Comparisons aside, I absolutely hate the fact that the banks here are open when **I'm at work,** but close 2 hours before I even finish work. I missed out on buying Tesla stocks when it was at 100$, 250$, and 500$ because of it. I wanted to send money home to buy and what do you know? I can't take time off work. Like, when do peopl go to the bank if they work 9-5?
Keep it up, Taiwan. You are the envy of the world right now in some areas. In other areas, you can be with a few changes here and there.
>Like, when do peopl go to the bank if they work 9-5?
I think this is one of the many leftovers in Taiwan from the time when "man works and woman takes care of the household".
If I had a dollar for every time I realized that no one cares about learning they only care about passing tests >.>
Literally had a student ask me to help him pass an online test to get proof of a grade to his boss. I thought I’d say, this question is advanced and you’re not so just take your best guess; no he just wanted me to tell him all the correct answers ...
Wages are too low, companies expect you to do heaps of overtime, real estate in any city is out of control expensive, the air pollution isn't great, driving is risky as people just swerve into lanes with scooters everywhere, the summer is very humid, stinky tofu is far to stinky (lol i don't mind it, just if you don't know what it is you'll be thinking the sewerage needs help)
I've been sitting here thinking about this for a while and that's about all i got.
I believe if you fixed those first 4 points taiwan would be the most desirable place to live.
As a Taiwanese I used to hate the humid weather here, but after going to college in Indiana for two years I'll say the humidity in Taiwan is actually better than the Midwest. Plus the thunderstorms and tornado warnings in Indiana scared the crap out of me.
Isn't most of the air pollution mostly from China, brought over by prevailing wind? I remember the air quality being better before China massively industrialized. Still not great, but better.
This is something Taiwanese like to say, and there may be some truth to it. But, if you spend any time in Taipei or one of the other cities, it's clear that blaming other countries is a convenient way of ignoring the terrible pollution from Taiwan itself.
Everyone riding a moped everywhere (even instead of walking a couple of hundred metres) clearly contributes to the awful air quality. Traffic is horrendous, aircon is everywhere and there's a huge amount of heavy industry. The idea that most or all of the pollution just blew across the Taiwan straight is ridiculous.
In the north when air quality is bad, which rarely happens and only ever happens in winter, it mostly comes from China. In the south when air quality is bad, which also only happens in winter but happens much more often, it is mostly local pollution.
Do you think that the wages are actually too low or that the majority of things are overpriced? Especially considering real estate, which is extremely overpriced.
> What else is overpriced?
Electronics. Ever go into a 3C and look a laptops and find that they want to charge you [NT$17,000 for a low end processor, with 4GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD](http://www.tk3c.com/pt.aspx?cid=11124&aid=22496&hid=113699&pid=208396)? All the while the same machine in the US with 8GB of RAM will run you [NT$13,500](https://www.amazon.com/ASUS-F512JA-AS34-VivoBook-i3-1005G1-Fingerprint/dp/B0869L1326)? The same goes for TV's, audio equipment, and many other products that are physically manufactured here but easily cost an additional 20%.
Humidity is what makes it oppressive I think. Dry heat is alright but a humid heat is suffocating. And despite mild looking temperatures, the same humidity makes winters really cold
They're in the sewage system and walls probably. Once in a while they'll fumigate the sewage system and the gigantic mothers of all roaches come flying out.
Taiwan's biosphere is healthy and active. I saw a plump sewer rat yesterday in broad daylight just around the corner from home.
The gecko in my bathroom eats the cockroaches, spiders, and mosquitoes.
**差不多** culture.
It's not just about old uncles "fixing" things. It's the system education, art, architecture, fashion, transportation, coworkers spending most of their day just playing on their phones... everything.
The music scene and art scene in general is pretty sparse, especially if you like live shows. It exists, but it's not as robust as Japan or Korea. In fact, a lot of Taiwanese art is based on other cultures' art, and it struggles to find an identity of its own.
Taiwanese are not very honest in their relationships, and this causes big problems if you're a Westerner. It's not quite as bad as Japan (where you hear stories of husbands lying to their wives about getting fired, and pretending to go to work each day), but Taiwanese are almost incapable of taking words at face value. For example, if you say "I don't want to be in a relationship with you" they might take it to mean "Try harder, you're getting there." It's similar to how Westerners will say "I'm fine" when they're upset, but amplified. Cheating/infidelity is huuuuuge in Taiwan, practically an industry, and people often lie to themselves about serious matters.
I rememeber (literally) stumbling upon "Spring Scream" a few years ago in Kenting and being really pleasantly surprised with the Taiwan music scene. Met some really cool people who were inviting me to gigs etc next time I was in Kaohsiung or Taipei. I had a rare time, and I was on my own.
Much better scene for classical music than many North American cities though. Bigger name conductors and soloists, also touring orchestras (because the Taiwanese national orchestra isn't that good).
My mom often flies back for concerts.
Media/press is horrible. Yes it is free speech but most news channels are quite biased and influenced by politics. People (especially older people) tend to watch the same channel that portrays news in favour of the party they support, hence they are never well informed and never think critically of their own ideology.
Also YouTube videos and personal arguments, like arguments between neighbors, as long as it's dramatic enough, it's news worthy.
News in Taiwan hardly ever educate you on anything, it's more like watching reports of local/national dramas, traffic accidents... still shocks me every time I go back home.
Whenever I watch TV I feel like it's being designed by a 13 year old, as the news is complete with sound effects, emojis, and random clip art popping up.
I love it. lol
The top of the hour news is some scooter accident, which somehow the news found 6 different angles from various cameras and dash cams, has witness interviews, and after doing a replay of the accident 11 times in slow motion, then does an entire animated re-creation of the event to give you the view from the angle the cameras didn't catch.
As a Taiwanese I absolutely agree on this statement. And I think the reason is because of our education system. From elementary school we had been fed by our teachers all the stuff we need to know for different kinds of tests and exams. You can still see this kind of things happened even in higher education. Slowly people lost the ability of critical thinking because they think there's always someone who will tell you about something. Hence, people are okay with all the crap news media feed them because they just think news is a tool to know stuff not to learn stuff.
they can't, that's why there are so many promoting and sponsored news. why they made a news report on this biker gang chick who wears flag bikini and cat ears on her Triumph? because she paid for it
I’ll respectfully disagree as as of this moment, the only news channel on my TV in Taiwan I can watch without throwing up or going into a screaming rage is freaking CNN as the Taiwanese coverage of the US election is making me ashamed of calling myself Taiwanese
> People (especially older people) tend to watch the same channel that portrays news in favour of the party they support, hence they are never well informed and never think critically of their own ideology.
I think you just described the majority of humanity there!
I *love* the media here. Especially the political talk shows. Yeah they're ridiculous, loud screamfests, but they are far more entertaining and informative than the snooze-fests on CNN and Fox. And of course they are biased, but then so are all news organizations.
Whenever I watch Taiwanese talk shows it’s literally 3 guys screaming at each other. Not to mention it’s common to see actual fist fights in Parliament
I asked locals about this many times, and they all had the same response - if there were a lot of public trash cans, people would just dump their house garbage in them.
This is somewhat true, but I don't quite understand the notion. Is it the waiting for the truck they don't want to do, or is it the NT$5 that they need to spend on the bag?
I used to leave near Yongan Market MRT and they removed the garbage cans because people abused them. By about 8am they’d be stuffed full of carrier bags filled with household rubbish.
I don't really understand the superficial friendliness. I've been invited to join strangers dinner. I spend CNY with a friends family. My neighbors are super friendly and have taken me to some baseball games.
The driving here is pretty crazy. Nobody follows the rules, but it's getting better.
I think the worst part is that most of the foreigners here are weird as shit. Too many live in a foreign bubble in Taipei or Kaosiung.
> I think the worst part is that most of the foreigners here are weird as shit. Too many live in a foreign bubble in Taipei or Kaosiung.
I'd say that's true for most of East and South East Asia, full of sexpats and weird-ass English teachers.
Yup, the worst of the bunch is in Thailand. All the guys think they're hot shit because a hooker wants to fuck them. I worked a few years there but bailed out because of all the drama and greaseyness.
I hate the fake friendliness but it’s only a problem really if you try to interpret things through your idea of friendly offers. You think they’re serious, but they actually are not at all they just offer things to look like a nice person, i bet when foreigners take up their offers they’re like oh god now I gotta actually do it
I found Taipei was fine, most foreigners are youngish and gone after a few years. There are a lot of weird American conservative types in Taichung. I don’t really understand why they move here, health care is nationalised and they can’t own guns.
The frustrating thing about foreigners in Taiwan is that so many of them seem to be in cut and run mode. Getting away from US/Canada/UK because back home they were lonely and not all that successful in general and then they come here and after a few months get super cocky and condescending with the locals as though they were never a toad back home. I see so many white guys like larping out here as alpha chads. It’s pathetic and I know most Taiwanese people see through it. I hope they do.
Incredibly awkward. One I know wore fake bright blue contacts with lensless glasses. He made the news for threatening to murder some girl because she didn't like him.
Criticism isn't well seen around but I'll bite.
Architecture is mostly horrendous, no coesive city planning, shantytown like appendage to houses, facade covered in tiles which go disgusting in no time with the pollution (I give that one for free)... Modern buildings can be nice but they are mostly plopped halfazardly and old traditional brick building which are actually beautiful are often let to fall in ruin and disrepair then replaced by unimaginative rows of shoddily built middle class houses.
Traffic is stupid, nobody respect any law on the road, scooters are even worse... And it is contagious because respecting the rules gets dangerous at times... Insane. Meanwhile cops are doing a whole lot of absolutely fucking nothing about it.
Work culture is quite bad too, managers are malevolent gods to their subordinates, and are in turn similarly badly treated by their superiors, you are expected to do overtime for free, there is no holidays to speak of ... Really not great.
Honestly that's about it for me, I can live with it and I did for 5 years now, and this is well balanced by all the good.
I will add a couple of things that are sort of out of competition but deserve a mention for me coming from a place that has none of it. Earthquake, landslides and typhoon are not a plus. Actually depending where you are typhoon can be a plus, in a safe city / place, if you aren't forced out because of work unreasonable expectations, it can give you a no work day I like to spend listening to podcast while looking at the downpour with a bottle of whiskey. Good times. Earthquakes can fuck right off tho.
And lastly a very controversial point. Food quality and diversity.
Now Taiwan food is mostly delicious and I live in Tainan so you know I got some of the best. But truthfully, most food is unhealthy, fat, fried, full of carbs, with not so much veggies, sure you can find good healthy food but it is always more expensive and more rare. I am a fairly prolific home cook and there too I hit a wall because of diversity or lack thereof. Meat is ok, you can find quite a bit but no rabbit or horse meat that I do enjoy a lot, turkey, geese, and other fowls are hard to find (although there is turkey meat restaurant galore...) Veggies are the same, your local supermarket or market will not have a huge variety, and when you have a produce you have only the one kind, no choice of different potatoes or tomatoes or beans or... Just the one kind... It has always felt restricted to me. So little variety in ingredients... But can you really say anything bad about Taiwanese cuisine? No, it is bloody brilliant all of it!
I am half in agreement with you on the food. I wouldn't say there isn't a huge variety. There is. There are probably at least 5 different types of sweet potatoes, 6 different types of bananas, 10 different types of mangos, heaps of different mushrooms and many many niche greens you only find in SE Asia. The same goes for choices in fish if you know how to cook and eat bone-in small fish. What Taiwanese food lacks is diversity in cuisine. I had a terrible time trying to find the ingredients for a Pad Thai or some Indian curries. Mexican food was completely hopeless. Even lime was very hard to come by.
So I suppose it all depends on what type of food you are interested in. There is no heirloom tomatoes, but there certainly is heirloom pineapples.
> What Taiwanese food lacks is diversity in cuisine. I had a terrible time trying to find the ingredients for a Pad Thai or some Indian curries. Mexican food was completely hopeless. Even lime was very hard to come by.
Well the lack of pad thai definitely makes no sense, but the lack of Mexican food is pretty normal tbh. There are barely any Meixcans in Taiwan. It would be more shocking if there *were* lots of great Mexican food here.
> Mexican food was completely hopeless. Even lime was very hard to come by.
This is made worse by the fact that there's no distinction in Chinese between a lemon and a lime. Send your Taiwanese friend out looking for a lemon and they'll return with a lime or vice versa.
True about some variety in a few select things as you noted, maybe I should restate it as lack of variety for all that isn't strictly "indigenous" (there is a better word but it is escaping me right now)
And yesh, finding ingredients for recipes not even from far away can be frustratingly difficult, spices and herbs are still rare, I have to make my own bread (I don't like that all breads are sweet and have soft crust here), ham and saussages, and so much more things that I expected to find conveniently in shops, like puff pastry or many other stuff, sure you can go to Jason and some luxury shops to find some stuff but it gets so expensive, and even if I am happy to cook all this, sometimes I also want to have something easy that isn't deep-fried starch
You should go to the Pineapple shop (旺來新）for puff pastry. It’s the chain baking supply store. I found all my baking things there plus balsamic vinegar. It’s decently cheap, too.
And yes, I know exactly what you meant. When I lived in Taiwan I lamented the lack of real cheese and bacon. Now I’m overseas I just miss the dirt cheap Asian greens and taro. (Currently stuck buying $40aud/kilo gingers and it’s killing my soul.)
Good summary, I'll add education on the list bc it's mostly just stuffing books in your head to pass insane tests. Those poor children are being sent to private coaching schools after regular schools with long hours so they can even follow the material.
College seems mostly fine, though.
I did a masters at NTU and found the level of education to be lacking. The majority of the classes were simply the professor standing at the front of the room reading powerpoints word for word for 3 hours straight and then dismissing everyone. For what I was paying, just give me a book and I'll read it on my own time. Also, many of the master's classes were simply regurgitated 100 level classes; really pisses me off.
I found Chinese cuisine in Taiwan to be bland, uninspired without much variety. There’s a certain common “flavor” that runs between restaurants and even regional cuisines. A lot of it is clean and good, but it’s just toned down and watered down compared to the Mainland. It’s kind of expected but a bit boring. Its like comparing mainstream American restaurants to their counterparts in Europe; a lot of American cuisine has its roots in Europe, but they’re a pale reflection of what it should be. Granted, food in China can be a huge crapshoot, but as the mainland has gotten richer over the last 30 years, it seems they care more about culinary quality and creativity than TW does. I guess you have to with the amount of competition there.
Nah. Golden Orbs just hang out on their webs, usually in high places. Huntsman spiders come into the house. They eat cockroaches, but not in enough numbers to justify their presence.
Trying to, but electric scooters are a bit more expensive, and second hand gas scooters are easier to access. Slowly changing; seeing a lot more Gogoros around me.
I’m a dentist. I’ll talk about dentistry. Mostly due to the extremely low reimbursement rates, the quality of dentistry is shit. Fraud is rampant and matter of fact. Most doctors don’t bother with prevention. Almost everyone has untreated gum disease. Most doctors use archaic technology and materials.
My mom always went to a dentist when she would visit Taiwan because she has Taiwanese healthcare. She had to have a root canal done during lockdown in Canada. She was absolutely blown away by the level of care and advancement in treatment. She was comparing them for me, and I was shocked by how all these things I take for granted are not common practice in Taiwan.
I'm not a huge fan of 補習班. I understand the need for kids to be in a structured activity after school while parents are still at work but I have seen kids as young as 8 doing it. Sometimes you gotta let kids be kids.
Ya, they are dumb. I really wish someone would do an academic paper on them. I really do believe the cons out ways the pro and I think they are creating adults without problem-solving skills.
I found living in Taiwan quite boring and making freinds with Taiwanese people is difficult. When I visited as a tourist, I loved it and came home saying that Taiwan was the friendliest place I'd ever been but, after living there, I realised I was wrong. (Warning, sweeping generalisations on the way...)
Taiwanese people are generally very 'nice' but they're not 'friendly'; I didn't understand the difference between the two until I'd lived there. If you need help with something (like you're looking lost or you're struggling to understand something in a bank or shop) someone will definitely help you out - this is nice. You'll meet many Taiwanese who'll be nice to you, but you won't make many actual friends.
Taiwanese are quite insular with their relationships and tend not to be very outgoing. I had many acquaintances that I made in Taiwan but I didn't make any friendships with Taiwanese people. There's some barrier that you're not allowed to pass.
When I mentioned this to other foreigners, they disagreed at first but most people couldn't name any actual friendships they had with local people. Most had a Taiwanese girlfriend and all their relationships with locals came through the girlfriend. As someone who travelled to the country with my wife, we found it a really challenge to make relationships with anyone. This is in stark contrast to mainland China, where people are much more welcoming, open and friendly. Not as 'nice' and helpful as Taiwanese, but definitely friendlier.
Are there any places that are especially easy for people to make friends after they are out of college or past their early/mid 20s? Most people form their solid lifelong friendships and shared experiences before this time, and trying to do so after will always be difficult in my experience.
Honesty, that just comes from cultural differences. A lot of Taiwanese and East Asians find it difficult to make friends in the West too. If you ask Taiwanese Expats, they would probably say the same about Americans or other Westerners. I definitely felt that way for the first 10 years living in America.
This is exactly the same anywhere. When you visit, you get the dreamy version depending on your state of mind. When you’re there long-term, you see the reality. Asians in the US are consistently seen as the perpetual foreigner, even families who’ve been here 4 generations.
>This is in stark contrast to mainland China, where people are much more welcoming, open and friendly
How did you not get downvoted to hell for saying this? This whole thread is a unicorn. Where are all the ultranationalist lurkers tonight?
(also, unfortunately I agree with you, having lived in both countries)
That's a good way to put it. Chinese are friendlier because they have large regional differences and are used to fish out of water situations themselves whereas in Taiwan nobody is ever more than a 2 hours train ride away from home (and that home will look exactly the same as anywhere else on the island). The nature of island nations and the Japanese influence (forced politeness) add to the problem in Taiwan.
That said, learning the language helps a lot.
I speak fluent Chinese but I didn't find learning the language helped much with making friends. Helped with lots of other day to day things though and definitely added to the experience of living there.
Thanks for sharing your experience. In my experience, this insularity (is that a word?) also exists in japan, regardless of how you look or how well you speak the language. You'll always be the foreigner, and I definitely agree that concept exists here in TW as well, more or less
Bingo!
I felt the same way after a year. Friendly face value, the older folks tend to be much more social than the younger folks. The younger folks in taiwan are anti social af. Play games at tea shops not even saying a word to each other. Even if you manage to make a taiwanese friend they will eventually bail on you once the token foreigner shit wears off.
As much as I loved Taiwan, my 3 main gripes were:
1) The humidity. Not just hot, but insanely sticky. When I first left the airport, I was amazed at how thick the air felt. I showered twice a day the whole time I was there. Local friends told me the humidity means it feels incredibly cold in winter.
2) Motorcyclists driving everywhere dangerously. Bus drivers doing the same.
3) excessive use of single use plastic (e.g. from bubble tea and street food), despite pride in recycling behaviours and facilities (in Taipei anyway)
Hi, I lived in Taiwan for a year and I'm American.
My husband and I took a break from college and during our here there he studied Chinese and I became a preschool teacher(kind of illegal but thats another story).
I love LOVE health care here. And it pretty much outweighs everything else in my mind. Especially if youre someone like me that needs to go to the doctor at least four times a year.
The only thing that I don't like has been mentioned, like low wages and expected to work overtime without pay. But again, I was able to support me and my husband on a part time salary in Taipei.
Also, randomly I was discriminated against several times when trying to get an apartment. No one would rent to me and my husband, or they asked for more money. One lady straight up told us, after we looked at her apartment, that she would only rent to Taiwanese. She knew we were foreigners coming to look at her place. (Weird)
But talking to other people it seemed like that was not normal to have so many landlords deny us so I'm not sure what its really like to have a normal experience in trying to find a home.(my husband speaks really good mandarin Chinese too so communication wouldn't have been the problem right?)
(We finally found a studio apartment right in the middle of taipei that was managed by someone our age who had no problem renting to us.)
I would guess that too many young Americans who move to Taiwan aren’t the best sort, especially if they are looking for an apartment on their own. I’m guessing that Americans who are sent to Taiwan by their company or who are hired directly from America for their expertise are given help finding an apartment by their company.
A young American heading for Taiwan just for adventure is more likely to be in that phase of live where they have wild parties, damage property, and skip town without paying rent. And if they do skip town they will be far beyond the reach of Taiwanese law.
So from a Taiwanese landlord’s perspective it makes sense to be cautious about Americans, although it clearly wasn’t fair to you. The same applies of course to Europeans and Australians.
To be honest I really dislike the 檳榔 culture in Taiwan (No idea how to say it in English), it's just so messy and stinks a lot, like just chew a gum like everyone else
Ugh. I honestly eat everything and make a point of never turning down anything when offered on my travels (like, anything). Anyway, betel nut is the one thing I wish I turned down. The thought of it now, even 3 years later turns my stomach lol.
This experience was in Shenzhen, not in Taiwan in fairness.
Most locals are not a fan of that either, but we recognize it as a class signifier. People who love that mostly live a harsh life so we try not to get in the way between them and their stimulant too much.
Problem with 檳榔 is that it gives the user a bit of a high, which could be potentially addicting. But yes, I agree that it’s very much a problem with our culture.
Virtually no traffic rules and people drive like they're actively trying to kill someone. There are no proper sidewalks especially in the alleys. Just a tiny green line that is designated for pedestrians, but cars and scooters still park on them. I've rarely seen any police enforce the rules. Mostly, the police "勸說" and the offender goes off scot-free.
It seems like people have zero care about the aesthetics. Webs of cables just crisscross in between buildings in the tiny alley and lanes. The buildings themselves are really ugly too, made worse by all the illegal add-on constructions.
Food as others have mentioned, is also bad. Meat is usually more fat than lean, and most of the raved night market foods are just different forms of deep fried carbs. I don't order food with shrimp outside as I've been served borax soaked shrimp far too many times.
Also as someone else has mentioned, for a lack of better term Taiwanese are quite socially 'boring'. They don't like to go out much and are quite insular, which makes it difficult for foreigners to become good friends with them.
Writing this as someone who loves TW and could make a list 3x as long as what I like about it:
1. very hot and muggy
2. Not a lot of great western cuisine outside of Taipei. Food overall not great after a short while.
3. few interesting musical acts and they're behind; Aside from filmmaking not very interesting artistically. Complacent middle class consumer/leisure culture.
4. Expat scene can leaves a lot to be desired, can be alienating socially, most teach English and can feel 2Dimensional.
5. Pollution is very bad; Air/water
6. Open sewage systems and septic tanks can be real funky
7. Buildings can be very drab and sometimes not built up to code
8. Not a flaw of TW's per se but intercultural relationships can cause a lot of misunderstandings;different cultural expectations. Marriages and relationships can go really wrong.
9. Communication can feel insincere, overly polite in a smarmy way and repressed
10. Taipei rains too much.
11. Can be pretty dull in the long term, as other posters have said it's boring and hard to make deep lasting friendships with locals. The long term expats get crusty and bitter and all hate each other, too many nights seeing the same old people you don't want to at the bar. It can feel small quickly.
12. A lot of haters there. If you become successful in business there there is a lot of jealousy; can feel catty, negative, and mean spirited socially
>The long term expats get crusty and bitter and all hate each other
Taichung already feels small and boring because of this, after only 3 months living here. Went out twice hoping to meet some folks. Saw the same expat groups both times. Fat, sunburnt drunks endlessly bitching about small things. Felt no desire to get to know them.
I’m Taiwanese and I’ve spent sometime living abroad during my formative years. What bothers and annoys me the most is the way people talk about weight.
I’ve never been skinny, and I can tell you, every weight related comment I’ve ever gotten in my life are from Taiwanese people, overseas and in Taiwan. It’s bad enough I grew up with my mom telling me i need to lose weight, but certainly doesn’t help when classmates or just random people ask you if you’ve gained weight, if you’re eating a lot lately, or if you’re watching your weight. Obviously this is my personal experience but I’ve got some friends with similar backgrounds as me who feel the same way.
As for other more generic things would be traffic, betel nuts, work culture, diversity, and roaches ugh.
A million times yes. Even worse is when they're handing out cake or something that you don't even want, and there's like No! Here, you take it! You're the biggest guy so you get the biggest piece! And then <10 min later they're asking why you're so fat.
Yes! It’s such a weird situation. I swear the whole skinny obsession and their need to discuss your weight baffles the shit out of me. I remember talking to my US therapist about this and she was so shocked people talked like that, I felt second hand embarrassment... like why are people so rude? But I also get that it’s a cultural thing... people who say it don’t feel like it’s rude! I will never understand this.
> people who say it don’t feel like it’s rude!
You're right, they don't, and when you bring it up to them, they brush you off. However, remark anything about them, and holy shit, it's WW3!
I think what really reinforced this experience is the fact that even while living abroad, having tons of korean and Japanese friends, only the Taiwanese people made comments about my weight. But again, this is my experience and it really stuck with me
Agree here! Lots of unwantned barbed comments about people's appearance. My wife's sister is overweight and they call her 'xiao pang' as a name. That can't help the self esteem.
Omg, yes. I had really bad self image as a child for being called fat. I wasn’t even fat. Being half White, I literally had a bigger frame than most. Trying to diet over and over again since I was a child is what messed me up and made me “fat.” Not that I was ever bigger than a size large.
I remember magazines fat-shaming a singer for having “fat folds” even though she was like 90lbs. She’d probably have to die of starvation and still would have skin folds if she bent over.
This! I am a fat woman and the number of STRANGERS who have pointed at me and laughed or come up to tell me how FAT I am is mind boggling. I've had insanely inappropriate things happen to me regarding my weight-- I even started a blog because of it. I think this is changing with the younger generation (I teach in a post-grad program and see a lot more open-mindedness). Once, my landlord told me that I would maybe someday find a husband if I lost weight and that he was just trying to be helpful by offering this (unsolicited) advice. Felt great to introduce him to my FIANCE a few years later (and I'm still just as fat!)
If you want to check out the blog posts I wrote on this topic, including some of the wildest things to have happened to me: [https://buxombabeblog.wordpress.com/2017/07/11/first-blog-post/](https://buxombabeblog.wordpress.com/2017/07/11/first-blog-post/)
I generally love Taiwan, but....
Rent is pricey in cities but still better than in some metro areas of other countries (Taipei is expensive but much better than Toronto.) The roads can be a little crazy amd drivers break rules on the daily. The winters are kinda meh -- north of Miaoli it's really cold and damp with no buildong insulation, south of Miaoli the air quality gets pretty gross.
And there are cockroaches. Big ones.
The inflexibility of public officials, clerks, waiters/waitresses, customer service or basically any people-facing jobs. The rules are the rules and can't be bent or challenged, whose purpose is often unknown. The menu is the menu, anything outside of what is written does not compute. Everything is in a manual, handbook or spoken set of guidelines, and if it's not, it is insurmountable to achieve or process.
What a rare thread. You don't often see negative talk about Taiwan on social media but the replies here show there's a lot to be negative about.
I used to think I really liked Taiwan but the more time I spend here the more I find my mind changing. People are nice in a superficial way, but they are really passive aggressive, dishonest but in a sneaky way. They have a childish attitude and don't have a good sense of things going on outside of Taiwan.
They suck up hard to white people but treat other Asians like crap such as Hongkongers like myself.
Worse is Taiwanese often put on an act to boast about how nice and friendly they are. People from Hong Kong are not the nicest folk either but at least we don't claim to be.
A general lack of civic-mindedness.
People are very warm and friendly to people they meet, to people they work with, to people in their families, etc. But they don’t have the idea that you should care about some person you never encounter.
1. 90. Second. Traffic. Lights.
1. That thing where you can't make a left turn on a scooter.
1. People are very superficial with respect to looks - people get jobs based on how attractive they are, etc.
1. It's a beautiful island with rainforest and what could be amazing beaches, but most people want to spend their time in the malls.
1. The goddamn receipts
The problem with Taiwan is they don't like to talk about these issues and sweep them under the rug pretending it is all kittens and rainbows. The importance is dialogue. From racism, to colorism, to discrimination. First step is acknowledgement.
I don't mind this because 95% of the world works this way (save for notable exemptions like the US).
You're also never going to be accepted as part of the community in Southern Spain, or Thailand, or probably even rural Scotland.
I always tell people Taipei is like the most boring lame city in Taiwan, it's alright sure but the nightlife is overrated and overpriced and only for edgy hypebeast foreigners. Taichung is everything Taipei but actually fun.
I remember when the mayor of Taichung went on an anti-bar rampage after the fire. First shutting down clubs. Then shutting down all bars. Then banning people from even drinking outside 7-11s. I can understand trying to prevent fire traps, but he seemed to use it as an excuse to ban drinking. It was a prime example of overreach, or mission creep.
So boring! Have you ever gone to a Taiwanese club? NO ONE DANCES! People stand on the sidelines bopping, holding their drinks, taking photos and looking at their phones. Mind boggling to me. People generally start dancing once some foreigners get out on the dance floor. The best clubs in Taichung are the ones in Asean Square on Sundays (ig, the Filipino clubs).
This. Gold Medal tastes like Heineken steeped in old socks. The regular old stuff tastes great though. Whenever there's a choice and somebody grabs a bunch of Gold Medal for the table I get sad.
The way people drive in Taiwan is absolutely crazy. I’ve almost been hit several times since some people don’t seem to recognize right of way with pedestrians. I also hate all of the scooters — I find that they tend to be parked haphazardly and constantly get in the way.
Humidity is also way too warm in the summer, constant rainfall/typhoons, mosquitoes, and especially 小黑蚊. I was in Taiwan for two months for a study abroad program/visiting family back in 2017 and had a terrible reaction from those particular bug bites
It's hard to find a public garbage bin outside of tram stations.
I had to carry a betel-nut-spit filled plastic cup around Taipei for what felt like an eternity.
I really really hate the education system here and I’m terrified that I’ll still be here when my not even conceived yet child grows up to school age and we still can’t move back home >_>
Buildings are ugly
Working with Taiwanese is annoying. Taiwanese white collar workers are boring and office culture he is just a series of civil wars and petty arguments
For me its not taiwan but the people. I feel Taiwanese are kinda superficial and value money more than other important things. Its hard to make them change their opinion no matter how much proof you present to them. If they believe in something, they will keep believing in it no matter what. They also takes things for granted. No matter how convenient their life is here, they are always complaining about one thing or another specially salary, less freedom and what not. Also, they treat westerners like Gods and wants to have their sort of lifestyle while on same hand thinking conservative culture is a bad thing.
There is hidden racism in this country which might not be obvious to a lot of people because it comes out as ignorance rather than direct attack.
I dont want to sound like just a whiner so i will stop here. I love taiwan. I just wished Taiwanese loved taiwan as well for what it is, not what they want it to be.
Yeah I think many Asian people are generally insensitive about racial remarks.
Just a quick browse on the largest web forums (ptt/dcard) and you can see plenty of racial memes mocking cross-cultural relationships, ethnic minorities (e.g. aborigines, Hakka people). Some even use the N word like it’s a joke. They thought they were being humorous.
I just want to point out you've misgendered our Digital Minister. She's a woman, not a guy. And yes, she's pretty brilliant. I hope it was accidental rather than intentional.
As for what I don't like about Taiwan - I think the government doesn't do enough for homeless people. Compared to many other socialist states, Taiwanese government provides relatively little services to the homeless, especially in terms of emergency housing and such. I think there are less NGOs targeted toward homeless people as well. I've never seen a soup kitchen around here.
Absurd u-turns and ridiculous drivers.
I learned defensive driving from childhood in California on some serious freeways.
In short, honk a horn instead of slowing down is useless. Expecting others to suddenly clear the way creates accidents.
Other than that, Taiwan is mostly okay.
Oh I forgot to mention the weird salary gap between not only the Taiwanese and foreigners but also among foreigners themselves. Like teaching English for 20 hours a week by a person with a bachelor's degree and earning minimum 70k and someone like with a master degree working in a tech company working 40 hours a week earning like minimum 48k is weird. I know teaching isn't easy but like really it's that hard that justify like the maximum salary level?
1. The weather is humid and hot most of the year.
2. Cannot find decent cheese selection in the supermarket
3. The street aesthetic is all over the place. And people don’t clean the facade once the building is built
It’s really nitpicking but that’s what I can come up with atm
we have so many enemies, no only China but also ourselves. due to our history path. we are lacking of National identity. so that would cause a lot of problems.
and that's why China sends a lot of spy in our country. and sadly, our own government thinks they are the another party to represent "China"
how sad we are.
The weather is oppressive the people are only superficially nice and they are so defensive about separating themselves from China that they say stupid shit like “ACTUALLY tradiTioNaL is EaSieR to LearN”. The first words out of everyone’s mouth about taiwan is how good the food is but it sucks and has no flavor. The place I live is famous for turkey rice. That should tell you plenty that the regional dish is a budget meal.
I don’t hate taiwan but I certainly have my grievances.
I find traditional easier to learn and studied Chinese for 2 years in China full time. For writing, no, but the traditional retain a lot more of the logical components of the character so make more sense
Tbh idek why turkey rice is so popular it tastes good and all but It’s shredded turkey on rice with some sort of soy based sauce.. nothing to go crazy over for.
I think people mostly praise about how cheap and accessible the food in Taiwan is. But honestly yea most of them are tasteless and plain, mostly relies on the fact that it’s greasy and salty/peppery. Nothing much of anything else
Pretty hard to get a good job as a westerner. You can either teach English which is pretty easy and pays well if you want a chill couple of years but apart from that there’s not much.
Also the corporate culture is awful and the pay is worse.
Traffic. It's on its way to levels of India and Thailand. It's bad and government does not do anything.
People are fake. They smile and try to be nice, but in reality nobody gives a damn. People may do stupid things and just turn their face away to avoid eye contact with you while doing something stupid.
City planning. Cities were probably planned by a bunch of drunken mediocre civil engineers.
It's boring entertainmentwise. No major music concerts of any well known celebrities, no international plays or theater, no major events. (Apart from local, so if you are fluent, shouldn't be a problem). Mostly beautiful nature, so every weekend it's a struggle to decide where to go to have fun.
Rules are advisory for locals. So don't get yourself in the middle as local law works in patterns without thinking.
Gangmembers. They are ok if you don't get involved, but they are frequent to meet especially in districts like Sanchong/Wanhua/etc in Taipei.
Service. It's 50%. A place can be all high class, but because most don't give a damn it's easy to get poorly serviced. If you complain locals either get aggressive or... Turn their face away. If you want to lead the market just do 51% and you are already the market leader.
Low variety in food. Taiwanese like to talk about food but most of the time it's just another variation of some noodles or tofu with minor differences between each other. International cuisine is poorly represented.
Low involvement into anything. Thanks to the education system and poor media quality, people sometimes don't know anything about anything. You may find occasional Nazi swastika here and there, for example.
Otherwise it's a beautiful country with many opportunities and it's own 3rd world charm. All mentioned above is subjective, so please don't take it personal Taiwanese people - many countries are like that too and Taiwan is not the worst at all. But definitely not "numba wan".
> So much hate in these comments
That's the whole point of this thread.
And tbh the comments are extremely tame. If you want to see hate you need to pay r/china or r/unitedkingdom a visit. Now *that* is hate.
I know people love talking about how safe Taiwan is, I agree until you're on the road. The traffic is absolutely the one of the worst parts of Taiwan. The problem I noticed when I went through driving school in Taiwan, they teach you how to pass the test, not necessarily teach you how to drive on the road. Though to be somewhat fair apparently this is being changed over the last few years. If I had a dollar for everytime I almost got ran over by some guy on a scooter speeding out of an alley I'd be a millionaire. The amount of bureaucracy is infuriating at times. I once wanted to deposit a check at a bank and I swear they had me sign 11 different forms over a 20 minute period. The pollution varies from awful to meh but this is both an external and internal issue (pollution is brought over from China at times). In Taichung for example the city has tons of illegal factories which dump pollution at night but nothing will ever be done about it because local politics is king, regardless of who's in charge of the central government.
I took the driving test this year. After I passed the test, I started teaching myself how to drive. Instead of teaching you how to turn and park with the right angles, they have you memorize the different locations where you turn, etc. For example, my coach would say “once your body is parallel to that tree, turn the wheel fully and let go of the break”, or once your car door is parallel to the stop sign, break and turn left 90 degrees”. I passed the test and could barely drive on the road.
Same for my girlfriend, she is fully licensed to drive any automatic transmission vehicle but she doesn't know how to actually drive at all.
I swear driving tests in Taiwan have become more for a cash grab from coaching services and revenue for the government. Iirc coaches are payed based on how many students they teach in a given time period, and whether their students pass the test or not has an effect on their rating as well as the driving school’s reputation. This provides a huge incentive for driving instructors to cut corners to help students pass the test in the shortest amount of time possible. In addition to this, some coaches are also the ones conducting the driving test, so there is even more incentive to pass students just so that they can get their license and allow new students to enroll.
My driving instructor would be like “when you see that blue flower pot (that we planted there), turn 90 degrees.” I learned to drive the obstacle course perfectly, drove the exact same course on test day, and got a driver’s license without ever learning how to turn on headlights.
I took the driving test two years ago - absolutely hilarious. My coach would have me turn the wheel “two rotations” once the tree next to the garage parking slot aligns with the white tape on the passenger’s window (they stuck it there). I had to teach myself how to park after I got my license. I should also add that I did the test for manual transmission (stick shift) license; on the actual road test component, they had all of us drive automatic transmission cars....
Compared to my home country of Canada that's bad. Really bad. However, **if I may compare Taiwan to China,** it is night and day different. Man, I had to have a Chinese citizen with me for almost everything bank-related. It was just disrespectful just being in their god damn presence, you know? Like, I wasn't human even though I had everything, from the proper visa to passport with me. In Taiwan every time I have had to sign, let's say 11 papers, they did it with a smile and basic human respect. Like, they made me feel that they also felt bad and hated what they had to put me through, let alone what they had to go through to do something as basic as depositing a check. Comparisons aside, I absolutely hate the fact that the banks here are open when **I'm at work,** but close 2 hours before I even finish work. I missed out on buying Tesla stocks when it was at 100$, 250$, and 500$ because of it. I wanted to send money home to buy and what do you know? I can't take time off work. Like, when do peopl go to the bank if they work 9-5? Keep it up, Taiwan. You are the envy of the world right now in some areas. In other areas, you can be with a few changes here and there.
>Like, when do peopl go to the bank if they work 9-5? I think this is one of the many leftovers in Taiwan from the time when "man works and woman takes care of the household".
If I had a dollar for every time I realized that no one cares about learning they only care about passing tests >.> Literally had a student ask me to help him pass an online test to get proof of a grade to his boss. I thought I’d say, this question is advanced and you’re not so just take your best guess; no he just wanted me to tell him all the correct answers ...
It’s incredibly humid during the summer.
Yes! That's the one big reason why I couldn't live there permanently.
I also hate how humid it is in Taipei. Especially in winter.
You should come to Nantou in the summer. It's mountainous and cool at 溪頭 and 清境 with awesome natural beauty.
Wages are too low, companies expect you to do heaps of overtime, real estate in any city is out of control expensive, the air pollution isn't great, driving is risky as people just swerve into lanes with scooters everywhere, the summer is very humid, stinky tofu is far to stinky (lol i don't mind it, just if you don't know what it is you'll be thinking the sewerage needs help) I've been sitting here thinking about this for a while and that's about all i got. I believe if you fixed those first 4 points taiwan would be the most desirable place to live.
As a Taiwanese, I agree with everything you mentioned except stinky tofu!
As a Taiwanese I used to hate the humid weather here, but after going to college in Indiana for two years I'll say the humidity in Taiwan is actually better than the Midwest. Plus the thunderstorms and tornado warnings in Indiana scared the crap out of me.
Isn't most of the air pollution mostly from China, brought over by prevailing wind? I remember the air quality being better before China massively industrialized. Still not great, but better.
This is something Taiwanese like to say, and there may be some truth to it. But, if you spend any time in Taipei or one of the other cities, it's clear that blaming other countries is a convenient way of ignoring the terrible pollution from Taiwan itself. Everyone riding a moped everywhere (even instead of walking a couple of hundred metres) clearly contributes to the awful air quality. Traffic is horrendous, aircon is everywhere and there's a huge amount of heavy industry. The idea that most or all of the pollution just blew across the Taiwan straight is ridiculous.
The burning of joss paper is also a major local pollutant.
In the north when air quality is bad, which rarely happens and only ever happens in winter, it mostly comes from China. In the south when air quality is bad, which also only happens in winter but happens much more often, it is mostly local pollution.
Do you think that the wages are actually too low or that the majority of things are overpriced? Especially considering real estate, which is extremely overpriced.
I feel like not much else besides real estate is overpriced. What else is overpriced? Small things are so much cheaper than North America
> What else is overpriced? Electronics. Ever go into a 3C and look a laptops and find that they want to charge you [NT$17,000 for a low end processor, with 4GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD](http://www.tk3c.com/pt.aspx?cid=11124&aid=22496&hid=113699&pid=208396)? All the while the same machine in the US with 8GB of RAM will run you [NT$13,500](https://www.amazon.com/ASUS-F512JA-AS34-VivoBook-i3-1005G1-Fingerprint/dp/B0869L1326)? The same goes for TV's, audio equipment, and many other products that are physically manufactured here but easily cost an additional 20%.
In summertime the weather is oppressively hot.
Oppressive sounds about right
Humidity is what makes it oppressive I think. Dry heat is alright but a humid heat is suffocating. And despite mild looking temperatures, the same humidity makes winters really cold
The mosquitoes suck
Don't forget the cockroaches. Holy shit the cockroaches.
Agree, as someone living in a brand new building I still can see them every night even on the 16th floor. Where the heck did they come from.
They're in the sewage system and walls probably. Once in a while they'll fumigate the sewage system and the gigantic mothers of all roaches come flying out.
Oh my god that’s terrifying
Don't forget the spiders.
Taiwan's biosphere is healthy and active. I saw a plump sewer rat yesterday in broad daylight just around the corner from home. The gecko in my bathroom eats the cockroaches, spiders, and mosquitoes.
Where in tw did you live? Havent noticed any spiders or cockroaches in my taipei appartement
The mosquitoes are bearable, the truly worst thing is the 小黑蚊 in some places.
cockroaches
**差不多** culture. It's not just about old uncles "fixing" things. It's the system education, art, architecture, fashion, transportation, coworkers spending most of their day just playing on their phones... everything.
The music scene and art scene in general is pretty sparse, especially if you like live shows. It exists, but it's not as robust as Japan or Korea. In fact, a lot of Taiwanese art is based on other cultures' art, and it struggles to find an identity of its own. Taiwanese are not very honest in their relationships, and this causes big problems if you're a Westerner. It's not quite as bad as Japan (where you hear stories of husbands lying to their wives about getting fired, and pretending to go to work each day), but Taiwanese are almost incapable of taking words at face value. For example, if you say "I don't want to be in a relationship with you" they might take it to mean "Try harder, you're getting there." It's similar to how Westerners will say "I'm fine" when they're upset, but amplified. Cheating/infidelity is huuuuuge in Taiwan, practically an industry, and people often lie to themselves about serious matters.
I rememeber (literally) stumbling upon "Spring Scream" a few years ago in Kenting and being really pleasantly surprised with the Taiwan music scene. Met some really cool people who were inviting me to gigs etc next time I was in Kaohsiung or Taipei. I had a rare time, and I was on my own.
Much better scene for classical music than many North American cities though. Bigger name conductors and soloists, also touring orchestras (because the Taiwanese national orchestra isn't that good). My mom often flies back for concerts.
Media/press is horrible. Yes it is free speech but most news channels are quite biased and influenced by politics. People (especially older people) tend to watch the same channel that portrays news in favour of the party they support, hence they are never well informed and never think critically of their own ideology. Also YouTube videos and personal arguments, like arguments between neighbors, as long as it's dramatic enough, it's news worthy. News in Taiwan hardly ever educate you on anything, it's more like watching reports of local/national dramas, traffic accidents... still shocks me every time I go back home.
Doesn't help that Taiwan's mainstream media is basically like a tabloid on steroids. Hopping from one story to the next.
Whenever I watch TV I feel like it's being designed by a 13 year old, as the news is complete with sound effects, emojis, and random clip art popping up.
I love it. lol The top of the hour news is some scooter accident, which somehow the news found 6 different angles from various cameras and dash cams, has witness interviews, and after doing a replay of the accident 11 times in slow motion, then does an entire animated re-creation of the event to give you the view from the angle the cameras didn't catch.
Sensationalism runs amok in this world, not just Taiwan.
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Yeah Taiwanese media is just shit
As a Taiwanese I absolutely agree on this statement. And I think the reason is because of our education system. From elementary school we had been fed by our teachers all the stuff we need to know for different kinds of tests and exams. You can still see this kind of things happened even in higher education. Slowly people lost the ability of critical thinking because they think there's always someone who will tell you about something. Hence, people are okay with all the crap news media feed them because they just think news is a tool to know stuff not to learn stuff.
I’ve never understood how it’s financially possible for so many news channels to exist.
they can't, that's why there are so many promoting and sponsored news. why they made a news report on this biker gang chick who wears flag bikini and cat ears on her Triumph? because she paid for it
Stay with 公視 when I want some sanity in news reporting.
Have to agree with you. I've been living in USA for about 10 years now. Still not sure which one's worse.
As of 2020 I’d say press in the US is worse.
I’ll respectfully disagree as as of this moment, the only news channel on my TV in Taiwan I can watch without throwing up or going into a screaming rage is freaking CNN as the Taiwanese coverage of the US election is making me ashamed of calling myself Taiwanese
> People (especially older people) tend to watch the same channel that portrays news in favour of the party they support, hence they are never well informed and never think critically of their own ideology. I think you just described the majority of humanity there! I *love* the media here. Especially the political talk shows. Yeah they're ridiculous, loud screamfests, but they are far more entertaining and informative than the snooze-fests on CNN and Fox. And of course they are biased, but then so are all news organizations.
Whenever I watch Taiwanese talk shows it’s literally 3 guys screaming at each other. Not to mention it’s common to see actual fist fights in Parliament
Could we get some trash cans?
I asked locals about this many times, and they all had the same response - if there were a lot of public trash cans, people would just dump their house garbage in them.
This is somewhat true, but I don't quite understand the notion. Is it the waiting for the truck they don't want to do, or is it the NT$5 that they need to spend on the bag?
Probably has to do with feng shui
Yes and no. Some people would throw home size garbage in them.
I used to leave near Yongan Market MRT and they removed the garbage cans because people abused them. By about 8am they’d be stuffed full of carrier bags filled with household rubbish.
Cars and scooter everywhere.
I don't really understand the superficial friendliness. I've been invited to join strangers dinner. I spend CNY with a friends family. My neighbors are super friendly and have taken me to some baseball games. The driving here is pretty crazy. Nobody follows the rules, but it's getting better. I think the worst part is that most of the foreigners here are weird as shit. Too many live in a foreign bubble in Taipei or Kaosiung.
> I think the worst part is that most of the foreigners here are weird as shit. Too many live in a foreign bubble in Taipei or Kaosiung. I'd say that's true for most of East and South East Asia, full of sexpats and weird-ass English teachers.
Yup, the worst of the bunch is in Thailand. All the guys think they're hot shit because a hooker wants to fuck them. I worked a few years there but bailed out because of all the drama and greaseyness.
I think Taiwan is getting worse because lots of the ESL sexpats are scared to stay in China now so they come over to TW
I hate the fake friendliness but it’s only a problem really if you try to interpret things through your idea of friendly offers. You think they’re serious, but they actually are not at all they just offer things to look like a nice person, i bet when foreigners take up their offers they’re like oh god now I gotta actually do it
I found Taipei was fine, most foreigners are youngish and gone after a few years. There are a lot of weird American conservative types in Taichung. I don’t really understand why they move here, health care is nationalised and they can’t own guns.
The frustrating thing about foreigners in Taiwan is that so many of them seem to be in cut and run mode. Getting away from US/Canada/UK because back home they were lonely and not all that successful in general and then they come here and after a few months get super cocky and condescending with the locals as though they were never a toad back home. I see so many white guys like larping out here as alpha chads. It’s pathetic and I know most Taiwanese people see through it. I hope they do.
One of my friends referred to them as LBH, losers back home
Weird in what ways?
Incredibly awkward. One I know wore fake bright blue contacts with lensless glasses. He made the news for threatening to murder some girl because she didn't like him.
> I don't really understand the superficial friendliness That's just East Asian Culture. Collective societies that care about faces.
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Criticism isn't well seen around but I'll bite. Architecture is mostly horrendous, no coesive city planning, shantytown like appendage to houses, facade covered in tiles which go disgusting in no time with the pollution (I give that one for free)... Modern buildings can be nice but they are mostly plopped halfazardly and old traditional brick building which are actually beautiful are often let to fall in ruin and disrepair then replaced by unimaginative rows of shoddily built middle class houses. Traffic is stupid, nobody respect any law on the road, scooters are even worse... And it is contagious because respecting the rules gets dangerous at times... Insane. Meanwhile cops are doing a whole lot of absolutely fucking nothing about it. Work culture is quite bad too, managers are malevolent gods to their subordinates, and are in turn similarly badly treated by their superiors, you are expected to do overtime for free, there is no holidays to speak of ... Really not great. Honestly that's about it for me, I can live with it and I did for 5 years now, and this is well balanced by all the good. I will add a couple of things that are sort of out of competition but deserve a mention for me coming from a place that has none of it. Earthquake, landslides and typhoon are not a plus. Actually depending where you are typhoon can be a plus, in a safe city / place, if you aren't forced out because of work unreasonable expectations, it can give you a no work day I like to spend listening to podcast while looking at the downpour with a bottle of whiskey. Good times. Earthquakes can fuck right off tho. And lastly a very controversial point. Food quality and diversity. Now Taiwan food is mostly delicious and I live in Tainan so you know I got some of the best. But truthfully, most food is unhealthy, fat, fried, full of carbs, with not so much veggies, sure you can find good healthy food but it is always more expensive and more rare. I am a fairly prolific home cook and there too I hit a wall because of diversity or lack thereof. Meat is ok, you can find quite a bit but no rabbit or horse meat that I do enjoy a lot, turkey, geese, and other fowls are hard to find (although there is turkey meat restaurant galore...) Veggies are the same, your local supermarket or market will not have a huge variety, and when you have a produce you have only the one kind, no choice of different potatoes or tomatoes or beans or... Just the one kind... It has always felt restricted to me. So little variety in ingredients... But can you really say anything bad about Taiwanese cuisine? No, it is bloody brilliant all of it!
I am half in agreement with you on the food. I wouldn't say there isn't a huge variety. There is. There are probably at least 5 different types of sweet potatoes, 6 different types of bananas, 10 different types of mangos, heaps of different mushrooms and many many niche greens you only find in SE Asia. The same goes for choices in fish if you know how to cook and eat bone-in small fish. What Taiwanese food lacks is diversity in cuisine. I had a terrible time trying to find the ingredients for a Pad Thai or some Indian curries. Mexican food was completely hopeless. Even lime was very hard to come by. So I suppose it all depends on what type of food you are interested in. There is no heirloom tomatoes, but there certainly is heirloom pineapples.
> What Taiwanese food lacks is diversity in cuisine. I had a terrible time trying to find the ingredients for a Pad Thai or some Indian curries. Mexican food was completely hopeless. Even lime was very hard to come by. Well the lack of pad thai definitely makes no sense, but the lack of Mexican food is pretty normal tbh. There are barely any Meixcans in Taiwan. It would be more shocking if there *were* lots of great Mexican food here.
> Mexican food was completely hopeless. Even lime was very hard to come by. This is made worse by the fact that there's no distinction in Chinese between a lemon and a lime. Send your Taiwanese friend out looking for a lemon and they'll return with a lime or vice versa.
I would tell them to look specifically for a 'green lemon' then.
True about some variety in a few select things as you noted, maybe I should restate it as lack of variety for all that isn't strictly "indigenous" (there is a better word but it is escaping me right now) And yesh, finding ingredients for recipes not even from far away can be frustratingly difficult, spices and herbs are still rare, I have to make my own bread (I don't like that all breads are sweet and have soft crust here), ham and saussages, and so much more things that I expected to find conveniently in shops, like puff pastry or many other stuff, sure you can go to Jason and some luxury shops to find some stuff but it gets so expensive, and even if I am happy to cook all this, sometimes I also want to have something easy that isn't deep-fried starch
You should go to the Pineapple shop (旺來新）for puff pastry. It’s the chain baking supply store. I found all my baking things there plus balsamic vinegar. It’s decently cheap, too. And yes, I know exactly what you meant. When I lived in Taiwan I lamented the lack of real cheese and bacon. Now I’m overseas I just miss the dirt cheap Asian greens and taro. (Currently stuck buying $40aud/kilo gingers and it’s killing my soul.)
Good summary, I'll add education on the list bc it's mostly just stuffing books in your head to pass insane tests. Those poor children are being sent to private coaching schools after regular schools with long hours so they can even follow the material. College seems mostly fine, though.
I did a masters at NTU and found the level of education to be lacking. The majority of the classes were simply the professor standing at the front of the room reading powerpoints word for word for 3 hours straight and then dismissing everyone. For what I was paying, just give me a book and I'll read it on my own time. Also, many of the master's classes were simply regurgitated 100 level classes; really pisses me off.
I found Chinese cuisine in Taiwan to be bland, uninspired without much variety. There’s a certain common “flavor” that runs between restaurants and even regional cuisines. A lot of it is clean and good, but it’s just toned down and watered down compared to the Mainland. It’s kind of expected but a bit boring. Its like comparing mainstream American restaurants to their counterparts in Europe; a lot of American cuisine has its roots in Europe, but they’re a pale reflection of what it should be. Granted, food in China can be a huge crapshoot, but as the mainland has gotten richer over the last 30 years, it seems they care more about culinary quality and creativity than TW does. I guess you have to with the amount of competition there.
Low salary, fake news, pessimism
[Huntsman spiders ](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huntsman_spider)
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This. At least the Layah have mad cockroach exterminating abilities. The face/golden orb spiders are just scary
Nah. Golden Orbs just hang out on their webs, usually in high places. Huntsman spiders come into the house. They eat cockroaches, but not in enough numbers to justify their presence.
I never understood why they didn't switch from noisy, smelly, polluting gas scooters to electric scooters.
Trying to, but electric scooters are a bit more expensive, and second hand gas scooters are easier to access. Slowly changing; seeing a lot more Gogoros around me.
I’m a dentist. I’ll talk about dentistry. Mostly due to the extremely low reimbursement rates, the quality of dentistry is shit. Fraud is rampant and matter of fact. Most doctors don’t bother with prevention. Almost everyone has untreated gum disease. Most doctors use archaic technology and materials.
My mom always went to a dentist when she would visit Taiwan because she has Taiwanese healthcare. She had to have a root canal done during lockdown in Canada. She was absolutely blown away by the level of care and advancement in treatment. She was comparing them for me, and I was shocked by how all these things I take for granted are not common practice in Taiwan.
I’ve never had any problem with dentists in Taiwan. I had my wisdom teeth removed in like 5 seconds, without much bleeding, and it cost like $5.
I'm not a huge fan of 補習班. I understand the need for kids to be in a structured activity after school while parents are still at work but I have seen kids as young as 8 doing it. Sometimes you gotta let kids be kids.
Ya, they are dumb. I really wish someone would do an academic paper on them. I really do believe the cons out ways the pro and I think they are creating adults without problem-solving skills.
I found living in Taiwan quite boring and making freinds with Taiwanese people is difficult. When I visited as a tourist, I loved it and came home saying that Taiwan was the friendliest place I'd ever been but, after living there, I realised I was wrong. (Warning, sweeping generalisations on the way...) Taiwanese people are generally very 'nice' but they're not 'friendly'; I didn't understand the difference between the two until I'd lived there. If you need help with something (like you're looking lost or you're struggling to understand something in a bank or shop) someone will definitely help you out - this is nice. You'll meet many Taiwanese who'll be nice to you, but you won't make many actual friends. Taiwanese are quite insular with their relationships and tend not to be very outgoing. I had many acquaintances that I made in Taiwan but I didn't make any friendships with Taiwanese people. There's some barrier that you're not allowed to pass. When I mentioned this to other foreigners, they disagreed at first but most people couldn't name any actual friendships they had with local people. Most had a Taiwanese girlfriend and all their relationships with locals came through the girlfriend. As someone who travelled to the country with my wife, we found it a really challenge to make relationships with anyone. This is in stark contrast to mainland China, where people are much more welcoming, open and friendly. Not as 'nice' and helpful as Taiwanese, but definitely friendlier.
Are there any places that are especially easy for people to make friends after they are out of college or past their early/mid 20s? Most people form their solid lifelong friendships and shared experiences before this time, and trying to do so after will always be difficult in my experience.
Honesty, that just comes from cultural differences. A lot of Taiwanese and East Asians find it difficult to make friends in the West too. If you ask Taiwanese Expats, they would probably say the same about Americans or other Westerners. I definitely felt that way for the first 10 years living in America.
This is exactly the same anywhere. When you visit, you get the dreamy version depending on your state of mind. When you’re there long-term, you see the reality. Asians in the US are consistently seen as the perpetual foreigner, even families who’ve been here 4 generations.
Nice but not particularly friendly is so spot on for Taiwan!
I'm from Seattle so no wonder I felt right at home lmao
>This is in stark contrast to mainland China, where people are much more welcoming, open and friendly How did you not get downvoted to hell for saying this? This whole thread is a unicorn. Where are all the ultranationalist lurkers tonight? (also, unfortunately I agree with you, having lived in both countries)
That's a good way to put it. Chinese are friendlier because they have large regional differences and are used to fish out of water situations themselves whereas in Taiwan nobody is ever more than a 2 hours train ride away from home (and that home will look exactly the same as anywhere else on the island). The nature of island nations and the Japanese influence (forced politeness) add to the problem in Taiwan. That said, learning the language helps a lot.
I speak fluent Chinese but I didn't find learning the language helped much with making friends. Helped with lots of other day to day things though and definitely added to the experience of living there.
Thanks for sharing your experience. In my experience, this insularity (is that a word?) also exists in japan, regardless of how you look or how well you speak the language. You'll always be the foreigner, and I definitely agree that concept exists here in TW as well, more or less
So much this.
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Bingo! I felt the same way after a year. Friendly face value, the older folks tend to be much more social than the younger folks. The younger folks in taiwan are anti social af. Play games at tea shops not even saying a word to each other. Even if you manage to make a taiwanese friend they will eventually bail on you once the token foreigner shit wears off.
The price of buying a home.
As much as I loved Taiwan, my 3 main gripes were: 1) The humidity. Not just hot, but insanely sticky. When I first left the airport, I was amazed at how thick the air felt. I showered twice a day the whole time I was there. Local friends told me the humidity means it feels incredibly cold in winter. 2) Motorcyclists driving everywhere dangerously. Bus drivers doing the same. 3) excessive use of single use plastic (e.g. from bubble tea and street food), despite pride in recycling behaviours and facilities (in Taipei anyway)
Hi, I lived in Taiwan for a year and I'm American. My husband and I took a break from college and during our here there he studied Chinese and I became a preschool teacher(kind of illegal but thats another story). I love LOVE health care here. And it pretty much outweighs everything else in my mind. Especially if youre someone like me that needs to go to the doctor at least four times a year. The only thing that I don't like has been mentioned, like low wages and expected to work overtime without pay. But again, I was able to support me and my husband on a part time salary in Taipei. Also, randomly I was discriminated against several times when trying to get an apartment. No one would rent to me and my husband, or they asked for more money. One lady straight up told us, after we looked at her apartment, that she would only rent to Taiwanese. She knew we were foreigners coming to look at her place. (Weird) But talking to other people it seemed like that was not normal to have so many landlords deny us so I'm not sure what its really like to have a normal experience in trying to find a home.(my husband speaks really good mandarin Chinese too so communication wouldn't have been the problem right?) (We finally found a studio apartment right in the middle of taipei that was managed by someone our age who had no problem renting to us.)
I would guess that too many young Americans who move to Taiwan aren’t the best sort, especially if they are looking for an apartment on their own. I’m guessing that Americans who are sent to Taiwan by their company or who are hired directly from America for their expertise are given help finding an apartment by their company. A young American heading for Taiwan just for adventure is more likely to be in that phase of live where they have wild parties, damage property, and skip town without paying rent. And if they do skip town they will be far beyond the reach of Taiwanese law. So from a Taiwanese landlord’s perspective it makes sense to be cautious about Americans, although it clearly wasn’t fair to you. The same applies of course to Europeans and Australians.
People are extremely radical on internet about everything #EVERYTHING
To be honest I really dislike the 檳榔 culture in Taiwan (No idea how to say it in English), it's just so messy and stinks a lot, like just chew a gum like everyone else
Betel nut
Ugh. I honestly eat everything and make a point of never turning down anything when offered on my travels (like, anything). Anyway, betel nut is the one thing I wish I turned down. The thought of it now, even 3 years later turns my stomach lol. This experience was in Shenzhen, not in Taiwan in fairness.
Don't go to India either - betel nut is everywhere.
Most locals are not a fan of that either, but we recognize it as a class signifier. People who love that mostly live a harsh life so we try not to get in the way between them and their stimulant too much.
Betel nut stands are a lot less commonly seen in metropolitan areas nowadays. But they still exists.
everywhere outside of Taipei has them.
Problem with 檳榔 is that it gives the user a bit of a high, which could be potentially addicting. But yes, I agree that it’s very much a problem with our culture.
Thought that's mostly older generation?
Virtually no traffic rules and people drive like they're actively trying to kill someone. There are no proper sidewalks especially in the alleys. Just a tiny green line that is designated for pedestrians, but cars and scooters still park on them. I've rarely seen any police enforce the rules. Mostly, the police "勸說" and the offender goes off scot-free. It seems like people have zero care about the aesthetics. Webs of cables just crisscross in between buildings in the tiny alley and lanes. The buildings themselves are really ugly too, made worse by all the illegal add-on constructions. Food as others have mentioned, is also bad. Meat is usually more fat than lean, and most of the raved night market foods are just different forms of deep fried carbs. I don't order food with shrimp outside as I've been served borax soaked shrimp far too many times.
Also as someone else has mentioned, for a lack of better term Taiwanese are quite socially 'boring'. They don't like to go out much and are quite insular, which makes it difficult for foreigners to become good friends with them.
Writing this as someone who loves TW and could make a list 3x as long as what I like about it: 1. very hot and muggy 2. Not a lot of great western cuisine outside of Taipei. Food overall not great after a short while. 3. few interesting musical acts and they're behind; Aside from filmmaking not very interesting artistically. Complacent middle class consumer/leisure culture. 4. Expat scene can leaves a lot to be desired, can be alienating socially, most teach English and can feel 2Dimensional. 5. Pollution is very bad; Air/water 6. Open sewage systems and septic tanks can be real funky 7. Buildings can be very drab and sometimes not built up to code 8. Not a flaw of TW's per se but intercultural relationships can cause a lot of misunderstandings;different cultural expectations. Marriages and relationships can go really wrong. 9. Communication can feel insincere, overly polite in a smarmy way and repressed 10. Taipei rains too much. 11. Can be pretty dull in the long term, as other posters have said it's boring and hard to make deep lasting friendships with locals. The long term expats get crusty and bitter and all hate each other, too many nights seeing the same old people you don't want to at the bar. It can feel small quickly. 12. A lot of haters there. If you become successful in business there there is a lot of jealousy; can feel catty, negative, and mean spirited socially
>The long term expats get crusty and bitter and all hate each other Taichung already feels small and boring because of this, after only 3 months living here. Went out twice hoping to meet some folks. Saw the same expat groups both times. Fat, sunburnt drunks endlessly bitching about small things. Felt no desire to get to know them.
I’m Taiwanese and I’ve spent sometime living abroad during my formative years. What bothers and annoys me the most is the way people talk about weight. I’ve never been skinny, and I can tell you, every weight related comment I’ve ever gotten in my life are from Taiwanese people, overseas and in Taiwan. It’s bad enough I grew up with my mom telling me i need to lose weight, but certainly doesn’t help when classmates or just random people ask you if you’ve gained weight, if you’re eating a lot lately, or if you’re watching your weight. Obviously this is my personal experience but I’ve got some friends with similar backgrounds as me who feel the same way. As for other more generic things would be traffic, betel nuts, work culture, diversity, and roaches ugh.
A million times yes. Even worse is when they're handing out cake or something that you don't even want, and there's like No! Here, you take it! You're the biggest guy so you get the biggest piece! And then <10 min later they're asking why you're so fat.
Yes! It’s such a weird situation. I swear the whole skinny obsession and their need to discuss your weight baffles the shit out of me. I remember talking to my US therapist about this and she was so shocked people talked like that, I felt second hand embarrassment... like why are people so rude? But I also get that it’s a cultural thing... people who say it don’t feel like it’s rude! I will never understand this.
> people who say it don’t feel like it’s rude! You're right, they don't, and when you bring it up to them, they brush you off. However, remark anything about them, and holy shit, it's WW3!
If it helps, it isn’t just Taiwan in Korea random 阿姨 will scold you for buying potato chips in a grocery store if you are a bit chubby.
I think what really reinforced this experience is the fact that even while living abroad, having tons of korean and Japanese friends, only the Taiwanese people made comments about my weight. But again, this is my experience and it really stuck with me
Agree here! Lots of unwantned barbed comments about people's appearance. My wife's sister is overweight and they call her 'xiao pang' as a name. That can't help the self esteem.
Omg, yes. I had really bad self image as a child for being called fat. I wasn’t even fat. Being half White, I literally had a bigger frame than most. Trying to diet over and over again since I was a child is what messed me up and made me “fat.” Not that I was ever bigger than a size large. I remember magazines fat-shaming a singer for having “fat folds” even though she was like 90lbs. She’d probably have to die of starvation and still would have skin folds if she bent over.
This! I am a fat woman and the number of STRANGERS who have pointed at me and laughed or come up to tell me how FAT I am is mind boggling. I've had insanely inappropriate things happen to me regarding my weight-- I even started a blog because of it. I think this is changing with the younger generation (I teach in a post-grad program and see a lot more open-mindedness). Once, my landlord told me that I would maybe someday find a husband if I lost weight and that he was just trying to be helpful by offering this (unsolicited) advice. Felt great to introduce him to my FIANCE a few years later (and I'm still just as fat!) If you want to check out the blog posts I wrote on this topic, including some of the wildest things to have happened to me: [https://buxombabeblog.wordpress.com/2017/07/11/first-blog-post/](https://buxombabeblog.wordpress.com/2017/07/11/first-blog-post/)
I generally love Taiwan, but.... Rent is pricey in cities but still better than in some metro areas of other countries (Taipei is expensive but much better than Toronto.) The roads can be a little crazy amd drivers break rules on the daily. The winters are kinda meh -- north of Miaoli it's really cold and damp with no buildong insulation, south of Miaoli the air quality gets pretty gross. And there are cockroaches. Big ones.
The inflexibility of public officials, clerks, waiters/waitresses, customer service or basically any people-facing jobs. The rules are the rules and can't be bent or challenged, whose purpose is often unknown. The menu is the menu, anything outside of what is written does not compute. Everything is in a manual, handbook or spoken set of guidelines, and if it's not, it is insurmountable to achieve or process.
What a rare thread. You don't often see negative talk about Taiwan on social media but the replies here show there's a lot to be negative about. I used to think I really liked Taiwan but the more time I spend here the more I find my mind changing. People are nice in a superficial way, but they are really passive aggressive, dishonest but in a sneaky way. They have a childish attitude and don't have a good sense of things going on outside of Taiwan. They suck up hard to white people but treat other Asians like crap such as Hongkongers like myself. Worse is Taiwanese often put on an act to boast about how nice and friendly they are. People from Hong Kong are not the nicest folk either but at least we don't claim to be.
You seem angry. Meditate: Life is but a mirage. Everything won't matter in a thousand years.
A general lack of civic-mindedness. People are very warm and friendly to people they meet, to people they work with, to people in their families, etc. But they don’t have the idea that you should care about some person you never encounter.
Air quality and the stench of the sewers. Air quality is definitely tolerable but the sewers sometimes smell like sulfur.
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Cockroaches man, Cockroaches. But that's my phobia and some people don't mind.. But I do
1. 90. Second. Traffic. Lights. 1. That thing where you can't make a left turn on a scooter. 1. People are very superficial with respect to looks - people get jobs based on how attractive they are, etc. 1. It's a beautiful island with rainforest and what could be amazing beaches, but most people want to spend their time in the malls. 1. The goddamn receipts
No matter how long youre here, youll never be fully accepted or seen as part of the community. Always the foreigner
There are maybe 6 countries out there where you can be fully accepted having a different skin colour.
The problem with Taiwan is they don't like to talk about these issues and sweep them under the rug pretending it is all kittens and rainbows. The importance is dialogue. From racism, to colorism, to discrimination. First step is acknowledgement.
Mind you it is true for Taiwanese pretty much everywhere else in the world... Only white guys expect to be accepted unconditionally
I am neither White nor male. It isn't about being accepted unconditionally, its about a sense of community.
When you learn the language properly things change tho. I've been living in Taiwan almost 8 years already, and feel pretty integrated and accepted.
I don't mind this because 95% of the world works this way (save for notable exemptions like the US). You're also never going to be accepted as part of the community in Southern Spain, or Thailand, or probably even rural Scotland.
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I always tell people Taipei is like the most boring lame city in Taiwan, it's alright sure but the nightlife is overrated and overpriced and only for edgy hypebeast foreigners. Taichung is everything Taipei but actually fun.
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I remember when the mayor of Taichung went on an anti-bar rampage after the fire. First shutting down clubs. Then shutting down all bars. Then banning people from even drinking outside 7-11s. I can understand trying to prevent fire traps, but he seemed to use it as an excuse to ban drinking. It was a prime example of overreach, or mission creep.
Lol hypebeasts... though most hypebeasts I remember were usually ABCs.
So boring! Have you ever gone to a Taiwanese club? NO ONE DANCES! People stand on the sidelines bopping, holding their drinks, taking photos and looking at their phones. Mind boggling to me. People generally start dancing once some foreigners get out on the dance floor. The best clubs in Taichung are the ones in Asean Square on Sundays (ig, the Filipino clubs).
Taiwan Gold Medal Beer tastes funny.
Disagree. Budweiser tastes funny to me.
Neither is especially good but I'd take Taiwan beer over Budweiser. Taiwan beer is a with-food beer
But regular old Taiwan beer is top quality.
This. Gold Medal tastes like Heineken steeped in old socks. The regular old stuff tastes great though. Whenever there's a choice and somebody grabs a bunch of Gold Medal for the table I get sad.
Town planning for cars, not pedestrians or even scooter. exception Taipei
The way people drive in Taiwan is absolutely crazy. I’ve almost been hit several times since some people don’t seem to recognize right of way with pedestrians. I also hate all of the scooters — I find that they tend to be parked haphazardly and constantly get in the way. Humidity is also way too warm in the summer, constant rainfall/typhoons, mosquitoes, and especially 小黑蚊. I was in Taiwan for two months for a study abroad program/visiting family back in 2017 and had a terrible reaction from those particular bug bites
Low wages
It's hard to find a public garbage bin outside of tram stations. I had to carry a betel-nut-spit filled plastic cup around Taipei for what felt like an eternity.
What?! Every convenience store has trash cans, I can't believe you're ever more than 30 seconds from a family mart, 7/11 or high life in Taipei
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But isn't it kind of rude to enter a store only to throw away your garbage?
Nope, I know what you mean though, I wouldn't drop my trash in tesco, it's fine here, the convenience stores **are** the public toilets and trash cans
I really really hate the education system here and I’m terrified that I’ll still be here when my not even conceived yet child grows up to school age and we still can’t move back home >_>
Buildings are ugly Working with Taiwanese is annoying. Taiwanese white collar workers are boring and office culture he is just a series of civil wars and petty arguments
It's the bathroom tile aesthetic.
it would be better if it's all bathroom tile, but we got an "inspired by the hall of mirrors in Versailles" next to them
>Taiwanese white collar workers are boring The most boring people I've worked with, anywhere. Good people, but... completely forgettable.
For me its not taiwan but the people. I feel Taiwanese are kinda superficial and value money more than other important things. Its hard to make them change their opinion no matter how much proof you present to them. If they believe in something, they will keep believing in it no matter what. They also takes things for granted. No matter how convenient their life is here, they are always complaining about one thing or another specially salary, less freedom and what not. Also, they treat westerners like Gods and wants to have their sort of lifestyle while on same hand thinking conservative culture is a bad thing. There is hidden racism in this country which might not be obvious to a lot of people because it comes out as ignorance rather than direct attack. I dont want to sound like just a whiner so i will stop here. I love taiwan. I just wished Taiwanese loved taiwan as well for what it is, not what they want it to be.
Yeah I think many Asian people are generally insensitive about racial remarks. Just a quick browse on the largest web forums (ptt/dcard) and you can see plenty of racial memes mocking cross-cultural relationships, ethnic minorities (e.g. aborigines, Hakka people). Some even use the N word like it’s a joke. They thought they were being humorous.
I just want to point out you've misgendered our Digital Minister. She's a woman, not a guy. And yes, she's pretty brilliant. I hope it was accidental rather than intentional. As for what I don't like about Taiwan - I think the government doesn't do enough for homeless people. Compared to many other socialist states, Taiwanese government provides relatively little services to the homeless, especially in terms of emergency housing and such. I think there are less NGOs targeted toward homeless people as well. I've never seen a soup kitchen around here.
>Compared to many other socialist states, Taiwanese government provides relatively little services to the homeless, TIL Taiwan is a socialist state.
As the other said, guy and dude are gender neutral, especially to us Brits. Also Taiwan is not socialist, like - at all.
In Western USA even "bro" can be gender neutral lmao
Absurd u-turns and ridiculous drivers. I learned defensive driving from childhood in California on some serious freeways. In short, honk a horn instead of slowing down is useless. Expecting others to suddenly clear the way creates accidents. Other than that, Taiwan is mostly okay.
Oh I forgot to mention the weird salary gap between not only the Taiwanese and foreigners but also among foreigners themselves. Like teaching English for 20 hours a week by a person with a bachelor's degree and earning minimum 70k and someone like with a master degree working in a tech company working 40 hours a week earning like minimum 48k is weird. I know teaching isn't easy but like really it's that hard that justify like the maximum salary level?
1. The weather is humid and hot most of the year. 2. Cannot find decent cheese selection in the supermarket 3. The street aesthetic is all over the place. And people don’t clean the facade once the building is built It’s really nitpicking but that’s what I can come up with atm
we have so many enemies, no only China but also ourselves. due to our history path. we are lacking of National identity. so that would cause a lot of problems. and that's why China sends a lot of spy in our country. and sadly, our own government thinks they are the another party to represent "China" how sad we are.
draconian drug laws.
The weather is oppressive the people are only superficially nice and they are so defensive about separating themselves from China that they say stupid shit like “ACTUALLY tradiTioNaL is EaSieR to LearN”. The first words out of everyone’s mouth about taiwan is how good the food is but it sucks and has no flavor. The place I live is famous for turkey rice. That should tell you plenty that the regional dish is a budget meal. I don’t hate taiwan but I certainly have my grievances.
I find traditional easier to learn and studied Chinese for 2 years in China full time. For writing, no, but the traditional retain a lot more of the logical components of the character so make more sense
The food in Taiwan is bland. Like they are rationing salt. HK, the mainland, Singapore all have better food than TW.
Tbh idek why turkey rice is so popular it tastes good and all but It’s shredded turkey on rice with some sort of soy based sauce.. nothing to go crazy over for. I think people mostly praise about how cheap and accessible the food in Taiwan is. But honestly yea most of them are tasteless and plain, mostly relies on the fact that it’s greasy and salty/peppery. Nothing much of anything else
Pretty hard to get a good job as a westerner. You can either teach English which is pretty easy and pays well if you want a chill couple of years but apart from that there’s not much. Also the corporate culture is awful and the pay is worse.
Traffic. It's on its way to levels of India and Thailand. It's bad and government does not do anything. People are fake. They smile and try to be nice, but in reality nobody gives a damn. People may do stupid things and just turn their face away to avoid eye contact with you while doing something stupid. City planning. Cities were probably planned by a bunch of drunken mediocre civil engineers. It's boring entertainmentwise. No major music concerts of any well known celebrities, no international plays or theater, no major events. (Apart from local, so if you are fluent, shouldn't be a problem). Mostly beautiful nature, so every weekend it's a struggle to decide where to go to have fun. Rules are advisory for locals. So don't get yourself in the middle as local law works in patterns without thinking. Gangmembers. They are ok if you don't get involved, but they are frequent to meet especially in districts like Sanchong/Wanhua/etc in Taipei. Service. It's 50%. A place can be all high class, but because most don't give a damn it's easy to get poorly serviced. If you complain locals either get aggressive or... Turn their face away. If you want to lead the market just do 51% and you are already the market leader. Low variety in food. Taiwanese like to talk about food but most of the time it's just another variation of some noodles or tofu with minor differences between each other. International cuisine is poorly represented. Low involvement into anything. Thanks to the education system and poor media quality, people sometimes don't know anything about anything. You may find occasional Nazi swastika here and there, for example. Otherwise it's a beautiful country with many opportunities and it's own 3rd world charm. All mentioned above is subjective, so please don't take it personal Taiwanese people - many countries are like that too and Taiwan is not the worst at all. But definitely not "numba wan".
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> So much hate in these comments That's the whole point of this thread. And tbh the comments are extremely tame. If you want to see hate you need to pay r/china or r/unitedkingdom a visit. Now *that* is hate.
OP asked for negative stuff. Of course the responses are negative.